As a young adult, I loved watching game shows. The mid-1950s were a period of rapid growth in popularity for quiz shows. I remember watching Jack Barry, on-air host from 1947-1958 and 1960 – 1980 who produced and appeared on “High Low Quiz,” “Juvenile Jury,” and “Tic Tac Dough.” Then, there was Dennis James who is credited with hosting television’s first network game show in 1946 called “Cash and Carry.” One of the most popular of all times was, “The Dating Game” with Jim Lange. Rodney Alcala, a contestant on the show in 1978 is often referred to as “The Dating Game Serial Killer” because when he applied to be a contestant he had already committed at least four murders and decades later authorities discovered he was a prolific serial killer, but, I digress.
The best game show in my opinion is “Family Feud,” which started in 1976 and was hosted by Richard Dawson. He was the host known as the Kissing Casanova for his signature kiss on the cheek and lips to all his female contestants. The show would be hosted over the years by Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn (Home Improvement), John O’Hurley (Seinfeld), and Steve Harvey. My wife and I tune in every day to hear Steve Harvey say, “We asked a 100 people” and “The survey says!” Game shows give the audience the chance to live out our fantasies thinking, “Well, if someone must win, it could be me!”
Who uses surveys? And, what is the survey’s purpose? A better question might be “Who doesn’t use surveys?” It is common for companies to do employee surveys to measure staff engagement or companies may reach out to customers after a purchase to measure satisfaction. The overall purpose of a survey is to get feedback and ideas to understand areas of improvement. We were a little surprised and intrigued when we heard rumors in the last few weeks that the Local 3732 Executive Board of the FFA had done a survey of the firefighters in response to a new chief and in regard to some of the Mayor’s recent statements.
Let’s look at the questions in regard to the Mayor’s Statement Survey:
Question: Do you want Interim Fire Chief Glover to be the next Fire Chief of the Frisco Fire Department? The survey says 92.5% said NO, they do not want Interim Chief Glover to be the new Fire Chief, which is alarming considering he is currently running the Department. Have the firefighter’s lost confidence in Glover?
Question: Do you believe Interim Fire Chief Glover has improved/rebuilt morale and regained trust of the Department? The survey says 91.4% of the Association said, NO Glover has not improved morale or rebuilt trust. Interestingly, this directly contradicts what Mayor Cheney said at the Star Patriot Debate where he adamantly said Glover has increased morale and is starting to regain trust. When the Mayor answered with such confidence, did he knowingly lie? Was it an attempt to mislead the public to win the election? Just listen to him in his own words…
Now, let’s look at the Fire Chief Questionnaire in regard to the future hiring process of the fire chief position.
Question: Do you believe the organization has any qualified candidates to assume the task set forth by the City Manager’s office? The survey says 89.4% said NO that the organization does not have any qualified candidates as of now to assume the task. That is pretty telling that Frisco firefighters don’t agree with the Mayor’s view.
Question: Would you like the next chief to be an external hire or internal hire? The survey says, YES, 93.8% would like an external hire which is mind-blowing because it shows they have no confidence in current interim Chief Glover.
Question: Do you believe the finalist list should be composed of National Candidates? The survey says 91.7% responded, YES it should have national candidates. So, if it were a “national” search, why did they need to be Texas Certified? Oh no, nothing to see here.
Question: Do you believe the finalists should have experience as a chief in a department of equal or larger size and city population density? The survey says, 86.1% said YES they should have the current experience equal to Frisco’s department.
Question: Do you believe the department is appropriately preparing for the future or heading back to the past practices? The survey said 91.5%, YES, that they are heading back to the past practices. Are they referring to Mack Borchardt, the previous Fire Chief, who works now in the City Manager’s office as a special assistant?
Question: Do you believe the Department is appropriately staffed? The survey says 95.2% responded NO it is not adequately staffed. As a resident, that scares the shady shit right out of me that its own department feels that way.
Question: Do you believe there should be a stakeholders’ group of FF consisting of all ranks involved in the hiring process? The survey said 96.6% responded YES, they want to have a say in picking their next leader.
After seeing the survey, we too had some questions and decided to do some research.
Frisco’s Fire Chief was Mack Borchardt who started as a volunteer firefighter in 1973. Then, in 1982, he became the Administrator and Chief of Volunteers until 1987 when he became the City’s very first Fire Chief. Oddly, in September of 2011, the City announced he would retire and then assume new duties as a Fire Programs Consultant and Special Assistant to then City Manager George Purefoy.
Why would a fire chief take a new role out of the blue? Multiple off the record sources tell us that Borchardt was caught in some compromising situations which could have been a factor, or it could have been his staff and the association just didn’t like him either.
