Tax Day Tea Party in Utah - April 15th

You probably already know all about the Tax Day Tea Parties being held all around the country this coming Wednesday. In fact, there are even parties scheduled in other countries!

The purpose of this grassroots effort is to take America Back with the theme of: Repeal the Pork, Cut Taxes and Spending.

TEA = Taxed Enough Already

It's a tax revolt. Just think back to your history classes and the Boston Tea Party.

Here is the info from www.teapartyday.com:

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

• vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
  
• are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
• consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
• want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
• punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
• admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
• run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
• want government controlled health care?
• want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
• refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
• appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
• want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
• want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
• want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
• take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

If so, participate in the TAX Day TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.

Bring your cell phone and call Congress and the president while attending the TAX Day TEA party rally (Representative and Senators, 202-224-3121; President, 202-456-1414). Tell Every American about this effort by forwarding this invitation to your friends. Together we can make a difference.

Utah's Scheduled Tea Parties:

Noon - Salt Lake City - Federal Plaza - 125 South State
5:p.m. - Provo - Old Utah County Courthouse - SE corner of Center & University

Utah County Organizing Convention Time Schdule

Utah County Organizing Convention

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Canyon View Jr. High School
655 East 950 North, Orem

6:30 am - Check-in Desk opens - must bring ID
7:00 am - Candidate Meeting - for candidates only
7:30 am - Central Committee Meeting - meeting for precinct chairs and vice chairs, etc.
8:00 am - Senate District Meetings - break out into Senate Districts
8:40 am - Legislative District Meetings - break out into Leg. Districts
9:30 am - Convention Starts - voting of County Party Leadership

All Candidates are In

The deadline for filing for Utah County Republican Party Leadership positions is past. I have listed all those that are running for the different offices in a previous post. For the current list please visit: http://provovoice.blogspot.com/2009/04/2009-utah-county-convention.html

Bramble Ambush

Curt Bramble and his wife, Susan, came to the open-to-all-candidates open house (Lynn Taylor & Lisa Shepherd were the only two that came) . Susan is the current Utah County Republican Party Secretary and Curt is the current State Senate Majority Leader.

I felt really bad. My precinct's vice chair resigned. As precinct chair it is my responsibility to appoint a new vice chair. I had just over a month to find someone. I had no idea it was going to be so hard. The biggest problem was finding someone who was available the Saturday of Convention. There are plenty of people who would have agreed if their schedule would have allowed. I went back on my notes from the caucus meeting and found someone who had attended, ran for a position, and would be able to come to convention. So I appointed Olivia Shepherd, who happens to be an adult daughter of Lisa Shepherd.

However, I had no idea that this would be a cause of contention with Curt. He asked a very pointed question to Lisa referring to this matter. I couldn't even believe it! He and Susie both said that he doesn't look over the lists until she makes them public. These lists were not public at the time of this open house (24 hours after the deadline of getting the changes in), so he should not have even known about this. I apologize in anyway for making this process any harder for Lisa.

*** Just after 10:a.m. this morning, Curt Bramble called to clarify a few things. I had a pleasant conversation with him. He informed me that his wife, Susie, had not given him the new list and he had no idea, at the time of the open house, that Olivia had been appointed. He said that Susie had only made a comment to him that Lisa had sent over a list of 10+ people that had been appointed in her district, he did not know who they were exactly. I apologize for assuming that he had access to something he did not, though it does seem like he had a heads up by the comment his wife made.

He said that since there were so few people there (which is true) that it wasn't a public meeting and he did have a few things that he was going to ask Lisa in private, but decided to do it openly. They were really aggressive questions that seemed like it would have been more appropriate had he stuck to his originally plan and asked them privately.

He made mention of myself and another lady being in favor of Lisa, who were in attendance. For myself, I can say that is true, but should clarify that Lisa did not know I was coming to the meeting and I did not know that the other mentioned lady was coming either. I had come to hear from Lynn and any other candidates who might show up (originally there had been at least one other who said he was going to be there).

