By Leslie Wolff, Precinct Committeeman Twin Falls #14
The date of our meeting was September 11th. That’s right, we held our meeting on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. The same night that we come together as a community at the Perrine bridge to commemorate and remember all those that were lost that fateful day. I reached out twice to Tom Wangeman, the Chairman, asking if the date of the meeting could be changed for the memorial observance, but I never heard back.
We only had 26 Precinct Committeemen present, but the proxy voting was flying. Out of the 44 Precinct Committeemen in Twin Falls County, 18 were absent; and out of those, 12 proxy statements were issued. Our Treasurer, Ruth Pierce, was also absent again. Once again, the minutes had some issues, which I pointed out. This seems to aggravate some people on the committee, wanting all mistakes to be pointed out before the meeting. It’s all about saving time and getting out of there as quick as possible.
‘Vote No Prop 1’ Funding
Proposition 1 – Ranked Choice Voting sub-committee chair, Kiel Willmore, gave a report on what they have done since the committee’s inception back in July. The Idaho GOP provided “Vote No on Prop 1” palm cards, t-shirts, yard signs and 4’ x 8’ signs and TFCRCC was billed just under $5k for everything we received. The sub-committee is spending the other $5k on digital marketing to push out ads on different social media platforms in the weeks to come. Altogether, the sub-committee ended up with just a few dollars left from their $10k budget.
Robert’s Rules of Order in Disorder
It was clear from when the discussion started that most of the “establishment” did not want to part with any more money. They used the excuses that “Yes on Prop 1 isn’t advertising”. “Come back when you have a plan with an exact budget” and the old standby, “We worked hard for this money.” After quite a heated debate, someone “Called the Question”, which in Robert’s Rules of Order means we are to end discussion and vote on the motion at hand if the body agrees to end the debate. The Chairman was getting ready to take the vote when I had to remind him that the “Calling the Question” motion has to be seconded, which someone then piped up and seconded the motion. Tom had the yeas and nays stand to vote. The yeas were 11 and the nays were 10. The Chairman called the vote in favor of the yeas to stop the debate, since the majority was in favor of it.
But under Robert’s Rules, “Calling the Question” takes a two-thirds majority to pass, which I advised Tom that it actually failed and the
discussion could continue. Then it was decided that we needed to vote again, this time counting the proxies. Well, of course, the votes were enough to stop the debate. The vote on my motion to give the
Ranked Choice Voting sub-committee $5k was defeated with the vote being about the same. Senator Elect and PC for Twin Falls Precinct 8, Joshua Kohl, then asked for a roll call vote so we could get each person’s vote on the record. The vote was along establishment / liberty lines, with two establishment PCs voting with us, Chance Requa and Kiel Wilmore.
$3K for Renting a Republican Headquarters
The next order of business was the Republican Headquarters. They want to open a Headquarters for approximately 6 weeks before the election, as they have done in the past. Eric Watte offered a building north of County West at no charge, but the advocates of a Headquarters want a building with a lot of exposure. So, a motion was made to spend up to $3k to rent a building. It was asked where the options were located. The Chairman stated that they haven’t found a location yet. It was then asked where the $3k amount came from, and Tom stated that that is how much it cost 4 years ago. Joshua Kohl stated that while he supported a Headquarters, the hypocrisy of authorizing $3k without any information, while not passing the $5k motion to help with Prop 1 was wrong. The motion passed.
$100 Per Month for Storage Unit, $0 More For ‘Vote No Prop 1’ Sub-Committee
Next up was renting a storage unit to store all of the committee’s stuff. Right now, most of the items are being stored in Linda Hartgen’s garage and the rest at different committee members’ homes. Linda needs her garage now, so they want to rent a storage shed to get everything in one place. A motion was made to spend $100 per month for storage. For a committee so worried about spending money, they sure didn’t have a problem spending $100 per month, in perpetuity, for a storage unit with no information. The motion also includes whatever it costs to take any items damaged by rodents in Linda’s garage to the transfer station. The motion passed.
To end the meeting, Chance Requa gave a quick recap as the Fair Chairman. It went well, but he had a hard time staffing the booth. I wonder how we are going to staff the Headquarters building with
volunteers for 6 weeks when it was hard to get volunteers for the fair for six days.
We need leadership with solutions. If you are reading this and you believe in the Idaho Republican platform and you feel you have solutions, please consider running to be your precinct’s Committeeman or any other elected position next election. We need people who will lead with courage, speak God’s truth and create opportunity for positive change and inspire others to do the same.
