If you are from the DFW area you may recognize the name Robert Tilton, an American Televangelist and the former pastor of the Word of Faith Family Church in Farmers Branch.  His ministry peaked in the early 90’s and it has been reported his infomercial style church program aired in some 225+ American television markets.  It has been reported that Tilton brought in $70 to $80 million dollars per year.  The message he pushed upon viewers was the importance of “vows” aka financial commitments to the Tilton ministry.  The minimum vow was $1000 but if you wanted to receive a personal “word of knowledge” from Tilton you had to “vow” anywhere from $5k to $10,000 dollars.  If you sent a prayer request with a vow, then Tilton claimed to lay on top of the prayer request to heal the weak.

Tilton’s demise came in 1991 when word got out that he may be a fraud or over promising “blessings” to viewers.  Some “garbologists” who worked for ABC’s Primetime Live spent over a month dumpster diving outside of Tilton’s many offices and what they found was shocking.  Over 10,000 lbs. of prayer request letters cut along the edge with the vow removed and the prayer request still inside the envelope, untouched and discarded in dumpsters.  Lawsuits commenced by followers, the Tilton’s headed to divorce court and many felt it was an attempt to protect their assets.  Now, why am I reminding you of this Tilton character?  Well, he was full of it, kind of like our city council.

For years, our city leadership has made grand promises when it comes to some projects, but then they vanish into a cosmic void, much like matter falling into a black hole.  The city has been talking about Grand Park since before most of us were born.  Well after several municipal bonds, environmental studies, we have a walking trail, but no grand park (remember like Central Park in NY) or lake as promised.  Then there is Wade Park which later become known as Lake Lebanon which sat for years after the developer went belly up. It later became known as The Mix, which we have heard about for the last two years and yet…still nothing but a fence around the property.  Then we had the Frisco Theater, a grand place for plays and as of late now Broadway style shows.  Well 5 to 7 studies later over 8 years, still nothing!  Oh wait, now they want us to buy into a $500+ million theater run by the city on taxpayer dollars.  My point is, they council is much like Robert Tilton and his “Word of Faith” ministry who make grand gestures and promises, ask us to pass more bonds, potentially increase our taxes and yet nothing seems to actually be coming together.

Picture of Lake Lebanon (formerly Wade Park) before it rained and filled up with water. Note it is now supposed to be The Mix. Side note we had a lake here it was just not in Grand Park like they promised. Picture by Dallas Morning News

Another example, the city has been talking about the revitalization of Frisco’s Downtown area as far back as 2016-2018.  Well, after spending at least $50 to $75,000 visiting different cities to “study their downtown areas” we finally broke ground to fix downtown.  The city has dragged its feet since 2016, spending money on tours and trips but only now that FIFA is coming in 2026 is there a push for this project to be done in time so we can look good for the many “visitors” it will bring downtown. 

The sad part is we have had Frisco locals take interest and invest in our downtown area way before this city or the council have done anything.  While we may not always agree with Donny Churchman, he is one man who has had a passion for downtown and the Frisco Rail District.  In a 2018 interview with Lifestyle Frisco, he notes the downtown area has been ignored during all the development.  He talked about the name change of downtown Frisco to the Rail District has a lot to do with Frisco’s history and the BNSF railroad and we could not agree more with him on that. 

He started investing years ago in the downtown area with The Patio at the Rails and Tower at the Rail, then came the Nack Theater.  His overall goal is to “restore downtown Frisco” and it is a passion for him. We are curious how Churchman feels today, with the city bending over backwards offering tax incentives for Rollertown Beerworks, a venue that features a two-level taproom and 4,320 sq ft outdoor beer garden. Did the city break their back for Churchman’s investments. We don’t know but would be curious to find out more.

Along with Churchman, many residents who own historic homes downtown have spent time and money to meticulously renovate and update them while keeping that 1900s charm about them.  All this local money and passion bringing life in to downtown, and yet our city has sat on it since 2016.  Many of these locals have advocated for something to happen downtown for the last ten years as everything seemed to develop around it.  If they can do it then why did it take FIFA coming here for the City of Frisco to finally do something.  