*** A second phone call was made by Curt, but that was only to remove some sensitive security information to a future event. With completely understanding, I immediately removed the information.

Open Houses

The Utah County Republican Convention is soon approaching. Candidates for Utah County Party's Leadership have been holding open houses so the delegates can get to know the candidates and often times ask questions. Lynn Taylor (running for treasurer) and Lisa Shepherd (running for secretary) held a joint one this past Saturday. It was one I could actually go to, my hectic schedule prevents me from going to most of them.

Lynn seems like a very nice, intelligent man. He is retired from the Air Force. You can get online and read about him @ lynntaylor.wordpress.com. I liked that he would want to make the Party more transparent. That he would want to place all the financial statements online on a restructured easy to navigate Party website. I also really liked that he wants to place the proposed by-law and constitution changes on a forum so that they can get debated long before we ever go to vote on them. I find this extremely beneficial.

The last special session we had we were voting on changing the appointed Education Officer to be elected. Lisa Shepherd was given a whole 2 minutes to make her case. This is not enough time. Neither was it very fair. From what I was told, Lisa was told be prepare a 7 minute presentation, one minute before she got up to present they changed it to only 2 minutes. Now if this had been available online in a forum, we could have read the arguments for and against. We could have been better educated as to why people felt that way. Personally I think that Lisa got steamrolled. Of course, the party leadership did not want the education officer appointed. They want to stay in control of as much as they can.

Lisa has been actively involved in our county politics for a long time. She has also worked on several campaigns. She is also very nice and intelligent. You can read about her online @ web.me.com/lisamshepherd. One of the things I really liked about Lisa is that she would want to credential everyone for our central committee meetings. She would propose to use the precinct secretaries to do this.

I think that this would be really beneficial. The last Central Committee Meeting (not the special session) was held at the Provo City Council Chambers. At the time of voting it was standing room only. Problem being, is that some of the people in the room weren't even Central Committee members. As a delegate I could see how easy it was for someone to stand and be counted, even if they didn't have the right to do so. It was kind of a mess (not surprising right!!!).

I also liked that Lynn and Lisa both agreed that we should have an agenda at our committee meetings. Every meeting I ever go to has an agenda, be it for school, church, community, etc. I'm not sure why the party feels like they are exempt from this. I think it's common courtesy to give everyone an agenda. The current party leadership is afraid of technology for some reason, so you would think handing a piece of paper to everyone would be right up their alley.

Lisa also mentioned that she would want more money to go to rallying republicans to party meetings. I know its hard for the leadership to think that we need more voters out in Utah County. I think that they are afraid that we will lose our stronghold. I think that they should have more faith in our party. They should quit treating us like we don't know what is good for us. I think more people would get involved if they weren't treated so bad from the beginning. I don't know what they spent their money on, apparently they did to try and get more people out, but I didn't see it in my neighborhood. I would hope that they would do something on a more local level, since it is our Utah County Party that the money would come from, so why not use it locally?

Spring Clean UP!

There is a change this year to the normal Provo City Cleanup.
This year the dumpsters will only be at one location, 430 North 500 West (North Park).

The details are below:

Spring Cleanup
March 23 - May 2, 2009

Get rid of your unwanted "stuff" during Spring Cleanup 2009. This year there will be dumpsters for trash, yard waste and metals at only one location for six weeks:

March 23 - May 2
430 North 500 West (North Park)
Monday - Saturday (dumpsters will be available until 3 pm on Saturdays)

Unacceptable Items
Please do not dump rocks, tires, concrete, tree stumps or pesticides in the dumpsters. For more disposal information call 852-6714. Or... some of these items may be taken to the demolition landfill in Lindon. Please call them to see what items they will accept at 225-8170.

Hours of Operation
Dumpsters will be at the designated locations Monday - Saturday. The hours the containers will be available are: Mondays - Fridays 8 am - 6 pm; and Saturdays 8 am - 3 pm. Please note that all locations will be closed nightly at 6 pm and that it is unlawful to leave items on the ground at any of the area locations.

