There is a magical art behind asking for something you want and then getting it! I read an essay many years ago that talked about how culturally it was not always the norm to ask directly for what you want and when we do, we are usually bad at it. People tend to hem and haw and often walk away from asking because we cannot clearly articulate the message. For example, many are uncomfortable asking their boss for a raise or salary bump.
Persuasion tactics are strategies that can help you convince people to see things your way and being good using these tactics is usually an art form. To be good, or to be great you must first know exactly what you want and what you need others to “buy in” to. Second you must ground yourself in why you are doing it and make sure it resonates with you so you can “sell it from the heart.” Third, you must be able to state clearly and with no confusion what you are asking for or trying to sell to the people. It must be direct, clear and specific. Lastly, you must be selective and targeted about who you ask or when you announce it.
In Frisco, one man is very good at Persuasion Tactics and his name is Mayor Jeff Cheney. When he “wants” something in Cheneyville, well he gets it! He is very good at “telling you” what you want versus “asking” residents what they want. For example, he has put together his team and he has been gathering his clan of supporters to push for the Performing Arts Centre. When he hit a no with the public/private partnership with the school district and Hall Group, he didn’t stop. Nope, he just changed course and came back at it again with his little clan in toe. Next thing you know he will get what he wants, residents will bitch, and no one knows the wiser of how we ended up here.
The talk of a Performing Arts Centre is not new, but what is new is we are curious “How much has this cost taxpayers?” The city has spent $1.6+ million on the current Theatre Projects assessment or feasibility study, but how many others have we done in the past? What were the costs to taxpayers in the previous studies? Why are we doing so many studies? When it comes to wanting studies and assessments what is the magic number of how many we will do before we say enough is enough? We did some research, and this is what we found:
Feb 17, 2015: Under the consent agenda for the city council meeting item 17 reads, “Consider and act upon approval of publishing a RFQ for the development and implementation of a study to examine the feasibility of a performing/theatre arts facility within the corporate limits of the City of Frisco.” We looked high and low and could not determine how much any of this cost. We could not even find the RFQ they approved to publish.
2015: Frisco Association of the Arts commissioned a “Facility Programming Report” by Page Southerland Page. According to the minutes for the Citizens Bond Committee on 01/26/2015, Tammy Meinershagen provided an update that a feasibility group has been identified to conduct a study for the PAC in Frisco. She went on to say it would take about six (6) months to complete the study and has an estimated cost of $200,000 dollars.
2018: The City of Frisco commissioned a “Needs Assessment” by Webb Management Services and Parkhill Smith & Cooper (PSC). According to a Community Impact article, the study showed there 14 performing arts groups that have 667 days of demand for performance facilities in Frisco. According to the study, the majority of this demand—466 days—calls for a facility with 225 to 500 seats while 177 days of demand calls for a facility of 1,001 to 1,750 seats. At the June 2018 Council Summer Work session, PSC Associate Michael Howard presented the findings and told the council there is not enough capacity in Frisco right now. At that time Cheney told Community Impact that “it was council’s preference to use available bond funds to build a 300- to 500-seat facility to meet the current demand of community arts groups with the hope of working with a private partner to build a larger performing arts center.” Of course, Cheney always changes his tune later! The CI article goes on to say the Councils “Performing Arts Committee is in the middle of a feasibility study to determine the size and needs of a potential PAC.” HOW MUCH DID IT COST – We don’t know! We can’t find anywhere in an agenda search where this shows up from 2017 to 2019.
August 2020: Frisco ISD commissioned a “Programming Report” by Schuler Shook. We can’t determine how much this one cost our ISD Taxpayers either. We have sent a PIR asking for that information.
October 2020: The City of Frisco and Frisco ISD commissioned a “Feasibility Report” by Garfield Public Private and Schuler Shook. Well Shocker – we cannot find anywhere what this one cost taxpayers either!
September 2021: Frisco Arts Foundation commissioned a “Market & Feasibility Study” by Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc. We cannot find out how much this one cost either. However, we are guessing since each year the city “FUNDS” the FAA through Hotel/Motel Fund somehow Taxpayers still paid for it.
