If you have read George Orwell’s well-known dystopian novel, Nineteen Eight-Four (1984), then you may remember the opening line, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”   Have you ever wondered, what does it mean?   If you thought it referred to military time, you are incorrect.  References to a thirteenth stroke of the clock indicate that some event or discovery calls into questions everything previously believed.  In other words, the thirteenth stroke of the clock calls in question not only the credibility of itself but the previous twelve strokes.

For Orwell the key was “clocks” referring to more than one, so we must believe he was referring to all the clocks in the world.  It was Orwell subtle way to tell the reader that statements of truth in a fictional society should always be called into question.  The proverb puts forth the notion that if just one of someone’s proclamations or statements is wrong, or something in a process is wrong, then the correctness, accuracy and truth of all the previous proclamations, statements and steps in a process need to be called into question.

What does the “Thirteenth Stroke of the Clock” have to do with Frisco Fire Department?  In a 13 Stroke attempt the city wants you to believe Glover is just the phenomenal department head who has transitioned all the negative out of the FD and things are just peachy now.  In their own attempt at the “Thirteenth Storke of the Clock,” on video in their own words, we have Mayor Jeff Cheney – lying, Butt Hurt Bill Woodard – lying, Angelia Pelham – lying, and Mr. Valor John Cheating Keating – lying!   

The most recent In-Service Meeting notes are no different than the 2011 Climate Report and all of that falls on the city, former city manager George Purefoy, the mayor and council and our newest tool – Wes Pierson.  You might think “that can’t be that much more left,” to uncover, but you would be wrong! In 2012 when the city went outside the department to hire (Mark Piland) that was a thorn in Lee Glovers’ side because in his mind he was always the successor to Mack Borchardt.  For ten years Glover had to watch a new Fire Chief, who could have cleaned house and fired him – but didn’t do the job he felt he was owed and deserved. 

In fact, the In-Service notes state that repeatedly “Glover would talk shit about the department at lunch, would brag about retiring, and not caring about the job,” but now he is the new Fire Chief.  The notes also say that some of the firefighters feel that they have seen their former Fire Chief Mark Piland more since he retired than they have Glover, since he took the position as the new Fire Chief. The most damming statement of all in the report, “We have managers and leaders.  Leaders we would follow to the end of our career.  The Fire Chief (Lee Glover) is NOT a leader!”

During the recent election cycles, the Mayor and City Council members all talked about how they valued our firefighters, as they treated them crap calling them lazy, greedy, and master manipulators / liars.  What do you think the result of that election was?  Well according to the notes “The PAC (run by Bill Woodard, funded by Cheney’s big developer friends) drug the name of the Frisco FD through the mud, damaging their image and trust with citizens.”  It goes on to say the secretly backed by the city PAC, “made poor judgement decisions using social media, and they crossed the line making attacks extremely personal and not about the issues. The city blurred the lines of politics by backdoor financing the political PAC, and the FD has lost complete trust in City Hall and the Council.”  Even further manipulation was when the Frisco Chamber of Commerce, who likes to play they are independent, but receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city, cut off the voices of the firefighters at their forum has left the FD with a very bad taste and lack of trust.  “We don’t trust them, and they don’t trust us!” 

When it comes to the City Manager, Wes Pierson the in-service notes said they don’t trust him or his judgement. Goes on to say since taking over in this city he has been dismissive, divisive, flat our ignored them, refuses to meet with them, and has been condescending to members of the FD fracturing a future relationship. 

The city wants you to believe they have done everything, given everything, spend ½ the annual budget for public safety and that the firefighters are just lazy!  Yet the city is running out of people to blame it on, and we have caught them boldly lying about Glover which means we now have to question everything else they have said in the past. The lies are on tape! Actual video evidence in their own words, LYING to citizens. We fully understand now why the FD has a lack of trust with the FD management, City Manager and Mayor + council.

Staffing is the biggest issue that was brought up over-and-over from the 2011 Climate Report to today.  This is the biggest tipping point: 3-person truck or 4-person truck. It makes me wonder why firefighters would be fighting so hard for staffing if it was not a problem.  We found a 5-year Strategic Staffing plan in one of the PIR’s that we filed.  It was done by Former Chief Mark Piland, and according to a city hall staffer this is what the Fire Chief turns into their boss – the city manager.  It stats the following:

FY 2018             Add 7 Positions                             Total FD Personal: 260

FY 2019               Add 8 Positions

FY 2020               Add 27 Positions

FY 2021               Add 13 Positions

FY 2022            Add 24 Positions                           Total FD Personal: 332        

Full Copy of 5-Year Strategic Plan written by Mark Piland:      

Based on that strategic plan – how many do you think we hired?  We have filed a PIR asking just that question.  We did pull up the FY 2023 Budget which has the Fire Department clearly listed by department area.  We wanted to focus on the “Tactical” personnel because when you call 911 that is the group that shows up at your front door.  On the “tactical personnel” side it shows they went from 230 in FY 2021 to 239 in FY 2023.  Yep 9 people! 