In the fall of 2011, a Climate Survey was done in the Frisco FD to identify growing concerns of firefighters and officers. It notes, “…there is a lack of trust, respect, and dignity between officers and firefighters. The culture… is very negative and one of intimidation, retaliation, and fear.” The examiner notes that in the conversations with the Chief and Officers they lead her to believe there is some truth to the claims. The report also notes there is considerable animosity regarding Chief Borchardt and that many in the department felt the entire senior staff along with the Chief needed to be replaced because they were all trained in Borchardt’s style. The most telling part of the report was that many firefighters believe the then Chief Borchardt was trying to run the growing department like it only had 20 employees, and instead of hiring those best suited for the job, he hired his friends.
Lastly, it notes the department is understaffed for the growing population (ding, ding, ding). At the time 76.3% of the respondents indicated they would leave the department if they could.
While we have no concrete evidence, multiple sources said Borchardt was pushed out. George Purefoy stood up for him and said, if he goes then I go, so instead Borchardt was moved into a new job at city hall working for George himself. After reading the report, it begs the question was Chief Borchardt removed “not retired” because of his personal behavior and management style that had torn apart the Department?
Did then City Manager George Purefoy save his friend with a cushy job right next to him at city hall? It is important to note that the current Interim Chief and candidate Lee Glover steadily advanced through the ranks of management in the fire department under the leadership of Mack Borchardt; so, based on the report, it might be plausible to assume Glover still has Borchardt’s management style and that is why the new survey shows no confidence in him. Either way, Borchardt and Glover are what some would call “thick as thieves.”
In 2013, the city hired Mark Piland as the new Chief of Frisco Fire Department. According to many of the sources we talked to, YES, change did start to happen, but it didn’t help that Piland was met by resistance from then Manager George Purefoy who conveniently had Mack Borchardt, the previous fire chief, in his ear. Think about it, if you are an old fire chief of 20+ years, would you want to see what you built in the Department change right in front of your eyes?
Tension began early on from what sources tell us, making it very difficult for Piland to make significant changes. Borchardt worked the ear of his longtime friend and boss George Purefoy for years, straining the relationship from the onset with Piland and Purefoy. We are guessing Piland realized early on he was facing a losing battle going up against the old fire chief in the City Manager’s ear day-after-day during his entire tenure. One has to wonder, is this why Piland thought he might better serve the City as Manager? One also wonders if the new City Manager Wes Pierson was really chosen because he would fall right in line?
As a side note, I had some of these suspicions months ago when I filed a PIR asking for Borchardt’s recent contract renewal by Purefoy that was signed just before retiring, which, NO, we still have not received.
Now, it’s 2023 and Glover, who has been the Interim Chief, is a candidate for Chief of the fire department. You can bet he wants that position badly, and his mentor and friend in the city manager’s office, Mack Borchardt would not mind seeing him in the position either. If that wasn’t enough, we asked around, and multiple officers told us shocking things regarding Glover that left us flabbergasted. YES, flabbergasted!
Obviously, out of fear of losing their jobs, I can understand why they would not want to go on the record. With that said, multiple firefighters spoke off the record. They have witnessed the Interim Frisco Fire Chief belligerently drunk multiple times in public and threatened them if they ever spoke up about it. The same firefighters confirmed he was recently seen in the street at a FD Conference, again belligerently drunk, peeing on a tree in the median during the middle of the day. Witnesses also say he drank heavily at lunchtime during some of these conferences. So now, the current survey makes total sense. All of these factors, history, and more, contribute to the survey results. We were told he has a known history of maliciously undermining all ranks of FD leadership for his own personal gain.
Based on what we were told, someone at city hall might want to ask the following interview questions of Interim Chief Lee Glover:
Is it true you have a history of being belligerently drunk at FD training conferences and FD apparatus purchasing meetings?
Do you have a DUI on your record from August of 1985? Were you sentenced to 2 years’ probation? Is the city aware of this?
Did you urinate on a tree in the middle of the street at an FDIC conference in Indianapolis? And is it true, you threatened FD staff if they spoke of the incidents and suggest they would “regret it?”
Is it true you have a history of using your rank to cause people in your department to fear losing their job should they go against you?
If we told you there was a tape of you making racially inappropriate statements how would you respond? Do you have a history of making racially inappropriate statements?
If the City had the guts to sit down with the staff today face to face for an honest conversation, would your current staff say all these incidents were true?
Lastly, does the Public Lewdness charge from 1992 and the indecent exposure charge in 2000 belong to you or your father?