May 2022: City of Frisco, Frisco ISD, and Hall Group commissioned a “Space Analysis Narrative by Corgan + Studio Gang. In February of 2022 the city council authorized an agreement for services in the amount of $175,000 dollars. Remember in late June of 2021, the city and Frisco ISD entered a public-private partnership with developer Craig Hall to construct a $67 million performing arts center. The city has agreed to contribute $14 million in voter-approved bond money, while Frisco ISD will contribute $43 million from the 2018 bond package, and Hall will contribute $10 million. Remember this is the one that “FELL APART” and truly if the city had wanted a PAC would have been the best option for everyone involved but we have learned from city insiders that “to many chiefs got involved” which caused the band to break up.
July 2022: Hall Group commissioned and performed a “Proposal and Outline” and we could not find out what the cost of this study was.
January 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned and executed an agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., for consulting services related to a performing arts venue in the amount of $99,300 which was to be paid for by Bond Funds
September 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned part two of the agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., in the amount of $1,415,500 dollars. Recently in 2024 after some CLARITY they Upp’d that amount to $1.6 million as we told you in our last article.
We did learn a few interesting facts along this deep dive…
According to the Dallas Morning News, “Frisco leaders also launched the HEARTS Project initiative — an acronym for Hall, Education and the Arts — to crowdsource an additional $100 million in donations for auxiliary upgrades. The amenities could include a large video screen facing The Star in Frisco, box suites, a VIP arts club with membership benefits, Frisco summer musicals, and a restaurant or bistro, according to the campaign website, but would not contribute to additional seating.” The 2021 article went on to say that “although city officials have previously said the center could host professional performances, the petition states that the limited seating capacity is too small for consideration by Touring Broadway. Experts recommend between 1,750 and 2,000 seats, according to the petition, which cited Theatre Projects’ market assessment and feasibility study for Frisco.
Next, we found it interesting just a few years ago in 2021 Frisco ISD had committed $43 million from a 2018 bond package and now they are back in 2024 asking voters to VOTE FOR the new 1-billion-dollar bond because they are broken penniless poppers! Just a few years later, they are begging for us to vote in favor of the bonds so the Frisco Kids can have an 11,000,000-tennis center.
We also learned Keating was a huge fan of the arts from a 2018 article in Lifestyle Frisco. He is quoted as saying Deputy Mayor Pro Tem John Keating said, “This is our chance to blow it out of the water, Frisco style!” Remember, Keatings motto in his last re-election we are #1 this, #1 that, #1 here, #1 there! Now he is closing on his house in The Preserve at Fields the #1 most exclusive community in King Cheney’s Frisco.
In closing, the city has buried how much these things cost deep in agendas, under nicknames and code words, hoping that you or I will give up looking. We did but what we can tell you with the most recent study in 2023 plus the other three we are at about $2 million alone in just “STUDIES, ASSESSMENTS, ANALYSIS” done for a Performing Arts Center. That means we are going to keep paying money for these via the bonds, hotel/motel tax fund, or something else until King Cheney gets his Performing Arts Center. You can bet little pretty Princess Tammy will be right next to him the whole way. Trailing behind will be their wingman “John “The Infamous Cheating” Keating.
Diving into all this has taken a lot more time than we expected and unless you understand the arts and all these studies it is a bunch of well-pitched jargon crap to confuse the residents of Frisco. We will continue our deep dive into this because we know the city is about to hit us with a bond. It will be through the City or the secret weapon “THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD”. Just wait and see…. the EDC will make the pitch because the city has been called out.
The ticking of time is the invisible heartbeat of our lives and affects every moment of our consciousness. Time and self are in perpetual handshake – for example, a human trapped in a completely dark cave would still be governed by the circadian rhythms of their internal clocks. There are many careers in which “time” is a critical component. Metrologists have technology that is incredibly accurate to measure the passing of minutes, seconds. Surgeons in an operating room live on a time clock and those who take too long could kill someone. Professional surf boarders must be able to catch the perfect wave and football players have to make the play in a certain space of time or face penalties. Various factors are crucial to our construction of the perception of time such as memory, concentration, emotion and the sense we have time is somehow located in space.