The June 2024 announcement of the new grand downtown plan made us wonder, if we went back 5 to 10 years what “priorities” did the city have and which ones have been completed.  We found a town hall video discussing the 2018 Top Ten Priorities, which include the following:

1) Implement Traffic Innovation

2) Increase Capital Expenditure Fund

3) Performing Arts Center

4) Downtown revitalization & finish the master plan

5) Grow and expand our Economic Development Corp to go after fortune 500 companies

6) Lower property taxes

7) Development of the North 380 Corridor & its Growth,

8) New facility expansion options like city hall or the library

9) Final master plan for our future parks

10) Legislative Plan to Protect Frisco

Awe, the dreaded word in this town…Traffic!  Cheney said the first priority was Traffic Innovation because we have become more congested (DUH!!).   The priority aims to use new technologies to help relieve that congestion such as adaptive signal control systems which communicate with cars and autonomous, or self-driving, buses in Frisco by this year, used in the private sector.   Seven years later, if you drive Frisco – TRAFFIC SUCKS!  Not sure the signal control systems are working, and we don’t have autonomous self-driving buses in Frisco but guess what we do have…ROUND-A-BOUTS and TRAFFIC! If we were grading the city on this priority, they would get a big fat F!

One of the other 2018 Priorities was the Performing Arts Center Strategy.  Cheney told Community Impact in 2018 that he would like to see it as a public-private partnership.  The article also said they were in the middle of a feasibility study to determine the size and needs of a potential PAC.  Well in 2024, we are on our 6^th or 7^th study, they are proposing a city owned theater at the taxpayer expense, but they hope down the road could be a public-private partnership, and several discussions over the years for a PAC have failed and fallen flat.  We would give this a priority a big fat F as well!

The 2018 Priority for finishing the downtown master plan started with them approving a contract with a consulting firm to update the 20-year-old downtown master plan.  Cheney told Community Impact at the time that the council and city official plan to continue to work with the private market to explore old downtown Frisco options.  Remember, the cool market with a beer garden that Frisco Market developers promised? Well, we have the market but no beer garden and downtown has not changed that much except for the private development by Churchman and residents. 

What has the city done downtown? Not much, but now that FIFA is coming, we have a $70 million dollar renovation downtown happening and you can bet it will be finished in time for the visitors to come.  We give them a big F for this too. Just look at what they finally say they will commit to in 2024.

The next big priority was the Northern Corridor and creating an identity for it.  Cheney told Community Impact that their plan for 2018 was to attract more business and residential developments to the area.  Well, they must have known something we didn’t, we are referring to the December 2018 announcement that the PGA of America was relocating its headquarters to the “Northern Corridor” of Frisco.  This was a good win for Frisco, and we gave them an A+ for it!  However, they get an F for the shady business dealings, friendships, and conflicts of interest that came from some of the development around the new PGA for Cheney and some council members.  

As for the expansion of city facilities, we have a new 65-million-dollar library, new court building, city hall in 2023 started an expansion inside and facilities just opened a new building in the last year.   As for the masterplan of parks well you can bet Bobblehead Bill got his bikes and trikes trails.  As for Grand Park, well that is still…not Grand at all but if you want to see a butterfly you can walk the trail they put in.

Back to Robert Tilton, he was about big words, fancy clothes, and was about “putting on the show” to get your vow.  He promised to pray for his flock, but he failed when money took over. What we have learned is that the importance of a project in the City of Frisco is determined by a select few who sit on council.  We have also learned they love to talk about things and promise things for many years but the truth is they are failing us as residents.  When those sitting on our city council run for office, they each run for their own purpose or passion project.  That is okay but they should be representing all of us and the truth is our council only represents the WEST SIDE, which is where you have seen all the investment in the last 5 to 8 years.   Why do we say that?  Well just ask our council members where they live. 

Not one person sitting on our council today lives on the East Side of the tollway or the Collin County side, maybe that has something to do with where all the money is going. They all live in the Denton County side of Frisco which is WEST of the tollway.  That’s right folks, Tammy Meinershagen, Laura Rummel, John Keating, Jeff Cheney, Angelia Pelham, Brian Livingston and Bill Woodard all live on the WEST SIDE OF THE TOLLWAY.  Maybe that is why they get the PGA and the Frisco Star, and the East Side is getting Universal and Business Warehouses Developments along PGA Parkway.