An Awakening Pt 2: Cumberland Co Sheriff Smith and Committeewoman Isley Respond

As our viewers know, yesterday I posted the first article in this series – An Awakening Pt. 1 – Unity Pills and a Democratic Takeover of the PaGOP – where, among other things, I discussed the Saturday Cumberland County GOP meeting. Since then, both Sheriff Jody Smith and committeewoman Kaytee Isley have reached out with their observations and impressions of the meeting. And it is only fair in any democratic Republic that they be relayed and considered.

Today, I had the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion about the Saturday meeting and Cumberland County politics with Sheriff Smith. She asked that I attempt to paraphrase our discussion for purposes of this article, which I am going to attempt to do to the best of my ability. If she asks for anything to be changed, because I got it wrong/misunderstood, I’ll update this article, as that too is only fair. First and foremost, during our call, she genuinely asked that anyone who has concern over what occurred on Saturday to please reach out to her, as she would love an opportunity to speak with you, one-on-one, about it and how to ensure, moving forward, everyone’s rights are always protected and honored at all meetings. Several times during our discussion, she emphasized that safety of everyone at any meetings she attends is always her utmost concern. Beyond knowing how truly important these things are to her, I believe leading off with them is the most appropriate, especially given her 35 years of unblemished service to our Commonwealth, which everyone should thank her for. Second, she emphasized several times that no one was present in an official capacity representing the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. While she acknowledged that she and the two deputies from her Office were present, she was there in both her private capacity as a candidate to receive the endorsement and as a sergeant in arms; her two deputies were also there in their private capacity as sergeants in arms. While I am unaware of any institution having multiple sergeants in arms, I cannot say that such is prohibited, although it could become quite confusing and problematic if two sergeants in arms take different positions on an issue. For those Cumberland Co committee members reading this article, that may be an issue you want to address at your next meeting…but I digress. She also informed me that although she wasn’t sure when, in relation to the agenda, that the motion was made by the young woman, she did say that things got heated very quickly, with people on both sides yelling at each other, which she said was extremely disconcerting. She also relayed that she never threatened to issue a citation and didn’t observe the other two sergeants at arms place hands on the young woman; however, she acknowledged that she was not focused on them or their actions. And I think it is only fair to reiterate that she stated several times during our discussion that she would welcome calls from any committee person who would like to discuss the events of Saturday. With knowledge of everyone’s perspectives, perhaps Sheriff Smith can mend the divisions within the Cumberland Co GOP.

Yesterday afternoon, Committeewoman Isley left me a voicemail stating she “thought I’d want to get my facts straight, before writing things like [the previous article],” and that “as a courtesy,” she’d let me know that “the things that were put on the floor [Saturday] were not in order according to Robert’s Rules.” Interestingly, she didn’t address the use of force – which neither Robert’s Rules nor the law permits – to remove the young woman for allegedly making an out of order motion. To be clear, Mrs. Isley is the first of almost a dozen people to contact me, who were at the meeting, to say that the motion was out of order/not timely (but to be fair, I do understand from attendees that such was Chairman Capozzi’s contention). Even if the motion was out of order/not timely, the proper response – as was done during the State Committee meeting on February 8th – is to simply inform the individual that the motion is out of order, because it must be raised during <insert appropriate time> and that it is being ruled out of order without prejudice for it to be raised during <insert appropriate time>. Moreover, there exists no legal authority to remove an individual with legal right to be in a meeting or place, simply because they motion at an incorrect time or even become vociferous. As the young woman was a proxy holder for two committee people, she had legal right to be at the meeting and vote on behalf of those committee people. As a result of being removed, she, and those two committee people, were disenfranchised of their votes.

Regardless, I do believe that Sheriff Smith wants to ensure that the rights of everyone are respected and honored. As such, I’d highly recommend, if you have any concern over what occurred, reaching out to her to discuss. Perhaps she can be the guiding force to bring true unity to the Cumberland County GOP.