20110630 UT County Central Committee
This was a late announced meeting at the Thanksgiving Point Barn. There were not very many people in attendance, but it was a good chance to hear a first update on the County as well as to hear about redistricting.
At the end of the meeting we heard from 18 year old Andrew Justvig who gave an excellent speech on the American Dream.
6/30/2011 7:05:00 PM Welcome Dave Acheson We do not have a quorum since we only have 46 or so.
6/30/2011 7:09:18 PM Prayer Becky Pirente
6/30/2011 7:09:24 PM Pledge Jeremy Roberts
6/30/2011 7:09:32 PM Business Dave Acheson “You are the committee that drives the county party. We seek a sustaining vote from you on those who have been asked to serve on the steering committee. Our next meeting is August. I am Chair Dave Acheson, Adrielle Vice Chair, Scott Bell Treasurer and Jeremoy Roberts Secretary.
Within the bylaws I am asked to appoint 5 more members that will act in August.
Gary Garrett finance officer who is pres of freedom festival. Jeff Alexander PR and media officer. Cory Malloy is our Volunteers, Wendy organization, and Jacki Wilson education officer. I have appointed a parliamentarian, Mr. Steve White.
Thank you to the steering committee members who have accepted to serve.
I have had a marvelous time serving as the chair of this party. We have had some very interesting issues and tough issues. I am so impressed in how we conducted ourselves at the State convention. Please applaud that. It is important to me and something that I ran on.
I also wanted to thank you for how I have been embraced. I wanted to share with you something. I wanted to share in my speech as well that the Game is On. I have seen that. As I have talked with you on the phone or in person. Our arguments and our desires, the way that we articulate our positions. And how we address many issues I want to commend. In meetings such as this and in our caucuses we need to continue that. Reports from our Officers and committees.
Kirby Glad.”
6/30/2011 7:14:40 PM Report Kirby Glad “I do like it when he says Kirby Glad the Chair. As you know the issue of automatic delegates has been an issue that has divided the party and been controversial for some time. We want to bring this before a vote of the central committee. We want both sides to feel they have had a fair hearing. There are some nay combinations of groups. Some of you would like different versions of officers. Some want chairs but not education or non-federal officials.
Here is what we have come up with. During this summer and in the fall we are going to launch an information campaign. We will send you all kids of email since there is a lot of information from both sides.
We had a roundtable discussion. We are going to try and get as much information out as possible and another forum for discussing this. Then we will take an informal poll with 16 different options. We will then put together a proposal that you can vote on during which you can amend and debate etc. My purpose for bringing this up today is that I want you to know this is coming. Let your officers know. Please start reading and thinking about this. We want to have this decision made before our next caucuses.
I have ben asked about our floor changes and the meeting was adjourned. We will bring those items back up. C103 which includes membership of central committee.”
6/30/2011 7:18:36 PM Question What has the success been of past surveys?
6/30/2011 7:18:49 PM Answer Kirby Glad We did a survey last year to ask what you wanted to bring forward. We got about 10% response rate. We kind of would like to do that poll at a larger meeting. We need to have a representative sample.
6/30/2011 7:19:38 PM Report Scott Bell I am excited to have Garrett on board as the finance officer. This is a republic. Thank you to gary taylor that did a great job of controlling the party finances. Where we stand is that we have over $13,000 in the bank. We recently received funding from the state from the Check A Buck program. We received just shy of $10,000. Gary worked really hard to make sure we collected that from the State. We are a little bit short of where we want to be to prepare for 2012.
6/30/2011 7:21:41 PM Business Dave Acheson Get out the vote organization.
6/30/2011 7:22:00 PM Report Jackie I just want to be brief. I have been working on TARs. There is a national group that sent me a lot of information. I also met the state TARs people. I have called around to all the High Schools in the area to update our information. We will be working towards the volunteers that we need. We want to gt a TARS in each of the high schols.
6/30/2011 7:23:10 PM Report Corey Malloy “We have a lot of Republicans. Did someone make you come here tonight? Why are you here? Because you are a volunteer who cares about the process. I am looking for volunteers. We have the caucuses coming up. We have the Young Republicans who are coming up. We need volunteers to help with each of the high schools.
We need graphic designers and others with skills. Also some to knock doors and other skills. Please contact me with the people that you know. You can email me at acory@mac.com. Send me your volunteers.”
6/30/2011 7:25:26 PM Report Jeremy Roberts “We are launching a new website in the next couple of weeks. We will have a database system that will keep track of all of you. We also had, on a positive note that we have the most accurate delegate list of the other counties.
Also we have some incomplete lists that we want to fix. The other thing is a fundraiser for September.”