From the City’s recent meet and greet, we now know the candidate shortlist is Rob Bergersen, Richard Davis, Lee Glover, Kenneth Johnson, and Marc Pate. None of them have held the position of Chief. But, we learned of a few names that were removed, and we are interested in asking, why since they seem to have much more experience? Take Paul Henley, who is the Fire Chief in Flower Mound and President of the Texas Fire Chiefs Association–why was he taken off the list? Chief Lasky in Lewisville, a 40-year veteran and has served as a Fire Chief for the last 12 years–why was he taken off the list? Hello? With the stellar background of on some of these candidates, one should wonder why they were removed from the list. “Survey Says…“
It was a nice sunny day, and my dad called my name and asked if I wanted to ride with him to town and I jumped in the truck before he could even turn around and get an answer. I loved being with my dad because he was interesting yet peculiar, and he always had interesting things to say. I asked what we had to do, and he said in his gruff voice “get supplies” and I just buckled up. We hit a few stops in town including the 5 and dime to get our candy bars and then we started back down the pebbled roads to Chateau Vino (home). My dad slammed on his breaks out of nowhere he said “son, I smell smoke!” He yelled, start looking so as we drove we looked everywhere around us and there it was black smoke rising on a neighbor’s land. My dad slammed on the gas, and we drove fast towards the neighbor’s land, and I remember just bouncing up and down from all those damn pebbles. We got there and saw the old man holding a hose and we grabbed others laying nearby and started spraying. It took a while before the fire brigade arrived from town with a portable water truck. I don’t remember much after that as I think I was in shock as it was my first fire. We had the help of other local farmhands and the brigade and after it was out everyone sat on the back of their trucks watching for hot spots late into the evening.
Why is this important? Because when I was a kid my dad always told me that if your business involved the land you lived on such as a farm or winery then you know the most detrimental thing that can happen is a fire. He said within minutes a small fire in open dry land could decimate an area and destroy our family’s winery. When we first moved to Texas I learned the city we lived in had Citizens Fire Academy, so I signed up. We learned that a fire requires a flame, air, fuel, and heat. We learned a backdraft is caused by the sudden introduction of air into a fire that has depleted most of the available oxygen in a room or building. Firefighters look for signs such as smoke being drawn in along with the air under doors, and windows. They also look to see if the windows are showing signs of excessive heat, such as brown stains and cracking. It saves them from opening a door or window and being caught in a backdraft of fire. My experience as a young lad and my short time in Citizens Fire Academy gave me a whole new perspective on what these men and woman do.
As a Frisco resident in 2017 and 2020 when the Frisco Fire Fighters endorsed Cheney I figured if they felt he was the right leader I would support him too. Then in April 2021 you would have thought an El Paso dust storm full of tumbleweeds came through Frisco and upset the equilibrium of our city. As we discussed in our earlier blogs Where There Is Smoke PT 1 and There is Fire PT 2, there has been a long standing point of contention between fire fighters and the city in regards to workers compensation. In 2021 the city opposed House Bill 2242 brought forward by their own district House State Rep Jared Patterson. In 2023 the FFA and Patterson brought HB 471 and they have been working very hard to get it passed in Austin and it would protect first responders across Texas.
While our local Frisco Fire Fighters Association and State Rep Jared Patterson are working so hard to protect first responders, you can imagine our shock on May 2, 2023 when we learned a 27-year veteran of the Frisco Fire Department felt the need to speak at Citizen Input on how he was recently terminated by the City of Frisco while he was on leave and under medical supervision for PTSD.
Those that wish to watch the City Council Meeting, be sure to watch the end of citizens input for the disgusting smug pre-written response by our new City Manager, Wes Pierson to Assistant Fire Chief Cameron Kraemer’s passionate plea for the Council’s intervention and assistance.
The Frisco Fire Association also spoke on Kraemer’s behalf and on behalf of all first responders that may be suffering from PTSD or any other work-related injuries or illnesses. You can watch the meeting in its entirety here. Citizen Input begins at approximately 54:00 minutes.
In a post of Chief Kraemer’s Facebook page he confirmed that since this meeting, the City has not reached out to him. Then on May 16th Kraemer, along with the FFA President Matt Sapp, and Former Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland, spoke out again at City Council during Citizen Input. You can watch that meeting in its entirety here. Just go to Citizens Input at the 23:30 minute mark.
We are going to continue to follow Kraemer’s situation and if you want more information please visit the Fire Fighters Association Facebook page. They will be posting updates on Chief Kraemer, House Bill 471 and the City’s opposition to the Bill down in Austin. It has also been interesting following their page for daily updates on the Department’s Staffing issues that the city continues to deny exists.
As we always do every other Tuesday, my wife and I tuned in online to the council meeting on May 16 and as soon as the meeting started I wanted scream like Alanis Morrissette…
Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? A little too ironic And yeah, I really do think
Ready for the kicker? May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the city terminated a 27-year employee by email over mental health then Mayor Cheney presents a proclamation to Denton County MHMR for all they do for mental health. Nothing regarding this has sat well with me so my wife and I did find Chief Kraemer’s email and sent him a note to say we support him. We told him we didn’t expect a response we just wanted him to know as citizens we appreciate everything he has done for this city, and we hope for the best for him and his family.
