Growing up if we saw a fire engine go by my dad would say there goes the fire brigade to save another soul.  I remember watching a movie and they said to the new recruits “train as if your life depends on it, because it does.”  I thought to myself could I be selfless, courageous, and risk everything?  When the bell rings, could I walk through the valley of the shadow of death as Psalms 23:4 says without thinking twice?  Truthfully, no I would be one of those to run away as they pass by me to run into what could be the last call of their life.   

We ended our last blog with Cheney’s statement, “we have what we need.”  If we have what we need then can the Mayor explain why Mr. Sapp who is the President of the Frisco Fighters Association had to speak at citizens input during a council meeting in January 2023 to bring attention of the staffing issue in the fire department. 

Sapp’s statement in full from the council meeting is as follows “Mayor and Council, I’m just going to read a statement on behalf of our members. I stand here before you tonight to ask one simple question, this is the third time I’ve asked this question since the public hearing for the FY23 budget in August.  Will we as a city add firefighters to this budget year?  I’ve asked this question to you, the city manager, and the interim Fire Chief and we have yet to get a clear answer from anyone. I know that the interim Fire Chief has stated he has no plans on asking for staffing they feel we are appropriately staffed.  The city manager follows the recommendations of the Fire Chief and we understand that you as a council can’t approve positions that were never asked for.  This is not a question of whether we need additional firefighters, simply look around as our skyline is ever changing.  There are billions of dollars in property we are tasked to protect.  Couple that with the fact that we applied for a safer grant for 15 firefighters this year, which we failed to get.  No one can honestly say we don’t need more firefighters.  For years now we have raised concerns for what is considered safe staffing standards by the NFPA 1710.  I have a recent independent report stating as much.  Some will try to devalue the standards set by the NFPA by claiming others around us do not meet that code or because of it being a nonprofit it doesn’t hold weight.  Make no mistake this city follows countless NFPA’s for the fire service because they are the national standard by which the United States fire administration sets the bar.  Not to mention, we are Frisco, and we provide the best in everything we do. As our City Council, you have created a unique and exceptional environment, we should not only meet the standards but exceed them.  Therefore, it’s unfair to compare ourselves to the staffing models of surrounding cities.  The FY22 budget states that we would be hiring 9 firefighters a year for the next three years.  Although we have a need for increased staffing levels for the current station count, this was said to be in preparation for the future station 10.  The majority of this council approved that budget, and this has now been pushed back to the infrastructure regions and therefore, the staffing plan is on hold.  This year’s budget for FY23 which was unanimously approved contained 19 police officer positions and added zero firefighters.  We understand this was done in anticipation of the safer grant that was applied for, but again, that was denied.  Now there’s no plan for this fiscal year.  We need action now because it takes over a year to hire firefighters longer for them to get in seats if they had to go to paramedic school.  With the progressive growth of this growth of this city this is a huge safety concern.  So, I ask again: are we going to add staffing for firefighters this year or are we going to forgo staffing which will negatively impact on our growth as a department and safety of our city for the next half decade.  Thank you for your time and your consideration.  (Mr. Sapp left the podium)

After the Star Patriot debate the Frisco Fire Fighters Association released a video responding to comments made at the debate by the candidates.  The video starts with a message that states they encourage the release of the full Circa Fire report and noted the city has chosen to release selective information regarding the CIRCA Fire and Mayday event, as well as information on former fire chief Mark Piland.  Sapp pointed out that it is their job to protect their membership (being the fire fighters) and the residents of Frisco.   Sapp then went on to correct several statements made by the mayor:

Mayor Jeff Cheney said we operate with 75 on every shift.  Sapp, President of FFA:  While at times they may see 75 people employed on an individual shift rarely are they over the minimum staffing number of 62.   Regarding staffing, Sapp said the National Fire Protection Association 1710 on staffing is and has been an issue that the FFA raised many times to city management and to the council directly.

Mayor Jeff Cheney said the National Fire Protection Associations Standards (1710) were union supported standards.    Sapp said the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) did a study on staffing for firefighting almost 12 years ago and the NFPA is a national benchmark for all things fire related.  The City of Frisco follows many NFPA standards  for things like the self-contained breathing apparatus or for the sprinklers that are inside the building.   

Mayor Jeff Cheney alluded to the idea that sprinklers inside a building can take the place of personnel.  Sapp said that is simply not true.  Sprinklers are designed to allow people time to escape, not to put a fire out.

About workers compensation, Sapp said the city gave employees a worker’s comp plan several years ago and the FFA raised issue with it not being in writing.  Together staff, city management and then Fire Chief and Police Chief put it together and made an ordinance.  Sapp was very firm when he said, “make no mistake the mayor should not be sitting her touting that the Frisco’s effort to make sure WC protection is a valuable asset for all employees.”  He also pointed out the mayor opposed House Bill 2242 in the 87 th legislative session they are also currently opposing House Bill 471 in this session.

Sapp then addressed the April 4^, 2023, Council Meeting and the decision to release documents related to a complaint from the CIRCA fire.  He noted this is the first time that they know of where the council voted on a PIR request.  Sapp said he has asked for countless documents in the past which are either released to him or they go to the attorney general for a ruling.  While he applauded their release of the documents, but he noted this was clearly done as a political tactic against Mark Piland.  The reason he says this and believes this is because they did not release all the documents and he pointed out the report consists of over 500 pages.  One of the issues in the report given by the Consultants is the staffing level.  It states our staffing does not meet the national standard and we fall below cities of our same like and density.

The video ended with Sapp saying they will make sure that the misinformation and disinformation does not continue to lead to more normalization of deviance.

The phrase, “where there is smoke, there is fire,” refers to if people are saying or there are signs that something maybe wrong then there is usually a good reason for what they are saying.  Many concerns have been raised about our current council and how things within the city are operating and there is probably a reason to be concerned.  The city manager, city council and mayor should ask themselves these questions when they go to bed at night. Are we letting down those who serve us every day by not staffing according to the national standards?  Are we letting down those who are willing to die for us every day by not supporting a worker’s compensation bill?   

As residents, should we be embarrassed that our firefighters must ask for staff support at a city council meeting?   Should we be mortified that our mayor at the same meeting responding to any citizen who questioned Universal but after Mr. Sapp spoke “crickets.”  Not one member of our council said a word.   The answer is YES to both!   We are about to build a large hotel near the PGA, open a theme park, add another few thousand houses at the Fields development so should we be concerned that we don’t meet the national standards of NFPA 1710?    According to the current council we should not be concerned.  I interpret that as until someone dies we will just look the other way.  How does the #1 city in America accidentally send a letter to the legislature?   Someone should have been fired for that and we should release the report of why and how that happened.  Wait, there probably was not an investigation done and that means there is no report.  Cheney said word for word at the debate “we have 75 on for every shift.”  As Maury would say, the lie detector’s test determined that was a lie!  According to what the FFA published that is clearly false.  Cheney said it is the city manager’s job to hire and make sure we are meeting expectations in our departments so who should we hold responsible, George Purefoy or Wes Peirson?  Lastly, based on the FFA response why did the city not release the entire report and investigation?  Why did 4 council members who openly endorsed the mayor for re-election vote on this item?   That is clearly a conflict of interest due to the endorsement and relationship between some of these council members.  Residents deserve answers to these questions, and they have the right to question those who choose to serve them. 

“Let no man’s ghost return to say his training let him down.”  – A Firefighter