Salt Lake County Republican central committee adds meeting May 30 to address chair actions; USB5 nominee replacement likely delayed

Salt Lake County Republican Party leaders said they will convene a special central committee meeting on May 30 (registration at 9 a.m., call to order at 10 a.m.) after 10% of committee members asked the county central committee to "address recent actions taken by the party chair and executive committee and to restore party unity," the meeting presenter said.

The presenter said the special item was added to the regular CCM agenda to avoid the cost of an extra meeting (venue and mail estimated at about $1,000). Organizers repeated standard CCM procedure: credentialing begins at 9 a.m., most votes are conducted by raising a credential on a lanyard, and secret ballots are used only for candidate elections.

Mike (a committee member who proposed the USB5 discussion) told attendees the party’s bylaws are silent on replacing a nominee who has withdrawn, so state law governs the process and allows a central committee to replace a withdrawn nominee. He said he will likely ask the floor to table action on the USB5 replacement until the August meeting to give potential candidates time to organize and to narrow the eligible voters to precinct chairs inside the USB5 district boundaries.

"State law stipulates that the central committee ... has the ability to replace a candidate who has withdrawn," Mike said, and added that tabling the item would allow time to craft election rules limited to precinct chairs within the relevant boundary.

The meeting will also include three proposed bylaw amendments (records retention, financial-authority changes, and a proposed 10-year ban on party participation for members who pursue repeated unsuccessful litigation against the party). Organizers said those amendments will be discussed at Saturday’s CCM; the records-retention bylaw is slated for executive-committee review in June and potential ratification at the August CCM if the executive committee adopts it first.

Organizers reminded precinct chairs that quorum for a CCM is 20% of precincts (the party estimated roughly 700 precincts countywide) and that standard parliamentary procedure (Robert’s Rules) guides debate. If chairs cannot attend, they may designate a substitute for credentialing; substitute forms and other meeting documents are posted on the party website under the central committee meeting page.

Next steps: the central committee will meet May 30 with the special agenda item; whether any motions are made, tabled or voted on will be determined at that meeting. The organizer said the meeting will be recorded and posted to YouTube and linked from the party website.