Lastly are my words for Wes Pierson, a man the city hired about a year ago that now sits up high in his lofty thrown next to our City Attorney. I was shocked, stunned and dismayed at the absolute disrespect you displayed and spewed out of that mouth of yours to a man who served our city for 27-years. If my mom were alive she would say wash that disrespect out with a bar of soap. In my 70 years of life, I have never seen anyone as cruel and callous with their words as you were that night. It showed your character, and I am guessing you have no idea how Mr. Kraemer feels since you have never kept a job in the same place for more than 5 to 7 years and the good lord blessed you with perfect mental health. I am sure you are very proud of yourself sir, but you showed me and many other residents something that night. If you can have that much disdain for a 27-year fire fighter of this city, then how do you feel about us the residents who pay taxes here and your salary and the other first responders in this city?
If you live in Denton County and need help please reach out to the Denton County MHMR Center Crisis Line at 800-762-0157 or click on the May Mental Health picture and it will redirect you to their website.
I thought that I’d been hurt before But no one’s ever left me quite this sore Your words cut deeper than a knife Now I need someone to breathe me back to life
You watch me bleed until I can’t breathe Shaking, falling onto my knees
I’ll be needing stitches Tripping over myself Aching, begging you to come help
Benjamin Franklin once said these powerful words, half a truth is often a great lie. The Armstrong Lie is a powerful documentary about Lance Armstrong, a sports legend who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 – 2005 after surviving stage 3 testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Armstrong will go down in history for committing one of the best kept lies in sports history while he amassed a fortune from the sport and its sponsors. Over the years he was plagued with rumors that he was doping or using performance-enhancing drugs which he denied emphatically. Then a teammate became a whistleblower which caused Armstrong to be stripped of his titles, sponsors ditched him, and he faced several legal cases. So why did Armstrong lie? Why did he risk losing it all if it ever became public? Sports writers and enthusiasts have questions for years, but will we ever really know the truth?
The art of lying is among the most sophisticated accomplishments of the human mind. Children must learn how to lie, how to assess the reactions of the listener, and how to adapt a story to fit a believable narrative. Kids also need to learn how to decipher a lie to protect themself. Learning to lie during the impressionable years of our life is why some adults conquer the art of lying. But are all lies bad lies? Studies have been done for years to answer this question. I was blown away when I read one article that said there were 10 types of lies or deception. In Armstrong’s case he lied by omission (partial truth), used lies of falsification (lie to get attention or sympathy), told bold face lies (one tells a lie, and everyone knows it’s a lie), used lies of exaggeration (lies based on some truth), and he was a pathological liar (lies for no apparent reason).
Lies, regardless of whether they are big or small can cause a physical change in our bodies. It can trigger increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and elevated levels of stress hormones in the blood. It can also cause dry mouth, upset stomach, vomiting, sweaty hands, nervous facial twitches or hand twitches and can cause your skin to break out in a rash or turn red. I know what you are thinking right now, where are we going with this Shady Shit? Well forum after forum Mark Piland mentioned transparency and how he wanted to put in place an ordinance, like the City of Plano’s that said if you received over $1000 from any individual you could not hear any case or be involved in any discussion that could come before the council to avoid a conflict of interest or perception of wrongdoing. You can still accept large donations, but you just can’t be involved in items that come before the city – seems simple and common sense.
At one debate Cheney said campaigns are expensive and without donations it would be hard to run a campaign of this magnitude. This go around I have received a postcard, a magazine, and newspaper all with Mayor Cheney’s “Vote for Me” message. Unless you are living under a rock everyone knows who Mayor Cheney is, his record, and his accomplishments, so why is there a need to spend that kind of money? At the forum, Cheney responded and said Plano’s ordinance was put in place two years ago after all their developments were done or largely done. He said he spoke to a Plano elected official recently (no name mentioned) about their policy and the official told him that the ordinance is not even enforceable, there are no teeth to it, and it was put in place because of a political ideology in their community who was having a tough time getting traction for their candidates that they wanted to support. Now they have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with other special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections. Watching the forum, I noticed Mayor Cheney would twitch his hands, blink his eyes and his face would turn red so it made me wonder, was he lying?
The morning after the forum I woke up, had coffee and white powdered donut (love those), and talked about the Forum with my wife. While we were perplexed we let it go and went on with our life because we did not think for a minute this was some smoking gun. Several days went by and we got an email from a follower who said they too were curious about Piland’s idea and Cheney’s response, so he emailed the Plano City Council. He forwarded us the emails and responses and that is when I the light bulb turned on. The whistle blower asked which one of the council members spoke with Mayor Cheney, could they confirm or deny his statements made at the forum, and what is their personal feeling regarding the ordinance. Surprisingly several responded and all of them had a similar consensus. We are publishing the first two responses in full below as we just don’t have time to post them all.
Shelby Williams responded, “the ordinance truly does have no teeth—that’s something I’d like to fix.” Williams went on to say, “ Whomever Mayor Cheney spoke to from Plano was not correct, A) The only political ideology that drove the campaign finance ordinance was the desire to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections and B) while it was argued that the ordinance would cause PACs to dominate our elections, it never happened. After the ordinance was adopted, PACspending went down significantly. He also said he wrote about this in 2021 when the new council proposed to repeal the ordinance. Here’s my article from then, which includes links and screenshots to more data: https://shelbyhwilliams.com/campaign-finance-recusal-ordinance-up-for-repeal/.”
