If you live in Frisco and have not yet heard about the heated debate between the so-called leaders for The City of Frisco and Frisco Firefighters, then you need to come out from under the rock.  On the May 4^th ballot, we the residents, will see two propositions: Prop A: Civil Service and Prop B: Collective Bargaining and before you vote you need to ask yourself, why would the fire fighters be going for something like this unless they really needed to?

In our previous blog, we told you about “The PAC” formed by active Councilman Bobblehead Bill Woodard, which is being used to disgrace our fire fighters all while they keep a smile and say “we love our first responders.”  We also told you how the Frisco Chamber of Commerce used their platform to advocate instead of educate, on behalf of businesses against the fire fighters.  Then we told you how city leaders called in their favors with developers who helped the PAC raise over $100,000 which is how the PAC was bought and paid for. All if it could not be shadier!

Now what?  Let’s talk about misinformation and how they city plans to use Sheryl Sculley, the former City Manager for the City of San Antonio to scare residents by telling how she successfully fought off the “Association” from “virtually bankrupting the city.”  In fact, they are going tell residents she was so successful that she even wrote a book titled “Greedy Bastards” but is that really the truth?  Here at whistleblower, we like to dig deeper.  We want to introduce you to The Real Sheryl Sculley aka Sherylton.

In an article we found in SA Current, it stated that before arriving in San Antonio, Sculley came from Phoenix, Arizona, where she earned $173,000 per year.  While in Phoenix she headed up the effort to expand Phoenix’s convention center in the late 90’s and made some big promises.  She stressed the convention center expansion would involve “NO NEW TAXES” and instead could be paid for with existing visitor taxes and a potential $300 million commitment from the state of Arizona. 

The article reported that Sculley pitched the expansion herself to the Arizona Legislature in a 2002 presentation that stressed “There is No Status Quo!”  At stake were $32 million in annual state tax revenues and 12,000 jobs, which proved to be enough for the state who committed $300 million to the project.  Now you can’t have a convention center without a hotel next door.  Sculley failed in getting a private developer to build the new hotel, so Phoenix financed it and built it!  The article reports that everyone bought into Sculley’s idea the city would be poised to emerge as the next great convention destination.  Guess what, that didn’t happen!

The article reports in 2003 that an Earnest & Young study forecasted the new grand center would welcome 375,000 annual convention delegates.  Sounds great considering in the past it was around 166,000 in 1996 and 193,000 in 1997.  However, at the end of the fiscal year in 2011 the attendees were just about 156,000 and in 2012 about 233,000.  With no boom, the new Sheraton hotel the city finananced dubbed the “Sherlyton” by city staffers struggled to pay off its debt and required continuing tax revenue support from the city.  In 2017, the City of Phoenix sold off the Sherlyton to a private company and suffered a significant financial loss.

When Sulley became the new City Manager of San Antonio in 2005 it came with a hefty price tag of $265,000 and a large promise to turn San Antonio around.  She admitted to inheriting a disorganized mess and in her first year or two she hired a new police chief, a new convention-bureau director, and two deputy city managers. She reshuffled the finance department, had the municipal courts redone, and restructured the management at the convention center and Alamodome.  She also overhauled Development Services which had long been the focus of complaints from the local “development” community. By 2016 her base salary was $450,000 and she leveraged a $100,000 bonus making her total compensation $550,000 making her the highest paid city manager in Texas.   That is a lot of money for a city whose median household annual income is around $58,829.

SA Current reported at the end of 2006, they were already calling Sculley out for her lack of transparency saying she gives the appearance of citizen participation but it just that appearance.  Sound familiar?   Sculley proposed the three largest bonds programs in city history in San Antonio totaling over $2 Billion dollars.  Under Sculley, the city’s debt burden jumped 78 percent between fiscal years 2005 and 2017, reaching $3 billion. Those borrowings include general obligation bonds, which voters approved, and tax notes and certificates of obligation, for which voters didn’t have a say.

Maybe instead of fighting the Police and Fire Associations for years she should have worked productively with them to fight crime.  Did she expect to fight and not have them fight back?  In 2018, when Sculley left, several online reports said violent crime was up, calls to 911 were up, and it was reported it would take 341 new officers with no retirements or attrition to be near full staffing. 

Sculley announced her retirement in 2018 and within hours San Antonio dropped its lawsuits against the Fire Union according to SA Current.  According to media reports, The City of San Antonio has dropped its lawsuit challenging the evergreen clause in the contract of its firefighters’ union, potentially hitting restart for negotiations for a new labor deal. In 2024, the San Antonio Fire Association President said, we are looking forward to city and union leaders working together with a more polite dialogue this time around.”  Funny thing, that is exactly what Frisco Firefighters Association Matt Sapp has said, they just want to have a seat at the table and have dialogue.

In the end, the truth is Sculley set the tone for her tenure as City Manager and the associations responded to that tone.  Sound familiar?  Don’t misunderstand, Sculley did some great things during her tenure in San Antonio to change the city into what is today. We can’t take away her successes but it sure does not mean she didn’t have any failures during the same tenure. She left San Antonio with some positive attributes and like other city has some not-so-great attributes. In the end, Sculley walked away from San Antonio with over $10 million dollars in pay over the years.   I guess her salary didn’t hurt the city economics just the needs of the fire fighters and police officers, or at least that is what she wants you to believe. Maybe that is why there is a Facebook page dedicated to her titled Removed City Manager Sheryl Sculley

However, any good left behind does not take away the tone she set with first responders.  Remember she sued 5 times and lost 5 times. Think about it, Sculley’s new book is called Greedy Bastards, that alone speaks volumes as to how she sees first responders and public servants.  IS THAT WHAT THE CITY OF FRISCO IS PROMOTING HERE?  Does the city want us to think our first responders are greedy bastards, I would hope not. While the City of Frisco would like you to believe these propositions would devastate the city, the firefighters are not looking to bankrupt the city, hell they want a paycheck. We have to believe our Firefighters have commonsense, and that means they know you can’t really get a paycheck and benefits from a city with a diluted bank account.  

The City of Frisco has set the tone with our Fire and Police Associations, and it is like an abusive relationship. The city has verbally berated them, scolded them, and told them what they don’t deserve, in a nutshell how much of a POS they are.  Think of the narrative, just look pretty like a trophy wife, and stand there, don’t talk, or have an opinion.  Then we can shout from our pulpit as the city council leaders that we give almost ½ the city budget to public safety so that proves we love our men and woman who serve. Now, please pat us on the back and tell us how amazing we are as a council. 

Bobble Head Bill is making the most noise in this, why?  He is termed out and cannot run again, so who cares if he burns the house down as he leaves.  I truly hope those who are not termed out like Bobble Head Bill, understand that when this is over, you can’t just apologize with a cocktail or some red roses. That will be for Cheney, Meinershagen, Rummel, and the two other folks elected this year to fix.  We end this one question for you to answer.

DO YOU THINK OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS / FIRST REPONDERS ARE GREEDY BASTARDS?

Political Affiliation: According to TransparencyUSA.org, since leaving San Antonio, it appears Sculley has become a consultant for Strategic Partnerships and in 2022 she donated $15,000 to Act Blue Texas and Beto O’Rourke.