When it comes to the job of a firefighter, time plays a critical component. Imagine your house catching fire, flames coming out of the windows and roof line while you hear loud pop and bang sounds from things exploding inside. As you watch the firefighters attack the house fire, you become almost paralyzed, and time comes to a standstill. As you stand there seeing the chaos around you, it begins to feel like an eternity of time. For the firefighter the stress put on their body fighting your house fire can prompt their brain to speed up its internal processing which helps them face life or death situations.
When the process began to search for a new chief, the firefighters quickly realized the city had an agenda and that former Assistant Fire Chief Lee Glover from the “Un-Happy Days” was about to be their new commanding officer and Chief. The Frisco Firefighters Association did a survey and provided it to the City Manager and Council. In Survey Says we told you about that survey and its results. Question 1: Do you want Interim Fire Chief Glover to be the next Fire Chief of the Frisco Fire Department? Survey says … 92.5% said NO. City Manager Wes Pierson and his office, along with City Council, were given the results and they chose to disregard the voice of some 200+ firefighters and make Lee Glover the new Fire Chief.
When we were reading through the “In-Service Meeting” notes it was noted that firefighters believe it is their Chiefs job to fight for them and defend them but instead they feel Glover ignoring the staffing issues and only doing what is being asked of him by City Manager Wes Pierson. They don’t believe their current leader and Chief supports them in any way and the result is they have no voice with city management and city officials. One comment noted, “we are not being heard and it will take one of them dying before Glover or the city take notice of staffing issues.”
Who is responsible for hiring and firing in the city? Mayor Jeff Cheney addressed this issue in the 2023 Mayoral Campaign at the Star Patriots Candidate Forum. The Council hires the City Manager, and it is the city managers responsibility to manage and hire and fire department heads. If something goes wrong, you can bet Cheney will excuse himself from responsibility and put it all on Wes Pierson.
Another comment from the most recent notes reads, “we work under the fear of retaliation and feel we are disciplined for the simplest mistakes.” We feel like we have heard this before – oh yeah, we have in the 2011 Climate Report when Lee Glover was the Assistant Fire Chief. The 2011 Climate report reads “firefighters talk about getting in trouble for small things and being required to write memos on things they done (and re-writing them over and over until the Senior Officer is happy with it).” It goes on to read “they are being threatened with their job, being moved to the day shift, being belittled, yelled and treated like children.” Proof is in the pudding!
The “In-Service Meeting” notes also address promotions and annual evaluations. Officers feel they meet their rankings, do their job, and then they are told they must do more than that to get to move up. Now the promotional process is based on a “taskbook” which is a checklist that shows what a firefighter or officer understands and has been cleared in, to show they are proficient in the job they will be stepping into. It was recommended by one of the committees to implement the taskbook in 2025. The 50+ pages of notes said some complete the taskbook, but others can be prevented from completing it by the Battalion Chiefs which prevent them from testing. One comment was the process was very “subjective” and “some are allowed to test, while and others are not allowed to test for promotions.” We know from talking to several inside sources that just recently a handful of firefighters applied for the LT positions, and they were not allowed to test even though they qualified which matches the statements made by the firefighters at the meeting. We also learned that Fire Chief Lee Glover choose to ignore his committees (another complaint in the notes) and implement the taskbook requirement now and that did not give all the candidates time to complete it before the test.
After reading this, we honestly feel like we are on a Merry-Go-Round that is not so …merry. We pulled up the 2011 Climate Report that reads “firefighters’ perceptions of the hiring and promotion process is that it is manipulated by the Chief and Senior Officers.” It goes on to read “firefighters would like to see a hiring and promotion process established, published and followed that does not allow for manipulation of the data of tests and who is selected.” So basically, what is in the 2011 Climate Report matches the feelings of the 2024 In-Service Meeting Notes and the one common denominator is … Fire Chief Lee Glover!
We think that City Manager – Wes Pierson, Mayor Jeff Cheney, and the City Council suffer from Echolaia, which is the repetition or echoing of words that you hear someone else say. If not Echolaia, then they suffer from insanity which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If they don’t have either of those two medical conditions, well then, they suffer from just simple stupidity. Voltaire noted that the more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it appears to be wisdom.