Anthony Ricciardelli (Place 2) responded, “I voted for the ordinance when we enacted it, remain a big fan of it, and believe that it is meaningful. I agree that there are still loopholes in it, unfortunately. I would like to close those loopholes. Respectfully, I don’t think it would be prudent for me to comment on something attributed to a different council member. I can tell you that I’ve never said anything like the statements that Jeff Cheney attributes to someone on the Plano City Council.”
Like we said earlier, lying is an art form!
TRUE: Mr. Cheney was correct that there is a loophole in the ordinance that needs to be fixed and they hope to do fix it in the near future.
LIE: Mr. Cheney said it was put in place by a political ideology in Plano’s community that was having a tough time getting traction for candidates that they wanted to support. Williams said it was to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections.
LIE: Mr. Cheney said they now have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections. Williams said after the ordinance was adopted, PACspending went down significantly.
Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “A lie cannot live” and he is right. Lies may take care of the present but they have no future. If you tell one lie and get caught then all your truths become questionable. I have always believed that when someone lies to you what they are really telling you, is that you were not worth the truth. That is a slap in the face, it tells you what they think of you and how little they value you or think you are worth to them. In the end we are left with one question, Mayor Cheney, who did you speak to on the Plano City Council that you quoted at the forum?
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
Imagine it is your first day of work and you arrive at your new office excited to start the day. You have no idea in minutes life is going to change forever but then you hear it, it sounds like an explosion, like a bomb. You open your eyes to see a fireball just passing right beside you. You look around, realize you are trapped, and you stop and think, “I am going to die here today.” You remember praying, “God, I don’t believe you brought me here to die like this.” Then you hear it, the sound of a fire extinguisher and you realize first responders are making their way into the office building. You can’t breathe but know you have to get help, so you reach out through the smoke when you feel a hand on the other side of the smoke. It grabs you and pulls you through the smoke to safety. You quickly “that hand” rescued three people, but you were the only one to survive. This isn’t a story; it is the reality of Sheila Moody who lived through 9/11 at the Pentagon. She learned a plane traveling 530 mph carrying 7000 gallons of fuel crashed into her office and she was one of three to survive out of 46 people in her office.
Now imagine you are at work and just like the rest of America you are glued to the TV watching what is unfolding in New York and DC. The phone rings and you learn as the East Coast Task Force leader for the Federal Urban Search and Rescue System that you are being deployed to the Pentagon. You pack up and head north for a 3-hour drive to D.C. This is what happened to Former Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland. Now ask yourself, where were you on September 11, 2001? Can you imagine what those first responders saw that day and the days to come? Would you have the guts and emotional stability to do that job? Truthfully I can’t for one moment put myself in the shoes of survivor Sheila Moody or first responders. Men and woman across the country answer the call every day, and in Frisco all they have asked for was more staff and a workers compensation plan with the maximum coverage to protect them. At the last debate, Piland asked a simple question, why would we not want them to have that?
The issue of staffing and workers’ compensation in Frisco goes back many years. At the Star Patriot debate, Piland said the city should support current Texas House Bill 471 which relates to the entitlement to and claims for benefits for certain first responders and other employees related to illness and injury. We thought it was an odd statement because why would the safest city in America, one of the #1 places to live, not have a full coverage workers compensation plan for first responders who answer the call in our city. Also discussed was the NFPA 1710 Safe Staffing Levels for a fire department. Piland said as a city we don’t meet the NFPA 1710 requirement which can potentially put our firefighters and residents in a dangerous position. We are not experts in this field so we had to do a little research to understand the history so we could try to explain it to you. We don’t have a horse in this race, we are not related to anyone who serves as a first responder in Frisco or anywhere else for that matter.
Before we can address the debate issues you need to understand some history. Let’s travel back in time like Marty McFly in our Delorean time machine. Frisco Firefighters have been fighting for years for a full coverage workers comp plan. It appears a written letter dated April 20, 2021, from the city to the state legislators opposed HB 2242 regarding workers compensation for first responders. Mayor Cheney claims the letter was sent by Ben Brezina IN ERROR on May 12 at 11:09 am (even though incorrectly dated earlier) opposing HB 2242 but then a retraction was sent the same day at 11:34 am. The letter had Mayor Jeff Cheney’s electronic signature, yet he claims he never actually saw the letter before it was sent.
