By Burt Mummolo, FOX23.com News Staff
ROGERS COUNTY, Okla – Jim Mullings was standing out in 100-degree weather, sign in hand and conviction in heart, that the power belongs to the people.
“You know, the people here supposed to be in power in this country,” he said.
And in an effort to preserve those checks and balances, a signature drive is underway calling for a grand jury in Rogers County. What spurred it?
“It’s various things that all surround open meetings act violations to get certain things done,” said Alexander Miller.
“Actually it started out with the data center, then the smelter and then attending some of the meetings here in town, I started noticing some things that didn’t appear right,” said Jim Mullings.
“With the grand jury petition it’s able to put all of those issues together and say, ‘Hey grand jury, look into these problems we have with open and transparent government and figure out whether or not they’re breaking the law,’ which we believe they are in how they’re operating the government,” said community activist Ron Durbin.
Their goal is 5,000 signatures and they’ve got about 30 days left.
“So I think we’re around a thousand right now. It’s going pretty good we need to pick it up a bit,” said Miller.
That number alone should be an indication of just how fed up and suspicious people are with the current state of affairs.
“You know, if in fact we have dishonesty we want it uncovered, I hope that that happens if it is the case. I would be pleased if it was not the case,” said Mullings.
“If I could say anything to the citizens of Rogers County it’s just, this is not allegations, criminal allegations, this is we just want to know what’s going on in city business and why we weren’t informed and what we weren’t informed of, and we just want to have a real investigation,” said Miller.
The push for accountability in Rogers County…
“This is all grassroots community activists at it’s best,” said Ron Durbin.
gathering one signature at a time by your next-door neighbors.
“This is just a petition, non-party, come visit,” said one volunteer.