In a nutshell the council hopes we are “STUPID” and if they just repeat the same thing over and over, we will begin to believe it. They are like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ clicking together her ruby red slippers but instead of saying there is no place like home they are saying Chief Glover is the best, Chief Glover is the best! Just look at Mayor Jeff Cheney at the Star Patriot forum in 2023 when he was running for re-election. After seeing the FFA Survey showing a vote of NO CONFIDENCE in the new Fire Chief Lee Glover, he went to a candidate forum and directly lied to our faces talking about how great Glover was and how he was already improving things at the fire department. LET THAT SINK IN FRISCO RESIDENTS: MAYOR CHENEY KNOWINGLY LIED DIRECTLY TO VOTERS and thought he would never get caught.
Remember, the entire goal of the city and its leadership at all levels these past two years has been to blame Piland, blame the power grab on the “small portion of firefighters”, and to blame anyone and everyone but themselves. They have LIED…. and in the most recent election for the propositions the Frisco Fire Association even made a video pointing that out.
The only mistake the City of Frisco and Frisco City Council made was thinking people would not get tired of their BS and start to pay attention. That failure is what allowed the Whistleblowers to rise up!
The other day I was reading an article about the most common 6 phrases people say to gaslight and manipulate you. What is gaslighting? It is a manipulation tactic often wielded by emotional disruptive abusers and is insidious in nature making it hard for a person to recognize the tactic is happening. What happens when someone tries to gaslight you?
Gradually you begin to question your own judgement, memories, feelings and questioning reality. The article quoted therapist Shannon Thomas who stated that “people who cannot authentically argue their point of view or stand behind their words turn to gaslighting as a tool.” She went on to say ’they resort to confusion creating tactics, and that it really is a true sign of character weakness.”
It made me think back to our recent elections and the mixed messaging the city tried to sell to citizens while attacking our Frisco Firefighters relentlessly while also saying they support our first responders and dedicate at least ½ our annual budget to public safety. They also attacked and tried to destroy the reputation of Former Fire Chief, Mark Piland by saying he was the problem and the reason for the low morale. The solution, to make Lee Glover, the new “SAVING GRACE” Fire Chief. Based on the In-Service notes we have reviewed, the city may have failed “BIG TIME” and the leader driving the bus is our very own City Manager, Wes Pierson!
After the election was over there was a large disdain between our Fire Department and the city so they planned a weeklong set of In-Service Meetings, aka “Healing Sessions” to listen to the firefighters’ concerns. We filed a PIR for anything related to those meetings and after reading the 50+ page report of notes one thing became very clear, the city council knowingly and repeatedly lied to citizens during the election.
Example 1: The Vote No PAC, funded by Frisco Developers, and run by Mayor Pro Tem Bill Woodard
Councilman Woodard was interviewed by Jack Fink with CBS Texas and when asked why the Fire Fighters were bringing the propositions to the ballot, he specifically said due to the “FORMER LEADERSHIP” of the department, referring to Former Fire Chief Mark Piland. We assumed we would see some of those issues noted in this 50+ page report, however only 2 comments were made, which is one the environment is a little more relaxed now (uniforms) and that Piland may have tended to over communicate to the department.
However, they had a lot to say about the current Fire Chief, Lee Glover. When it comes to budgeting and purchasing new equipment, they feel the Chief Glover is out of touch with today’s firefighting tactics. Firefighters said Glovers’ only tactic since arriving has been cost cutting measures to look good to the City Manager’s Office and council and that means he his neglecting his duty to his command.
Remember the Blood Program, otherwise known as which was carried by the Squad Unit? Refresh your memory by reading our older articles “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Make It Look Pretty.” At the time Councilman Woodard was the “city mouthpiece” across social media supporting Glover’s decision to end the Squad program and transfer the blood program to two battalion chief vehicles. The report talks about Glover’s cost cutting measures and how the firefighters believe removing the Squad Unit and transferring the Blood Program was a huge failure as it took away two extra working people on calls and losing the expertise of the Squad members could be and will be deadly to citizens.
