Ah, the riveting world of campaign finance reports – where every local candidate in Frisco must parade their fiscal acumen before the discerning eyes of the public. It’s like Christmas for political sleuths, unwrapping the financial mysteries behind each contender’s bid for office. Because, let’s be honest, nothing screams “transparency” like the stress-induced wrinkles of trying to get those reports done on time. In Frisco, Campaign Finance Reports must be filed by local municipal politicians or political candidates seeking office and they must be filed with the City Secretary, Kristi Morrow. 

We give each candidate the benefit of the doubt and assume from time to time there may be a mistake on the reports.  If a candidate finds a report has a mistake they can file to correct the report.   A candidate must file using a correction affidavit and make sure the pages of the report being corrected are attached.  Easy, Peasy!

January of 2024, we download the semi-annual report or the annual report of unexpended contributions for each candidate for the time of July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.  We were surprised to see on page 4 of Angelia Pelham’s report she had a donation of $1000 dated 12/26/23 that had the name of the Contributor and the address redacted.  You cannot redact the field of the contributor as that is a public record.  At the time the report was released, we of course saved it and filed it away with all the others.

On March 7^th we noticed Angelia Pelham had filed a Correction/Amendment Affidavit for Candidates with the City Secretary.  It noted she neglected to include an In-Kind amount in the total contribution.  She attached the updated “totals” sheet, and the update changed her total political contributions from $3,630.00 to $8630.00 which is a difference of $5000.  We were curious about what the In-Kind donation was and what it was for.  We went back to the website and looked at the original report filed, and the contribution dated 11/1/23 was from Scott Ellis for $5000.  The description stated it was for web design and hosting. 

As we began to scroll back up through the report, we immediately noticed something was different than the first time we reviewed the report.  That item from 12/26/23 reporting a donation of $1000 that had been completely redacted now showed the name of the donor.  It was the very own Dono and Angelia Pelham who donated to herself.  We thought for a minute, are we crazy we were pretty sure when we looked at this report in January that it was completely redacted.  Luckily, we saved the report back in January, and thank goodness it confirmed we were not crazy!

Now is this life shattering or ending – no of course not.  But when did Pelham or the city “un-redact” the report?  Why did they not file a correction or make a note of the change on the report that the redaction was incorrect and updated?  What it does do is build mistrust, because now we have no idea when the redaction was corrected.  If we file a PIR to find out, they will probably send it to the attorney general to avoid answering our question.   

If someone made a mistake (ok, no problem) but now it feels like they tried to change out the reports and hoped no one would notice the mistake.  It feels shady that there would not even be a note that it was incorrectly redacted, and the new one was updated.  Sound familiar?  It should. Remember Sassy Safranek, the City HR Director, who edited a job description for the Fire Department that ultimately affected the pay of firefighters.  You can read all about it in our Twelve Days of Christmas stories.   

Why was it a big deal what Sassy Safranek did?  She lied when caught back in the day and continues to lie today.  She said Piland was aware of the change and that she didn’t feel it was a big deal to remove one word and not get an updated signature from the Chief.  Based on emails from a PIR it was clear Piland had no clue the change had been made.  The City of Frisco requires each department head to sign off on each job description.  Sassy Safranek, THE HR DIRECTOR, knows that. If you change anything on a document that requires a signature, you get A NEW SIGNATURE!  Imagine Fire Chief Mark Piland’s surprise when one of his firefighters inquired about the change and that is how he found out about the Sassy “Cover Up!”

Our point, if you upload a report to the public and you need to change something like a redaction there should be a note as to why, when, and who made the changes.  It is simply a note in the ledger or the report.  Are we surprised the city tried to change out documents and withhold the change from the public?  No, it is a standard practice apparently for both internal and external documents. 

Sassy Safranek: Case 64 HR Complaint Against her

Sassy Safranek: Case 64 & HR Malfeasance