OKGOP Accuses John Cox Of Violating Open Meetings Act

Republicans Accuse Statewide Candidate With Violation of State Law

(Oklahoma City)—Today the Oklahoma Republican Party leveled a serious accusation against Democrat candidate for State Superintendent John Cox. Mr. Cox currently serves as Superintendent for the Peggs, Oklahoma, school district, which is a Kindergarten through eighth grade district comprised of roughly 238 students. Among the issues are failures to comply with state law concerning Oklahoma’s Open Meetings Act.

Republican Party Chairman Dave Weston explained, “We have a candidate for State Superintendent who does not understand the need to obey state law by making his board meetings public. And yet this small school administrator thinks he can run one of the largest departments in the state.”

Weston continued, “Openness and clarity have always been the best way to avoid corruption and the Open Meetings Act was designed to encourage and enforce the type of transparency that leads to good government.”

According to state statute (Title 25; Sections 301-314), public officials are required to hold open meetings which include advance notice of time, place and agenda of the meetings in a public venue. School Superintendents are also required to file these items with their respective County Clerk’s office in advance and Mr. Cox has failed to do this in any way.

Republicans further publicized that school board member names, meeting dates and agendas, which are also required by law to be made public on the school’s website, have not been made available by Mr. Cox for years.

“Since early September, the Republican Party has conducted extensive research and made inquiries to locate details about how Mr. Cox is running the Peggs school district, but none of these requests have been met with answers, just excuses that Mr. Cox is unavailable and out of the office,” detailed Weston.

Mr. Cox is running for public office, but more importantly Oklahomans deserve to know what he’s running from.

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