What is the end result of the firefighter’s statement above about their concerns with Glover being out of touch with today’s firefighting tactics? Chief Glover has cut valid programs, training and they believe he is purchasing the wrong equipment. Glover has also de-incentivized training under his command, and today they have less training which is dangerous. Courses and training are required for promotions to the next rank and other departments pay for employees to attend training, but Glover is telling his command to “put stock in your own training.” As for equipment, Glover is buying more Quints -the big bulky fire trucks of the old days, which are hard to get around the neighborhood’s tight and crowded streets. The firefighters prefer more engines and tillers. We are told engines are quicker and shorter in size making them a better choice. We are also told the tillers are an advantageous truck because they can go anywhere, carries more tools and is quicker to vent with 107’ ladder.
Are we done yet? Oh no, we are just getting started! There is so much to go over that we are going to break it up into multiple articles this week. Tonight, we leave you with three questions:
1. Why is the City Council and City Manager gaslighting residents into believing all of these issues are due to Former Fire Chief Piland who was endorsed by the Frisco Firefighters Assocation this year during the election?
2. Why is the City Council and City Manager gaslighting residents into thinking the problem is our Fire Association, who they called Greedy Bastards, power hungry and lazy during the election?
3. Why is the City Council and City Manager dying on a sharp sword for Fire Chief Lee Glover who in all respects to his command his nowhere to be found and neglecting his duty to his command?
We leave you with a strong remark in the In-Service notes which we stated above, “Firefighters believe Glover’s only goal is to look good to the City Manager’s Office and City Council which results in him neglecting his duty to his command.” ….. come back tomorrow for part two
UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE MADE CORRECTIONS TO OUR ARTICLE BASED ON MORE DETAILS RECEIVED. CORRECTIONS CAN BE NOTED IN RED OR WITH A STRIKETHROUGH MARK.
If you live in Frisco, then you should know the name Cameron Kraemer. Kraemer, the former Assistant Fire Chief, was fired after 27+ years with the city. During his time with the Frisco Fire Department, he served as Deputy Chief, Battalion Chief, Captain, Lieutenant, Firefighter and Paramedic. But last year in 2023 Kraemer’s name was the subject of many headlines. Community Impact’s headline read, “Frisco Assistant Fire Chief Kraemer fired after nearly 30 years” and The Dallas Express headline read, “Local Assistant Fire Chief Kraemer Fired.”
Why would the City of Frisco fire such a long-standing employee? Kraemer’s history with the city goes deep, his dad Tom Kraemer, who recently passed away, worked for the city’s communications department for around 19 years. A Facebook post by the Frisco Fire Fighters Association on May 2, 2023 read, “Regrettably, Assistant Chief Kraemer has been terminated by the City of Frisco after 27 years of service, without being given the opportunity to go through the appeals process and contested case hearings,” the post read in part. The post went on to say that Kraemer went on leave in August 2022 for post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the Frisco Fire Fighters Association, Kraemer filed for workers’ compensation for PTSD in December 2022, citing Section 504.019 of the Texas Labor Code. The department denied Kraemer’s claim. He is appealing the decision. The post closed with the following remark, “It is disheartening to witness the dismissal of a Firefighter with significant tenure in this way, particularly in a city that prides itself on its care and regard for its employees.”
At Frisco Chronicles, we felt something smelled like a freshly cooking, Cowboy Cow Pile Patty, smoldering in our Texas 110-degree summer heat. That is a nice way of saying something smelled like ShXt. We started to dig, and we uncovered some dirty back door dealings about the city which we disclosed in our 12 days of Christmas Articles (check the archives). We were curious what would happen next with Kraemer, and we didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Cameron Kraemer took his workers’ compensation case before the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) claiming he was undergoing treatment for long-term post-traumatic stress when the city terminated him and denied his claims for medical coverage. On September 21, 2023, the case went before the TDI in Dallas and the administrative law judge who heard the case ordered the City of Frisco, which is self-insured, to pay Kraemer benefits and any accrued but unpaid income benefits in a lump sum with interest as provided by law.