6/30/2011 7:26:33 PM Report Adrielle Herring “I am so excited about the things that we have planned over the next 2 years. I am so looking forward to 2012 and winning all the races. I am hoping for good candidates and we will all be a part of that. What is our strategy. It is in 2 phases. We need to get as many people to caucus as we can.
There has been some criticism of the system. They belive that the delegates control the system. Some people feel that they are cut out.
It has been interesting to me to see this experience. Save Our Utah Caucus Facebook page there are delegates and central committee members. They say that we are not just insiders that shut people out. We are missing out on how to get people involved in the process. Why are people feeling like I am tring to shut out? We need to do better at reaching out.
First thing is major caucus turnout. Then win all the elections in 2012.
This summer we have to get our precincts fully organized with block captains. What we will roll out this fall is education on the caucus system. We need captains that will hold cottage meetings and get out the flyers.
We are asking you to work this summer to get organized for March.
For those who have not organized for block captains. These are just suggestions.
You can take your precinct map that you can find on the home page of that party. Get your precinct map and print it and circle areas. Some of you will have different areas than others. You will need to split it up how you want. Then just find people who live in the boundary. I know chairs who talk to every person and walk the streets.
Or instead of geo boundaries, you can identify people in the precinct who are influential. The people that your precinct trusts. They will be asking the people to get involved. As I identify influential people and build blocks around those people. You can have your block captains just select their people. You can keep track of it in a spreadsheet.
There is somebody you need to meet – Wendy Woodfield. She is our organization officer. She will keep up with following up with you to make sure you get your block captains in place.
For effective precincts I have heard about anywhere from 15 to 40 people. I will get you more information soon. Get organized so that when we have our information read to roll out you are going to be ready.”
6/30/2011 7:34:28 PM Question What about precinct redistricting?
6/30/2011 7:34:41 PM Answer Adrielle Herring Becky will be talking about that is just a minute. Your precinct should remain the same. The Legislative Districts and School Boards may change, but your precinct won’t.
6/30/2011 7:36:08 PM Question When will you have the information ready?
6/30/2011 7:36:19 PM Answer Adrielle Herring This fall. We are working on it now and will roll them out as they are ready.
6/30/2011 7:36:54 PM Business Dave Acheson “Call for Quorum.
88 short by 12.
2 elected officials (includes Speaker Lockhart)
My style at the mic is a little more conversational. You can chuck me out in 2 years if you don’t like the style. I want to be assured that everybody gets to bring forward their ideas. It can present challenges but I haven’t seen any yet.
The more information we get out there and address the questions the feelings and the sense of how to move forward, it will create a much better atmosphere.
I appreciate the opportunity to set that tone. Please come and talk to me if you have a challenge with what I am doing. I want it to be as comfortable as possible. Stress free but active. We need to get in to the meat of things.”
6/30/2011 7:41:55 PM Privilege Lisa Shepherd Thanks to you for being open and facilitating this meeting. Thanks for the comment on being less stressful.
6/30/2011 7:42:27 PM Business Dave Acheson I believe in parliamentary procedure and will continue to work on that. We have work to do. This is a lead to what is most pressing to us as a county. Speaker Lockhart will adress us in just a few moments. I will have a few comments after that.
6/30/2011 7:43:39 PM Report Becky Lockhart “Redistricting is chaired in the House by Ken Sumsion. He represents this area right here in Utah County. His district was 30,000. It now has over 90,000. We have growth in the northern and southern parts of the county. Utah County is represented by the Chair, myself and Representative Francis Gibson. The president did not choose any of our Senators. You should get heard on the State Senate map. The website is redistrictingutah.com.
You can engage in drawing maps yourself. I felt that this was very important. Once you see the tool you will see how good it is. We did spend $60,000 to get this tool. You can draw maps yourself and submit them. You can see our meetings and listen to them. You can be compeletely involved in the process. I thought this was very important that you be a part of this process.
If you want to draw house districts then draw all 75 and if senate, then all 29. We have adopted a +/- 3% margin of error. We have adopted a tighter margin on the congressional districts. We have looked at court cases throughout the country and the tighter the maps the less likely you will have cases of gerrymandering. One man, One vote. It really is tyranny of the numbers. Salt Lke County will lose two seats. 2 of them are coming to Utah County. In Utah County we will have 14 plus. Weber and Davis may gain a seat. And the rual areas may have lost that. Those areas are not growing at the same rate. Although Utah County gains, Provo and Orem will lose a seat. Gibson, Sumsion and I have looked at a seat will be somewhere around Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. We will also have a Lehi seat. But then there will have to be a combination somewhere in Provo/Orem. You can not draw seats where there are not enough people.
