Fourkiller accepts sanctions
A state representative still denies making any inappropriate comments to a House page but he agreed to accept sanctions anyway.
“I take this matter very seriously and want to take steps to avoid even an appearance of impropriety,” Rep. Will Fourkiller, D-Stilwell, wrote in a letter delivered Monday to House Speaker Charles McCall.
A special House committee in January investigated a complaint made against Fourkiller in 2015 by the page, then a high school student. The page reported in April 2015 that Fourkiller made comments about her looks that made her feel uncomfortable.
The committee on Feb. 2 recommended Fourkiller be banned from any direct involvement in the House page program for a year. The special committee also recommended he attend one-on-one professional training on proper workplace conduct.
“I have made the decision to voluntarily agree to follow both
recommendations of the Committee,” Fourkiller, 44, wrote in the letter.
With that decision, Fourkiller avoids a vote in the GOP-controlled House on the recommendations. Some Republicans had wanted to impose harsher sanctions.
Fourkiller reminded the speaker in the letter that he has denied making an inappropriate statement. Fourkiller agreed Wednesday to release the one-page letter to The Oklahoman.
Fourkiller, a registered nurse and former elementary schoolteacher, was first elected to the House in 2010. He won re-election in 2016, easily beating his Republican and Libertarian opponents. He is married.
Fourkiller did not testify before the committee, saying in January he had nothing to hide but was concerned the committee’s meetings were not open to the public.
“A confidential, closed-door proceeding does not provide the equitable forum to repair my character and reputation,” he wrote the committee chairman Jan. 17.
The committee called its recommendations about Fourkiller just and appropriate under the circumstances “due to the concerns at stake.”
“The House’s High School Page Program is an important program sponsored by the House,” the committee reported. “It allows hundreds of students from across the state a chance to experience the inner workings of the Legislature. The House is committed to preserving the integrity of the Page Program and the safety and well-being of its participants.”
Students serve as pages for a week.
In its final report, the committee pointed out the House chief clerk and House general counsel personally met with Fourkiller in 2015 about the alleged statements and their implications. At the time, Fourkiller “did not admit nor deny that the comments were made,” the committee reported.
The committee also reported no similar issues have been reported involving Fourkiller since that time.
The committee did not identify the page. The committee chairman said she was a minor at the time of the complaint. She did not testify to the committee.
The committee also did not disclose the alleged comments, saying it could not without Fourkiller’s permission. The committee did report the alleged comments, if true, were unprofessional and inappropriate.
Fourkiller can still select four high school students from his district to come to the Capitol to be pages but cannot spend any one-on-one time with any page.
The committee on Feb. 2 also recommended that Rep. Dan Kirby, R-Tulsa, be expelled for accepting and at times requesting nude photos from legislative assistant Carol Johnson and for inviting her to a strip club.
Kirby resigned instead, effective March 1.
Kirby admitted to most of the conduct but said he and Johnson had a consensual personal relationship. Johnson said they did not have such a relationship and that she was sexually harassed. The committee rejected Kirby’s explanation, saying he acted inappropriately regardless of the circumstances.