On October 12, 2023, the Frisco Firefighters Association released a Press Release that was posted to their Facebook page that reads, “The state ruled that Cameron’s injury was compensable under the workers’ compensation law. We are working with the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters to review Cameron’s options for going forward.” Attached to the post was a Press Release and it quotes Matthew Sapp, President of the Frisco Fire Fighters Association, as saying “Cameron Kraemer was undergoing treatment for LINE-OF-DUTY injuries clearly recognized by the state legislature and medical experts, but the City of Frisco CHOSE TO BREAK THE LAW, deny him insurance coverage and terminate him.” The press release noted: The city WASTED TAXPAYER RESOURCES on this case!
The win was also reported across local news and newspapers. The Dallas Morning News headline reads “Frisco Firefighter fired while on medical leave WINS WORKERS’ COMP CASE.” The article noted Kraemer was still undergoing treatment for long-term post-traumatic stress disorder. Kraemer is quoted as saying, “They took away my job, it took away all my benefits, they took away everything, and they wanted me to retire.” Kraemer refused to retire and went through the appeals process. “I’m still young so I’m penalized for retiring before the age of 50 as a first responder. I’m only 46,” he said. “And the reality is I’ve got three teenagers, and they had to walk through this process with us. And the amount of strain and tension and stress and anxiety that it puts on the house, you can’t even quantify it.”
While many don’t believe that PTSD is a real issue, it is! Ask yourself this, if you saw a 45-foot Frisco Fire Truck back up and pin a fellow firefighter against the wall of a city building, then after you had to clean up the blood and bodily fluids at the scene and notify the fellow firefighter’s family, COULD YOU HANDLE IT? The incident, discussed in the DMN articles is what Cameron Kraemer and our fellow Frisco Firefighters see every day! As a holistic person I can only imagine the impact it has on your mind, body, spirit and soul. Do you think Sassy Lauren Safranek, the City HR Director, or any of our fellow city council members have witnessed anything like this or worse? How about seeing it throughout your 27-year career, are you sure you could handle it?
Truthfully, my wife and I could not imagine seeing the devastation and destruction these men and woman in both our Police and Fire departments see daily. You probably think the city did the right thing but of course they didn’t. Instead, they sent their attack boar Bobblehead Bill Woodard on social media to pass out false information on Kraemer’s case and attack our first responders during the most recent election. Why is a city councilman releasing personal details in an ongoing case on social media? We are glad he did because it made our spidey little senses rise and we started investigating and will write about that in our next article.
Where is Cameron Kraemer now? Well, he is still receiving treatment, and his case had to go before the DOJ to determine if he was able to sue the city for his wrongful termination. Yesterday, we learned from sources inside the city that the DOJ ruled Kramer can sue and we are betting he wins big time! Meanwhile Bobblehead Bill Woodard wants you to believe our firefighters are lazy (his words during the May 2024 election), however it is not in their nature to lay down without a fight. Kraemer is going to use the legal process to take a wrecking ball to the city in court, which he should! Infact, the case was filed on 8/2/2024 in Collin Countys 416th District Court under case number 416-05201-2024.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU THE TAXPAYER? That means taxpayers on top of spending money on Performing Arts Centers, downtown revitalization, and the upcoming Grand Park, will also be subject to a BIG TIME CASINO LIKE PAYOUT to Cameron Kraemer and rightfully so! To be direct, the city who lolly gagged around, could have tried to settle this issue but choose to swing their cajónes around and now taxpayers will foot the bill for it. NOW YOU CAN SEE WHY THEY ARE ABOUT TO ANNOUNCE THEY ARE RAISING OUR TAXES!
Tick-tock, tick-tock sounds the clock! Days go by, and the tick-tock never seems to stop. Meanwhile City of Frisco leadership sits behind closed doors while we watch the clock, just tick-tock! Precious moments fading away and citizens still are not standing up to ask, is everything okay? What happens when time runs out…? Tick-tock they will try to approve a $300-$500 million dollar Performing Arts Center and announce they plan to raise taxes!
