Attorney general to investigate possible violation of law at Oklahoma education board meeting

Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks Thursday during a press conference. (Photo by Kennedy Thomason/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office on Thursday said it is looking into what appears to be a “willful violation” of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act by the State Board of Education.

Three lawmakers on Wednesday were denied access to the board’s executive session.

In addition, the board appeared to hold one executive session when two were listed on the agenda. The board took all its action in the first executive session, although some of it was set for the second executive session, said Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, who sought to attend the executive session and serves on the House Common Education Committee.

“We are very concerned by what appeared to be a willful violation of the Open Meeting Act,” said Phil Bacharach, a spokesperson for Attorney General Gentner Drummond. “Our office will look further into the matter and take appropriate action.”

A violation of the act is a misdemeanor subject to a year in jail and a $500 fine, he said.

A spokesperson for State Superintendent Ryan Walters did not respond by deadline to a request for comment.

In a July 18 email to Walters and State Board of Education members, Deputy Attorney General Thomas R. Schneider said the law “generally permits any legislator with a committee assignment to attend any executive session authorized by the Open Meeting Act at a meeting of a state agency, board, or commission; provided, the legislator must be assigned to a committee that has jurisdiction over the public body’s actions.”

The letter came after Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, a member of the Senate Education Committee, was denied admittance in June to a State Board of Education executive session.

If the executive session was illegal, the votes taken are null and void, said Boren, an attorney.

She called Walters “lawless.”

“He invents the law the way he wants it to be and proceeds accordingly,” Boren said.

Rep. Mike Osburn, R-Edmond, a member of the House Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee, was the third lawmaker seeking to attend the executive session. Osburn could not be reached for comment Thursday.

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