That means a letter went to a state agency without first being seen and/or reviewed by several people including the mayor himself. Should we be concerned? Following the unbelievable, absolutely embarrassing so called error the response from the Frisco Fire Fighters Association (FFA) was a letter to Frisco Residents expressing their disappointment that Mayor Cheney, the city and council, attempted to kill house bill 2242 at the State Legislature which would protect first responders across the state. The letter states he did this with no regard for the thousands of police, firefighters and EMS personnel and the families it would protect. It went on to say the mayor has chosen to use his position to help elect a candidate (in reference to Angelia Pelham) that had voluntarily refused to submit a political questionnaire to the FFA. Based on who has endorsed her, and the view expressed toward the FFA they can only assume if elected she would have the same disregard not only for firefighter issues but all First Responders. We also found a letter to one of the fire fighters in the city that had exhausted all their protected leave due to a work-related medical issue. It notified the employees that if their request for accommodation was denied they would have 30-day days to apply for another position in the city or their employment would be terminated.
Question, why would the city ever oppose or stay neutral on a bill for first responders regarding workers compensation? How is a letter sent in error regarding a legislative bill with the mayor’s signature and he does not review that beforehand? Why would we terminate a firefighter for medical leave related to an on-the-job injury/illness, but Ben Brezina can send a letter by ACCIDENT to the State of Texas Legislature and not be fired? Lastly, why was a letter even written in opposition if they never had any intention of taking a position on the bill? The whole think stinks of some Shady Shit and we can understand why Piland took a stance and said the city should endorse the current bill before the State of Texas Legislature it at the debate.
Piland also pointed out that the Frisco Fire Department does not meet the national staffing requirements. He gave an example of mid/high rise building which would national high rise staffing requirement is 43 firefighters, yet Frisco’s response is 25 fire fighters. He also pointed based on a 2000 sq ft home the response should be 17 firefighters and he then asked how many homes in Frisco do you think are under that square footage? Lastly he said most cities have 4-person truck staffing and Frisco only has 3 per truck and typical response times should be 8 min and in some areas of the city we are at 9 minutes.
Cheney said it is the council’s job to hire the city manager and it is the city manager’s job to hire and make sure we are meeting expectations for our departments. Is he saying the reason we are not at full staff is the fault of George Purefoy and Wes Pierson then? He went on to say the city council is aware of what’s going on and that the current interim Chief Glover has done an amazing job. They are in the process of hiring a new fire department chief, but Glover has already raised morale, regained trust and started changing operations. He said it was evident that Glover, Purefoy and Pierson have different philosophies than that of Piland which was evident during his tenure as Fire Chief. Lastly Cheney said the national standards are not specific to any one community. We have had 6 high rise structure fires and the standard calls for 62 firefighters, and we have 75 on for every shift. Lastly Cheney firmly stated “We have what we need.”
In part two we will see, if we have what we need so stay tuned….
If someone were to ask you what happened on June 28, 1997, would you know the answer? Truthfully no, the date would not stick out in most people’s minds. Now what if someone said do you remember that bizarre moment in boxing history when Mike Tyson bit off a portion of Evander Holyfield’s ear? My guess, is you remember that, and it happened on June 28, 1997. At the time, the fight was one of the highest grossing Pay Per View events with 1.99 million buys. It was the first time to break $100 million in revenue. It was round 3 of their much-anticipated rematch when one of the most iconic and grotesque scenes in sports history took place and became the most replayed slow-motion event in sports history. I remember sitting there on the couch with my wife and two boys, our mouths wide open in disbelief, that Iron Mike had just bit a portion of Holyfield’s ear. After a few seconds my wife stands up and says “Well, he must have been hungry. His mamma should have to feed him before the fight!” She gathers the bowls on the coffee table and heads to the kitchen, the night was over.
At the Star Patriots Debate on April 3 both candidates took their gloves off but at least no one lost an ear. The debate was filled with a few jabs, a few uppercuts, and a few hooks. The consensus on who won depends on who you ask. Cheney’s supporters feel he did a strong job and Piland supporters will tell you that he gave Cheney the good ole’ one-two punch and took the title. My wife and I went, and we agreed that I would take notes on Cheney’s comments, and she would take notes on Pilands comments and discuss the next morning over coffee. After a good night’s sleep, the sun rose, and I could smell the coffee brewing and we both took our place at the table with our notes. A quick review in order of some of the comments that stuck out at us.
Growth: Cheney said, it’s a misperception by many people that government controls our growth patterns. He noted that the city cannot tell a developer when they can or cannot develop their land which is in fact true.
FACT: The city can control some of the growth by not selling off all the land it owns “right here, right now.” The City of Frisco owned the 91 acres of land where the Frisco Star now sits, the 2.5 acres behind the Star where Blue Star built a 300,000 square feet office building, and how about the land sold for $37.9 million for Blue Stars Industrial Park? What a lot of residents don’t know or maybe don’t understand is that back in the day the city bought a lot of land betting like a gambler in a high-stake poker match that Frisco would grow and they could sell it down the road. The city also “strip annexed” a narrow strip of land that effectively cordoned off a large area, protecting it from other hungry nearby suburbs. In 1999, the State Legislature would prohibit “strip annexation” from happening in the future.
Workers Compensation For First Responders: was discussed by both candidates but we will review in our next blog.
