Skiatook, Oklahoma school patrons want grand-jury probe

Angered by a state audit that revealed a pattern of wasteful spending in the Skiatook school district, a group of residents on Wednesday night released a grand jury petition that it hopes to have filed by March 29.

Organizer Rob Ridenour, a Skia- took parent and criminal defense lawyer, implored a crowd of about 83 people at the town's community center to channel their disgust into something positive.
"Our taxpayers and our kids have been done wrong," said Ridenour, who was accompanied by fellow Skiatook residents and organizers Windsor Ridenour, his father and a former executive editor for the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune, and Kathryn Cooper, a Skiatook parent and executive assistant to the Tulsa World publisher.
"We're not going to be able to get that money back — not most of it," Rob Ridenour said. "But we need to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And we have to do that by sending a clear message."
Last week, a state auditor's report said the district paid Oklahoma City middleman Rick Enos, through his companies E&E Sales and Austin Security, $570,000 more than it would have paid for custodial supplies and security equipment directly.
Purchasing such things as trash cans, sanitizer and mop heads, the school often paid double, triple or quadruple the open market price for the items ordered through E&E Sales, according to the audit, which spanned May 1, 2004, to Jan. 31, 2009.
The district paid an Enos company as much as $29.95 — a markup of 892 percent — for a dust-mop handle that could have been bought for $3.02. Trash cans that could have been bought directly for roughly $10.88 were purchased by the school for $60.
The school board on Tuesday suspended with pay Superintendent Gary Johnson, who has been employed by the district since 2001.
The state Attorney General's Office is reviewing the audit report.
The Skiatook group's petition asks the Tulsa County District Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate "any fraud, theft, misapplication of funds, public corruption, kickbacks, graft or embezzlement of public funds."
Referring to the special audit report, it also asks the grand jury to probe a pattern of "systematic overcharging, collusion and document falsification in the expenditure of public funds for the procurement, processing and administration of supplies, equipment and systems" for the district from 2004 to 2009.
Rob Ridenour said he has a sister who works for the school district who was asked to turn off her space heater to save electricity.
"My daughter gets into the car the other day and says, 'Daddy, they said that we can't have any math books because we don't have any money,' " he said.
"When somebody wastes three-quarters of a million dollars, you think to yourself, what could that three-quarters of a million dollars been used for?
"How many computers would that buy? How many books would that buy? That just makes a person so mad. I know you're mad. I want you to stay mad, and let's follow through with this."
Under state law, a petition for a grand jury must state the subject matter for a prospective grand jury's consideration and reasonably specific areas to be investigated.
It also must state sufficient general allegations to warrant a finding that such an inquiry might lead to an indictment or removal of a public official.
If a judge approves the petition request, circulators would have 45 days to gather the required number of signatures — 5,000, according to Rob Ridenour — of registered Tulsa County voters in support of the request.
If the Tulsa County Election Board verifies the signatures, the judge would turn over the case to the district attorney, and then a grand jury would be convened.
Noting the need for a grand jury, Rob Ridenour said prosecutors could take as long as six months to decide whether charges are warranted.
"This process makes these guys do what we want them to do," he said.
Skiatook resident Michael Jackson asked whether it was appropriate to circulate a petition in church.
"The churches are going to be full Easter Sunday," said Jackson, who said he pastors a Tulsa church. "You have all the people in one spot."