Compost Station
The city has developed a very successful recycling program that makes beneficial use of yard waste items such as grass clippings, tree and shrubbery trimmings, weeds, leaves, etc. We encourage all residents to bring their organic yard waste to the compost station located at 1625 South Industrial Parkway. There is no charge for city residents to bring secured loads into the station. The Compost station hours are: 8 am - 6 pm Monday - Saturday (Spring, Summer, & Fall).

Transfer Station
Provo City residents who would like to take debris directly to the transfer station in Springville may do so free of charge, with coupon, during business hours from March 24 - May 3. The coupon was mailed to each residence during February in the Mayor’s Update. The transfer station does not accept rocks, concrete, large stumps, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners or hazardous waste. If you have a question about your load, please call the station at 489-3027 or the Provo City Sanitation Department at 852-6714. All loads to the transfer station must be covered to avoid a $4.00 tarp fee.

2009 Utah County Convention

County Convention is coming up. This is an organizing year, which means that we (county delegates, nominated at neighborhood caucuses or appointed by party leadership) will be voting on Utah County Republican Party Leadership instead of State Representatives.

Positions that we will be voting on:

• Chairman
• Vice-Chairman
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• State Central Committee

Those that are running :

Chairman

Taylor Oldroyd

469 E 3125 N

Provo, UT 84604

801-404-8635

taylor@ucaor.com

Steven Diamond

1910 Terrace Dr.

Orem, UT 84097

801-830-2400

steve@stevencdiamond.com

www.diamond4chairman.com

Vice-Chairman

Paul Overson

326 S 650 E

Orem, UT 84097

801-223-9981

phoverson@msn.com

Mark Cluff

645 Hubbard Circle

Alpine, UT 84004

801-368-6695

markcluff@comcast.net

www.markcluff.com

Don Larsen

45 N 1360 E

Springville, UT 84663

801-489-4186

ledgedistd@msn.com

Lowell Nelson

11167 N 5700 W

Highland, UT 84003

801-763-8056

Lowell@netdocuments.com

Secretary

Matt Thompson

85 N 800 W

Provo, UT 84601

801-804-0426

mthompson@broadweave.net

www.mthompson.info

Keith Kuder

477 W 1200 S

Orem, UT 84058

keith4secretary@gmail.com

www.KeithforSecretary.com

Lisa Shepherd

895 N 2550 W

Provo, UT 84601

801-787-8211

lisamshepherd@aol.com

web.me.com/lisamshepherd/

Treasurer

Ben Smith

1378 Sageberry Dr.

Santaquin, UT 84655

801-754-1780 H

801-856-1558 C

Ben4liberty@gmail.com

www.Voteben.us

Corey Norman

926 W 800 N

Mapleton, UT 84664

801-380-6921

ironmancorey@gmail.com

Lynn Taylor

1195 N 730 E

Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

801-602-3914

lynntaylor0@gmail.com

lynntaylor.wordpress.com

State Central Committee

Mark Steele

Don Larsen

Marian Monnahan

Corey Norman

Curt Bramble

Susan Bramble

Stan Lockhart

Becky Lockhart

Ben Smith

Clayton Holbrook

Lowell Nelson

Adrielle Herring

Phil Peay

Chad Bunn

Mark Cluff

Lisa Shepherd

Taylor Oldroyd

Matt Thompson

Jay Morgan Philpot

Craig Frank

David Starling

Kristen Chevrier

John Valentine

Karen Valentine

Delaina Tonks

Lynn Taylor

Ivan Keller

Judy Keller

Holly Richardson

Chris Herrod

Steven Diamond

Kip Meacham

Linda Houskeeper

Bruce Armstrong

Poppy Moreno

Sam Brand

Brian Jenkins

Mike Thompson

Mike McGee

Jordan Gunderson

Sharon Storrs

Bradley Reneer

Alan Lisonbee

Jed Morley

Marc Roberts

Steven Turley

Beverly Miner

Dave Duncan

Nathan Rathbun

Wendy Hart