Back on June 18th at the Budget and Audit Committee Meeting we learned from the agenda that both the Committee Chair – Councilman Bill Woodard and Committee Members –Councilwomen Angelia Pelham and Laura Rummel were present. They had a discussion regarding the “PRELIMINARY FY 2025 Budget” and our Chief Financial Officer, Derrick Cotton talked about potential revenue generating items. It is the last paragraph where it says Mr. Cotton talks about the “Homestead Exemption” and presented changes in the adjusted taxable values and discussed a possible tax rate change for FY25 that had our attention.
They plan to pick up the discussion this Tuesday August 6th at 3pm at the next Budget and Audit Committee Meeting. Then we noticed Tuesday nights city council meeting Agenda Item 32 calls for a public hearing on the FY 25 budget. In fact, the city memo reads “Consider and act upon adoption of a Resolution calling for a public hearing on the City of Frisco FY 2025 Budget, Frisco Economic Development Corporation FY 2025 Budget, and Frisco Community Development Corporation FY 2025 Budget. (Budget/TA)”
Why does a city call for a public hearing on the potential adoptions of the budget? Well according to Texas Local Government Code, Title 4: Finances, Subtitle A – Municipal Finances, Chapter 102 – Municipal Budget (wow that’s a mouth full) there are several reasons. Section 102.005 specifically states that if they are proposing a budget change it must be available for public inspection.
(b) A proposed budget that will require raising more revenue from property taxes than in the previous yearmust contain a cover page with the following statement in 18-point or larger type: “This budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by (insert total dollar amount of increase and percentage increase), and of that amount (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll) is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.”
Once they conclude that so called “PUBLIC HEARING” they can adopt a budget according to the law. So based on what they have been discussing, based on the public hearings they have quietly posted, we can guarantee you the city is about to announce a Tax Increase! Right now, those city leaders are just hoping you are not paying attention and all the other political distractions around the country will keep you from recognizing the destructive path they are.
Now you should say, wait a damn minute Mayor Cheney – you just ran a year ago on the fact you have lowered taxes. Let’s not forget John Keating and Angelia making the 2024 rounds campaigning for your vote claiming they lowered taxes and plan to continue lowering taxes, but all the while they knew they were going to propose an out of this world Performing Arts Center and raise taxes.
Didn’t this city council pull out all the stops to get votes to VOTE NO against the Fire Fighters because they claimed it “WOULD INCREASE TAXES” when they already knew they were going to do it anyways? What they were not telling you then is they planned to raise taxes but just for things they want for their own selfish reasons. Who cares what citizens actually need….
In a time when inflation is high and we are facing a presidential election these mice are running around in the clock hoping we don’t pay attention to the TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK of the clock. If any one of our council members vote to raise taxes – VOTE THEM OUT! Why are we, one of the flushest cities, according to Cheney talking about revenue generating ways for the city to make money. It is simple, CHENEY-VILLE COSTS A LOT TO BUILD. The old red head wants you to just do as he say’s and not ask questions ASK QUESTIONS!
While we know there are a few who don’t care for Frisco Chronicles (guess who), every day our viewership and website traffic continue to grow. We are getting more emails from fellow whistleblowers tired of the way the City of Frisco staff and leaders continue to operate behind closed doors. Obviously with our popularity growth you can imagine some leaders don’t like the attention and decided to block us from their official and unofficial social media pages so we 1) can not comment, call them out, or ask questions and 2) because they think that it will stop us from finding out what they are doing.
According to the ACLU, one of the core purposes of the First Amendment is to allow people, regardless of their views, to hold the government accountable through expressions. That means if an elected representative has an official Facebook page where they invite comments, they cannot block you from the social media page. In 2019, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the interactive portion of a public official’s Facebook page is a “public forum,” so an official cannot block people from it because of the opinions they hold. However, in recent years the question of blocking or deleting comments has gone back to the Supreme Court for further review.