Golden Goose: Cheney said 30 years ago with the development of the Frisco EDC and CDC that residents of Frisco made the choice about how they wanted to develop our community and he along with every city manager and city official has done what was promised to the residents. He also said that is how Frisco was built and that is the golden goose of Frisco.
FACT: What residents agreed to 30 years ago (there is no formal agreement by the way) versus what residents want along the way can change. Residents have been saying for the last 5 to 7 years to slow down, focus on the infrastructure first which has fallen on deaf ears. The only one who cares about the Golden Goose is the mayor and his friends who benefit from them.
Universal: Piland mentioned the last-minute bait and switch of items in the SUP, the promises from the developer to the Cobb Hill residents should have been codified in the SUP and how this should be a case study in zoning and what city officials should not do. Cheney said what was posted on his Facebook page about the project is exactly what was sent to them but as they got through the discussion’s things change.
Question: When things started to change in the discussions why didn’t you tell residents that on social media as you had everything else at that point? Our guess he knew residents were not going to like the changes in hours, building height, ride height and more.
Cheney said if they had not solved the wall issue with Cobb Hill it wouldn’t have past but then he also said it would be illegal for the city to enter into an agreement between two parties for something like a wall and we cannot interfere with private property rights.
Question: Wait A Hot Minute Mayor!! You voted for it that night instead of postponing it so the residents of Cobb Hill could formalize a private contract with Universal to make sure the “wall issue” is resolved.
Cheney then mentioned that this project had more discussions because they knew how long it took them as a council to “wrap their head around it” so they knew they would need to do this differently and research and have community discussions. NO, NO and NO!
FACT: What happened was they went live on Facebook announced it and planned to vote that night, but they didn’t expect that post to blow up and go viral. It was over a thousand comments in a few hours and based on a review was one of the highest posts in citizens response/comments on the city page in years. Once they saw the instant outcry knowing it was an election year, they had to postpone the vote that night. Cheney wants us to believe they did it for us the residents – that is simply not true!
Citizens Input: Piland pointed out Cheney has publicly said and posted on social media they could not respond to citizen’s input (we found several posts that match Pilands claims). Then he pointed out at the January 17 council meeting, 3 separate citizens spoke regarding Universal and Cheney responded to each one for 3 to 4 minutes. Piland even remarked, Cheney did it under the guise of I really need to help you get your facts straight. Cheney’s response was per the city charter the mayor runs the council meetings and they can respond to citizen’s input.
FACTS: Section 3.13 Rules of Procedure, “The city council shall determine its own rules of order and business. The city council shall provide that the citizens of the city shall have a reasonable opportunity to clearly hear and be heard at public hearings with regard to specific matters under consideration.” At first it appears Cheney could be right but Section 2.125 in reference to meetings states “All meetings and deliberations of the board shall be called, convened, held, and conducted, and notice shall be given to the public, in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, as it currently exists or may be amended.” That means the answer is in the Texas Open Meetings Act which states, limited verbal interchanges between citizens and council members are appropriate, discussions should not be permitted to drag on. When a member of the public makes an inquiry about a subject for which notice has not been given, a council member may respond with a statement of factual information or recite existing policy. Piland is correct that Cheney violated the Texas Open Meetings Act that night and many other nights too speaking during citizen’s input.
Code of Conduct: Piland also referenced the December 18(actually Dec 4) council meeting regarding the PGA where Cheney had to recuse himself due to his relationship with one of the principal members of the project. Before he did he took Mayors Privilege and spoke for nearly 8 minutes regarding the project then stepped off the stage. Piland pointed out the mayor violated Section 3.11 Conflict of Interest in the City Code of Conduct. Cheney’s said his conflict of interest technically had cured at that point because the council felt that his boss Robert Elliott was not the right partner for the project (does Elliott know this) and they needed a bigger partner which is when Omni stepped in and the ownership interest changed and it removed the conflict. Cheney also said he followed the code of conduct, and he takes the code of conduct very seriously at the City of Frisco and so that’s why he makes sure not to involve any of his personal business in things. “As a real estate broker, I’ve never represented the city of Frisco in a transaction, I’ve never represented a party who did business with the City of Frisco and I’ve never had an interest in any project in the city of Frisco.” Lastly he said that he has declined every request for help from clients to get through the zoning process even though it would have been very lucrative for his firm. He closed by saying he is very transparent with everything he does and he is proud of that.”
FACT: Section 3.11 Conflict of Interest it states, “Should any person on the city council have a conflict of interest, pursuant to any state laws and/or city ordinances regulating conflicts of interest of municipal officers, with an agenda item then before the city council, they shall openly declare before discussion proceeds, and he is thereby prohibited from discussing the item or voting on the question, and is not considered as present and voting for the purposes of the tally.” As for Cheney’s claim he cured his conflict of interest Omni’s own press release from December 4, 2018 notes it is a joint venture and the new company was Omni Stillwater Woods. Nowhere does it say Robert Elliott is removed from the project and it was SWC Clay Roby who spoke on behalf of the project at every P&Z and council meeting, not a representative from TRT Holdings which is Omni. Cheney can argue he cured his conflict of interest but that is a logical fallacy which is an error in reasoning that makes your arguments less effective and convincing.
