Chaos and infighting continue in Manatee County Republican Executive Committee
Manatee County Commission candidate April Culbreath is challenging a vote of no confidence cast against her in her role as Manatee County Republican Executive Committee Chair on Monday night during the second REC meeting to be contested this year.
The meeting is the first to be called to order by Culbreath since Manatee REC members held a contested special meeting in January against her will. During that meeting, members voted to fill two vacancies on the REC's executive board and to approve new constraints on executive board spending.
However Culbreath, state committee members Cindy Spray and Dave Matthews, and those who support them insist that the special meeting is invalid, thus nullifying the vote on the new executive board members and spending policies and casting an awkward shadow over Monday night's meeting.
At one point during the evening, Culbreath, Spray and Matthews left under the belief that Culbreath had adjourned the meeting.
Meanwhile, a quorum of REC members who remained at the meeting claim the three officers abandoned their posts without calling the meeting to order nor adjourning it. Those members cast votes of no confidence against them in their absence, with Vice Chair Nathan Knight presiding.
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But much like January's meeting, the validity of February's meeting and subsequent votes are now also being contested. Culbreath claims that she adjourned the meeting and that the votes of no confidence cast by members after she left were done outside of proper procedure, invalidating them.
Other members claim events transpired a little differently. They say Culbreath did not open the meeting, nor follow procedures to adjourn the meeting, and claim the no-confidence votes are valid.
The decision on whether the two meetings were valid, as well as any votes taken during them, could take months to determine. Manatee REC members filed a grievance with the Republican Party of Florida to resolve the matter.
An awkward seat at the table
There were no seats for two contested officers, Sandra Freas and Jacqueline Heisse, at the head of the meeting with the rest of the Manatee REC executive board on Monday night. So the two women grabbed chairs from the audience, took seats next to other board members and held their ground.
The two women were elected to the Manatee REC executive board during the contested special meeting held in January. Heisse was named the REC's new treasurer and Freas was named secretary, to replace two previous executive board members who resigned in December due to concerns over executive board spending.
Former Manatee County Commissioner and past Manatee County REC Chair Donna Hayes said she was happy to see both women force the situation on Monday night.
"They took their own chairs up to the head table, which would be normal procedure for all the board members to sit up there," Hayes said. "Then the chairman, April, decided that they should not sit there because they were not on the board. Well, she was mistaken because we did have an authorized special meeting in January. They rightfully needed to sit up there at the head table."
"I was very pleased to see Sandy and Jacque step forward and sit up there," Hayes said. "It was just reassuring to me. From my perspective I feel it was a very successful meeting, we accomplished a great deal, and we were a very cohesive group."
Hayes, and others who spoke with the Herald-Tribune about Monday's meeting, shared similar stories of the events on Monday night. However, they also expressed conflicting viewpoints on some key details of what transpired. Culbreath's supporters say that she adjourned the meeting before leaving her seat, while opponents say the meeting was not adjourned according to proper procedure.
Keith Green, who is running against Culbreath and incumbent At Large Commissioner George Kruse during the upcoming primary election, said he empathizes with Culbreath. He described the meeting as rowdy, and is among those who believe the meeting was adjourned.
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"It got very loud, very obnoxious," Green said. "April was trying to do her best to get the meeting started but they just kept getting louder, and louder and louder. My recollection of it, she decided to adjourn the meeting. I personally don't blame her for doing, because it was just getting very loud. I was feeling like it was getting very confrontational in my opinion."
Freas declined comment about the meeting, but said she is holding her ground on behalf of the members who voted for her.
"It was super uncomfortable, but we really had little choice," Freas said. "The majority of the committee wants us up there."
Culbreath said that she adjourned the meeting abruptly in response to disruption, but that the meeting agenda included the opportunity to vote on officers once again.
"The secretary and the treasurer that they think that they voted in, they pulled their chairs up to the front of the room and said, 'We're sitting up here because we are on the board,'" Culbreath said. "I said, 'Ladies please take your seats. You're not on the board. We are fixing to hold elections.'"
"The whole point to hold that January meeting that they think that they called was to have elections done, that was the whole point of that, and here we are at an official February meeting with elections on the agenda, there's no cheating there's no swaying anything, let's just do it again officially," she said.
"Why not just let the process play out and do it again? They just wanted to protest the whole meeting."
Vote of no confidence
The hands of Manatee REC members are tied, and they are not able to vote to remove Culbreath nor the state committee members from their executive board seats because of a recent rule established by the Republican Party of Florida.
Otherwise, Manatee REC members who spoke with the Herald-Tribune — including some who did so anonymously — said the vote of no confidence could have instead been a vote to oust Culbreath from office.
Votes of no confidence were also cast against Matthews and Spray, although the members specified that it solely reflected opinions on their roles within the Manatee REC and not other public offices.
Members also voted to forbid any REC funds to be used to attend the RNC National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July. They also voted to refute an audit committee report submitted by a contested audit committee on Feb. 19, which some members say was formed without following proper procedure.
Lastly, members approved meeting minutes for the contested Jan. 22 special meeting.
Grievance filed over contested January meeting
Freas and Heisse filed a grievance against Culbreath, Spray and Matthews with the RPOF on Feb. 19 over the lack of recognition of January's special meeting.
The grievance argues that the special meeting was valid and raises claims that Culbreath attempted to disrupt the January meeting by canceling reservations at the original venue and sending emails to members where she claimed the meeting was not valid, according to the document.
"As far as we are concerned, there is no question as to the legality of that meeting because we followed every single step," Hayes said. "There is nothing we can do now until a response is made by the grievance committee chair."
The grievance takes note of instances where Culbreath took actions that did not follow proper protocols, including spending of REC funds that led to disagreements, and the eventual resignation, of former Treasurer Bruce Stamm. It also raises concerns over an audit committee formed to review party finances in preparation of financial audit reports due on April 1.
The grievance also claims that Culbreath contacted the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections office and removed a member who was key to organizing the petition to call the January special meeting, claimng that the member in question had not filled out a second loyalty oath after moving to a new precinct.
Culbreath said that upon review of the situation, which could take months, she believes the RPOF grievance committee will invalidate the January and February meetings.
"I am already 100% confident on what their decision will be, and that will be that the January meeting was not valid and that whatever they held after the February meeting was not valid," Culbreath said. "They are just trying to spread the word that they got together and held a vote of no confidence. That is their whole goal."
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee GOP executive committee chair contests vote of no confidence