The growth has been in Republican not Democrat areas. You will hear compaining. The areas are just not growing and you will see those complaint.
The precincts wiare made b the county cleark. They will have to draw within the districts. You may see change. We are hoping to have our part done by the middle of September. By Decmeber all the new precintcts will be drawn. They will be in effect for the 2012 cycle. Those are the boundaries. We do not set precinct boundaries since that is County Clerks.”
6/30/2011 7:51:20 PM Question Wendy Hart Sumsion said we could organize local races like school borad.
6/30/2011 7:51:53 PM Answer Becky Lockhart “I don’t know if the local school boards are on the system yet.
The local school boards – we have 3 school districts in the county. The Provo City Council will set the district. The Alpine and Nebo will be in Utah County. We will have a committee and seek public involvement after the states numbers.
It is very possible that this tool could be used.”
6/30/2011 7:53:16 PM Question Please ignore the media. This is about freedom and not some group. There will be ten to one whiners. Our purpose is to reassert individuals rights and freedoms.
6/30/2011 7:54:00 PM Answer Becky Lockhart We have gerrymandering concerns except when it is for them.
6/30/2011 7:54:23 PM Question Jared Jardine I have already read some articles about redistricting to protect incumbents. Can you explain some of the princples?
6/30/2011 7:54:49 PM Answer Becky Lockhart One man one vote. As well as other simple percentage of error. We did not choose to adopt incumbency. Even though the Supreme Court says we can. It is not one of the guiding principles. We did not adopt communities of interest. If you live in a city of 36832 people you can draw a nice district around you and your city but split a different community. We are sticking with numbers.
6/30/2011 7:56:21 PM Question Incumbency is something that we can protect. Thanks for not doing that. Remember that no one protected Craig Frank.
6/30/2011 7:56:55 PM Answer Becky Lockhart We are about 90% sure that should not happen again. We are now requiring County Clerks to work together with Lt. Governor. We now have the technology to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
6/30/2011 7:57:31 PM Question Can you be specific in regards to the district 57 problem. When people act in good faith, if there is an error then can you trend to people’s choice?
6/30/2011 7:58:05 PM Answer Becky Lockhart We were upholding the Constitution. If you don’t live in your distirct you can’t serve, So we couldn’t do it. I hated every moment of it.
6/30/2011 7:59:22 PM Question It could have been very different but constitutional.
6/30/2011 7:59:35 PM Question I just want to make a comment to support you on the Constitution. It’s wrong if we have to give because peoples feeling are hurt. We have to go by the rules. Sometimes there is an error, but we can’t rewrite the rules. I support you.
6/30/2011 8:00:20 PM Answer Becky Lockhart “We are about halfway done. We will be in Price and Moab next week. We are continuing to move around the state to hear all the thoughts. I can’t think of what I was going to say. It has been a lot of work. We have heard comments from people that say that we need independent redistrcit commission.
Article I Section 9 says the legislature. If you want an independent commission then you need to amend the constitution. I think there is a very important reason why. It is because we are acountable to people. If we mess up, and we do sometimes, then you can vote us out.
The people have no check on an independent commission. Thank you
I will be around for a while after.”
6/30/2011 8:02:47 PM Business Dave Acheson “We are united by common goals.
You will hear some concepts. We redraw once every 10 years. The following districts are draw, congrssional, state house, state senate and state board of education. The number of state house and senate is not increased. Even if the population increases the number is not increased. The districts are re-aligned based on population growth. Based on these rules discussions become very important. Utah County needs our share of additional seats. We are going to take seats from other counties. We need our share to assure that we are fairly represented.
We have increased by 40.2% since the last census 10 years ago. 368,000 was the population but with the most recent we are 516,000 people here in Utah county. By contrast Salt Lake county increased by 105,000.
Let us not get confused by numbers. Wasatch grew from 15,000-> 23000. St. George grew from 90,000 -> 138,000. We grew by 148,000 so we grew faster than their total population in that county. Drawing and re-drawing boundaries is ticklish. It is so important to understand that we should advocate the fair and balanced representation to the state. We have a job to do externally to communicate convincingly that it is in their best interests to acknowledge the growth and give us the seats that we deserve.
It is desirable to keep districts wholly in the County as possible, which means fully seating within our boundaries. We want those who are living in our boundaries. We ned to consider that future growth will also continue. Adobe and IM Flash and EMC and NuSKin. We will bringing in thousands of employees which means their families as well. We have tremendous growth that will happen. We need to make appropriate plans for the future. We need to project and the growth will happen. We will continue to lead the state. Some counties will gain and some will lose. Utah County must gain full seats.