FACT: Cheney’s claim he declined every request for help regarding zoning is also not correct. Cheney may not have helped a client but he did help a campaign donor. In a Dallas Morning News article written by Sharon Grigby (March 2019), he stated “Cheney told me he met Carter sometime after he became mayor in May 2017. The mayor said the developer visited Cheney’s City Hall office about a sign-ordinance provision that caused difficulties for his Preston Road multi-tenant commercial property. “Like most developers, they reach out to the mayor and say, ‘This is unreasonable. Can you help me?’” Cheney told me Tuesday. Although Cheney said he helped resolve the issue, he maintains that the 2018 campaign donations ($15,000) were not tied to that case. There was never a this for that.” Cheney is correct it is lucrative but not to his firm it was his campaign fund!
Campaign Donations: Piland referenced the City of Plano’s campaign finance rule that any person who donates over $1000 that comes before the council, would require the person on the council to recuse themselves. Piland noted you can take as much money as you want but you will have to recuse yourself from all discussion and votes. Cheney responded and said Plano’s ordinance was put in place two years ago after all their developments were done or largely done, and he did speak to one of their elected officials about their policy. He said the Plano official (no name) told him the ordinance is not even enforceable, there is no teeth to it and it was put in place because of a political ideology in their community was having a tough time getting traction for the candidates that they wanted to support and now they have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with other special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections.
Question: Did that communication happen via email and if so would you release the communication so we can see the Plano elected officials’ response?
Purefoy: Cheney commented that developers made a commitment to our city to develop and invest here (sometimes almost a billion dollars) and it scares developers that the commitment made is not going to be honored after his opponent is elected. Cheney said it probably scares somebody that wants to invest a lot of money in this community, and it could make them think otherwise. He said developers are scared by the rhetoric and comments they are hearing in this mayoral cycle because the outcome could change the entire direction of the City of Frisco. Lastly he said it would tarnish the “legacy” of George Purefoy and it would break the promise made to him to continue his work.
Fact: Mark Piland has said he is pro-development and would just like to see more community engagement and discussion around some of those projects. Piland never said he would not follow through on a contract or commitment made to a developer from the city or previous administration and he also never said he was against Public/Private Partnerships. How is hearing from residents a negative thing? From the two debates we heard we have not seen Mr. Piland be anything other than pro-responsible development. So why would developers be scared? Lastly, Purefoy did amazing things for this city in the last 35 years and to say change would tarnish his legacy and the promise made to him is ludacris. Companies and cities pivot all the time, and they are doing just fine! Our concern should not be about a promise made to Purefoy it should be about the promises made to residents in this city every day. Cheney used this a cheap ploy scare tactic in our opinion.
Closings: Cheney said his most valuable experience for this community is being the leader of this community for the last six years. He said mayors elected in this city are not people who have had careers in bureaucratic government. He said the City of Frisco elects entrepreneurs, visionaries, risk-takers, and people who don’t want to do things the same way. That is what Frisco is all about. He then said his superpower is building extraordinary teams and making people believe that they can do more than they ever thought they were capable of. That is his greatest gift and what he will continue to do here in his last term. Mostly he wants his last term to be about testing the absolute limits of what a city is capable of and in the City of Frisco will stress the boundaries of what is possible here over the next 3 years.
FACT: I know this will be hard for some to believe but people have skills they don’t have superpowers! He said Frisco is all about entrepreneurs, visionaries, and risk takers – really, since when is that what Frisco was all about? The scariest thing he said is that he wants to test the absolute limits of what a city is capable of, so it’s not about you, me, or the residents, this is solely about his personal legacy and how he will be remembered. People are telling you to slow down not stress the limits, so you can’t say you represent and listen to the people when you are doing the exact opposite of what people are asking for.
The night lasted longer than anticipated and when it was over it was clear the candidates were tired, the audience was tired, and the campaigning was about to kick into high gear. As we pulled into the driveway of our house my wife said to me, Honey what is your superpower? I looked at her and said I am a bull shit meter! I can sense, smell, fly through and see the bull shit from anyone where around me. She simply said okay I will get that on a t-shirt for you for Christmas. Then she said it felt like one was me, me, me and the other was about team, team team. That pretty much sums up how I felt too!
I went to her to ask for help with an issue my child that was getting nowhere with the school,…
So whatever became of the $17 million dollars that the city council gave the Mayor to beautify a drainage ditch?
At last count, there are 3 different "spa/massage" businesses in the small office park at the northeast corner of John…
I literally just saw this. Yeah, she used to forward everybody’s emails behind their backs.
You're dropping truth bombs! These mom and pop shops are what should be the least of Karen's worries. If they…