In March 2024, the issue again was before the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled public officials who post about topics relating to their work on their personal social media accounts are acting on behalf of the government, and therefore can be held liable for violating the First Amendment when they block their critics, only when they have the power to speak on behalf of the state and are actually exercising that power. The key is in bold lettering “when they have the power to speak on behalf of the state (or city). Jeff Cheney can block us from his personal page or business page claiming that he is not speaking on behalf of the city, and it is his personal comments. If you ask us, he uses both his personal and business page to post at the mayor which is clear from just two recent posts in 2024.
On an official page it becomes a very slippery slope. Can he block us from his official Mayor Jeff Cheney page – we would argue no because he is clearly using that to speak from his position as Mayor on behalf of the city. The city has not told the council to shut their OFFICIAL PAGES down because they have no authority to speak on behalf of the city and communicate city information. So technically by them allowing them to have official pages they are in essence approving each one of them as a spokesman for the city.
We decided to file a PIR this year on May 11th that reads, “Copy of the list of “BLOCKED USERS” which can be found under Settings & Privacy, then “Blocking” related to the city council’s official “Social Media” pages or personal pages used for political purposes or posts: Any pages in which they communicate any official city business or city news. For Example: Brian Livingston For Frisco, Official FB Page for Angelia Pelham, Frisco City Council Place 3, and her page Angelia Pelham Official Page for Mayor Jeff Cheney Official FB Page and personal page Jeff Cheney, Bill Woodard serves in Place 4 on the Frisco City Council Tammy Meinershagen Official FB Page, John Keating For Frisco Official Page and John Keating personal page Laura Rummel, Frisco City Council Place 5 and personal page Laura Rummell.
The city then waited until May 24th to send us a message asking for “CLARIFICATION” of our request. They always wait out the 10 days to respond to delay PIRs. On May 30th we wrote back and attached a clarification letter that reads: Per your letter “requesting” clarification we hope this helps: 1. Platform: Facebook 2. Accounts: Any FACEBOOK account that a current City Council Member or Mayor has where they post topics related to their work (on city council or for the city) that are effectively communicating or acting on behalf of city government as that one would assume the information presented is being done so by a representative for the council. For example, Mayor Jeff Cheney, Angelia Pelham, John Keating for Frisco, Laura Rummell, Bill Woodard, Brian Livingston and Tammy Meinershagen. Then we provided instructions on how to find the “blocked list” of users on their pages so they would not have to search for it.
Well as you can imagine our CITY and CITY LEADERS who claim to listen to their constituents, be transparent, and work on our behalf and not their own selfish interests turned over the blocked list for each of their pages with no issue! JUST KIDDING! Of course they didn’t turn them over. Instead, we got the following note back from the City Secretary that reads, “Following a request for clarification, the scope of the request was narrowed to Facebook platform only. The City of Frisco has reviewed your request and has determined that the information you are seeking does not fall within the definition of public information as defined by the Public Information Act. As a result, there are NO DOCUMENTS responsive to your request.”
To be fair we didn’t expect they would turn over anything from their personal Facebook pages, but we were hopeful they would be transparent and turn over the blocked list from the official pages of council members. Ask yourself, why would City Council leaders block any constituent or resident they represent? Why would they block Frisco Chronicles? Why would they block anyone who spends money in Frisco which is tax revenue for them? Direct from the horse’s mouth “Jeff Cheney” we heard over the last two elections “we listen to our residents, and we are totally transparent” yet he has blocked numerous people from his official mayoral page. In fact, he has blocked almost everyone who disagrees with him or calls him out. Residents should be asking if you are really working hard for us, then WHY WOULD YOU BLOCK ANYONE? They block those who disagree or want to speak out against something like the upcoming Performing Arts Center that they plan to shove down our throats for $500 million dollars. They don’t want you to see those who disagree or argue that what they are doing is wrong. If that does not concern you, it should!
We believe it is very humorous that city leaders have blocked Frisco Chronicles aka Whistleblower because in their private comments to other city leaders and citizens, they say Frisco Chronicles is no big deal, they are not worried about us, we are not important, no one is reading and following along with our reports. Truth is they are scared to death, and they are questioning every day who they can trust. Newsflash folks … people in the inner circle are singing like canary’s. Have something to say reach out to us by email FriscoWhistleBlower@protonmail.com – we protect all sources and never reveal identities.
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