If you take the population with straight division is 5.66 Senate seats in our county and 14.01 House seats in our county. What we are asking for is simple stuff. 5 fully seated senate districts in our county. We want 14 House seats fully seated in our county. 5 and 14 repeat that. That is all you have to remember. Try drawing the maps. Remember 5 and 14. We are willing to negotiate the sixth one.
Some may say that “we want to give you 8 Senate seats.” When you get 8 then the possiblity is that the representatives live in other counties. But then we get sliced up like a pizza and we are left with nothing because they are thinking about Tooele and Salt Lake.
We are the heart of the state. I am going to say that we are the heart of the state. We provide millions of dollars in taxes. We pay millions of tax dollars. We are funding the growth for the state with our highways and infrastructure. We are being asked to saddle the burden. We educate our states children. There are colleges in other counties but we have 2 major universities. We are educating those who don’t live in our district because they come to UVU. Matt Holland and Samuelson deserve fully seated representatives. Espeecially Matt Holland. Those are a few of the reasons that I wanted to plant for you.”
6/30/2011 8:17:54 PM Question Becky Lockhart “I mentioned in the beginning I mentioned that there are none from the Senate on the committeee. We have an unspoken rule that the Senate works on Senate maps and the House works on house maps. The senate side of the committee is not represented from Utah County.
The committee won’t change but he needs to hear about our concerns. His map shows Utah County split in a lot of different ways. We already have Hinkins from Emory area. We have Stephenson who comes from Draper. We have those already. The maps that are coming out might come from Tooele. It comes north of Saratoga Springs. It was his first one out there.
Dayton, Bramble, Madsen and Valentine, Hinkins and Stephenson need to hear from us. I love them but they need to hear from you for your request for 5. Now I will step out of it.
Congressional seats. There are a lot of theories like the pizza and layer cake where you come from the bottom of the state which has horizontal lines. The Salt Lake Doughnut.
I will tell you President Waddoups was told a lot of bad things about doughnut hole at the Salt Lake meetings since he combined SLC and UT counties.
In the past we did the pizza slice, urban and rural. I don’t know if that will hold.”
6/30/2011 8:22:55 PM Question Do they have to listen to our ideas? Do they vote?
6/30/2011 8:23:13 PM Answer Becky Lockhart Senator Waddoups is not yours and he might listen. You should talk to your senators. They can then build coalitions.
6/30/2011 8:23:52 PM Business Dave Acheson “Thank you for your attention to this issue. I met a young man a few weeks ago at Boys State. I would like to present to you the immediate past Governor of the Boys State.
Andrew is 18 years young and has lived 18 years in ST. George. He is known for his love of theater and loves competing in debate competitions.
Did I mention that he has Cerebal Palsy. He plans on going to BYU and working at Disney. He will enter the political arena later. Andrew Justvig.”
6/30/2011 8:26:10 PM Speaker Andrew “To dream the impossible dream.
To fight the unbeatable foe.
To bear with unbearable with sorrow.
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong.
To love pure and chaste from afar.
To try when your arms are too weary to reach the unreachable star.
We all know this song from the musical Man of LaMancha but people ask, “”Is there an impossible dream?””
The possible dream is none other than the American dream. 235 years ago on Monday 35 men signed The Declaration of Independence. When life, liberty and happiness. The American dream was born. 30 years later the Constitution was written to protect the American dream. Because of this people came from all over because they knew that this was the land of opportunity. Unfortunately the past 30 years people have wondered if the American Dream still lives?
I am proof that the American Dream still lives.
Does the Government have the faith? They believe that they are to provide the dream. They do not. You do, your children do and your grand children do.
They believe that America has lost faith. They have decided to grow our government. That is stupid. The moment our government loses faith in us, is the moment we need to throw them out.
We are not the country that goes down. Instead of waiting Utah should lead the nation. That means that Utah needs to tell Washington, give us our land back. If we get them back two things will happen.
First, Utah will lead the nation in new energy and finding new energy to help in the energy crisis.
The second is that Utah will grow. We want businesses to come here and to grow Utah.
If we do these two things I hope the other states will realize what we are doing and say, “hey they know what to do.”
You may say, we’re only 75 people. The people who wrote the Declaration were only 55 men. We need to start now. We cannot wait. If we still have faith in the dream.
This is our quest to follow that star.
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
To fight for the right without question or pause.
To be willing to march in to hell (or Washington) for a heavenly cause
We must never forget this. Because if we forget then that flag will just be another flag.
God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.”
6/30/2011 8:38:26 PM Adjourn Dave Acheson