The strategic 5-year plan that Cheney talked about in the 2023 election is what city goes by, shows by FY 2023 we should have had 281 “tactical” positions.  Now the city council has been telling citizens we are staffed just fine at 239.  It really hit home for us when we looked at it visually on the organizational chart.  Frisco’s current population is 225,007 people, which makes us the 101 largest cities in the US and growing every day.  The actual FY 2023 budget for the FD covers 279 personnel across different areas of the department from administrative, fleet, tactical and more.   

If you look at the 5 Year Strategic plan Piland wrote in 2018 it shows for FY 2023 that we should have 332 personnel across the different areas of our fire department.  That is a difference of 53 personnel – most of those positions are on the “tactical side.”  Why did the city not meet the Strategic Plan in place?  We posted the video of Mayor Cheney in our last blog, and he is talking about how the city has a “strategic plan,” they go by, so why do the numbers not match the plan MAYOR?  Now I understand why the firefighters are so passionate about the staffing issues – it makes sense.  If staffing was an in issue in 2011 and then per the strategic plan for 2018 – 2023 we are short staffed that means we are WAY BEHIND THE 8 BALL.

Then we remembered, during the election at the Stonebriar Forum, Angelia Pelham said she liked to look at FACTS aka DATA.  She said in 5 years 57% of the Fire Department will be eligible for retirement.  Hold up, wait a minute!   As a resident that should concern you if you care about the welfare of your family.  While it is not likely, let’s pretend all 57% of our those eligible in our fire department decided to take retirement in 5 years because they are sick of “The Frisco Way” and if the city does not go along with the current strategic plan (which we have filed a PIR for) for the next 5 years, it could decimate our department. 

Let’s look at this another way.  It takes about 1 to 2 years to train a Firefighter with class and hands on experience. We also know through PIRs in Frisco and other cities that when it comes to candidate testing for new firefighters – they are not coming to Frisco.  They are going to other cities with a more favorable view of the fire department.  Let’s assume we were already short-staffed in 2011. Then the city has been short staffing the fire department against the advice of the Fire Chief for the last ten years, plus it fails to follow the current 5-year plan to hire 55 new firefighters, and then you add on 57% of our Fire Department chose to retire in 5 years when they hit eligibility, what does that mean?

It means we will face a catastrophic shortfall of well-trained experienced firefighters.  Our tenured firefighters have already been retiring and then going to other departments because they are not done working, they just don’t want to work in FRISCO anymore.  The best training comes from experience and the “tenured firefighters” give real life saving mentorship to new firefighters who have yet to go down a 10-to-15-year career.  If 57% leave in 5 years when eligible and the city which is already short staffed doesn’t follow the plan or hire more immediately than there will be no tenure in the department and that is a LIFE-OR-DEATH matter to firefighters, citizens and the council’s favorite…tourists. 

We reiterate, Mayor Cheney, Angelia Pelham, John Keating, Bill Woodard, and Laura Rummel (Livingston has remained quiet), have all talked about the increase of staffing when we open the new Fire Stations 10 & 11.  We wrote in depth about the Fire Department and Bonds in our blogpost 007 and if you have not read it, you should!  Voters approved Station 10 in the 2015 bond, and in 2019 they asked Voters to approve Station 11. 

Funny thing is they asked voters in 2023 to approve Fire Station 11 AGAIN along with a remodel of Station 4.  You paid for STATION 11 – 2 TIMES!  

Here is where we need you to buckle your seat belt. According to a leaked email we received, Station 11 has been scraped and put on an indefinite hold with no plan in the next several years to build it. YOUR COUNCIL MEMBERS RUNNING FOR OFFICE LIED TO YOUR FACE WHEN THEY SAID IT WAS IN THE WORKS AND ALREADY PLANNED OUT!   Remember every single one of the council members above said we will hire to staff the two new stations but in the 13^th Stroke of the Clock there will be No Station 11 = NO HIRING OF FIREFIGHTERS.  We filed a PIR Friday for the status of Station 11 and all documents, notes, emails, and plans for it to confirm the email we have so let’s see if they turn it over. 

Our city council continues to lie to us, and we continue to take it with a grain of salt.  They probably sit in their executive sessions and laugh at how stupid we are because they continue to have the 13th Stroke of the Clock ring out and no one is putting 2 + 2 together.  Tick Tock, Tick Tock….