Ah, the City of Frisco elections, where candidates pop up like mischievous moles in a game of whack-a-mole. The battle in the whack-a-mole arena begins and the candidates are ready to take their swing at the other. It starts with the Whack-a-mole Forums, where they take a stance and tightly grip their mallet waiting for the right opportunity to smack down the opposing candidate. To everyone’s surprise, candidates just keep popping up somewhere else. It is a constant battle through the political season as you whack and jostle for position, each promising to fix the potholes, and lower property taxes while dodging the inevitable accusations of shady dealings. As early voting begins, you wonder if you’ve nailed down your opponent enough that they will surrender and retreat to the darkness of their hole. They surprise you and pop back up and are ready to battle to the very end. As election day draws to a close so does the delightful game of whack-a-politician and soon a winner will be given the gold mallet. If only it were that easy!
Now that the recent election is over, we want to look at the “Election Playbook” or tactics used because you may be surprised by some of the underhanded measures that involved active and former city officials. Then again maybe not! The first tool in the election playbook is the power of social media. The Safety-First PAC, run by an ACTIVE SITTING CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BILL WOODARD, took the “take no prisoners” rhetoric approach which means victory or supremacy at all costs without any regard to consequences.
One post talked about how when there’s a fire in the city, they don’t want to see the Frisco Firefighters sitting on the sidelines campaigning and playing politics. “Don’t claim the department is understaffed when 6-7 firefighters are sitting at each of the polls every day doing the Union’s bidding” the post said.
Residents were quick to respond that the post was appalling, arrogant, and ignorant. City Councilman, Brian Livingston responded to the post and said he was pretty sure firefighters get days off and if called upon would have been happy to assist. He specifically pointed out we can disagree on the props without personally attacking them. Sapp, President of the Frisco Firefighters Assoc was also quick to respond. He said, “to insinuate that our OFF-DUTY engagement in exercising our First Amendment rights suggests we don’t care about our department or our brother and sister firefighters facing a fire is GARBAGE! He continued, if the city had called for help, he could guarantee the polls would have been empty and every OFF-DUTY firefighter would have shown up.”
We quickly noticed each time a negative comment was made, the PAC just hid or deleted it, and then they swiftly blocked residents from the page to control negative opposition. These were the actions of councilman, Bill Woodard, and his city sidekicks. Wait, are you telling me the Safety-First Frisco PAC (aka the city) which fought so hard and nasty against the firefighters don’t believe in FREE SPEECH? You know your FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT! Ultimately the post was removed from the page probably because burning down the house (figure of speech) was not the best idea.
Another post called the firefighters association “soldiers without a war, and they follow a playbook of confusion, fear, and intimidation.” After talking to residents, we are sure the VOTE NO PAC put out the confusion, created fear, and used intimidation tactics with the DEVELOPER MONEY they had in their pockets. Over the next several posts they released several takeaways from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s conversation with Sheryl Sculley regarding the “big bad Unions!”
In the first video Mayor Jeff Cheney called his “BIG AHA MOMENT” related to the playbook of unions and how they operate. The first was that Associations/Unions try to pit citizens against their elected officials, city manager, and city government.
Then he goes on to say they intentionally put out misleading information. For example, the signs across town say Frisco Firefighters “really big,” and the “association” is very small. What we find interesting is that Mayor Cheney had no issue with the Frisco Firefighters’ signs when they endorsed him and put it on a billboard. We found this on social media, that says Frisco Fighters REALLY BIG, and where is the word association? Ouch, it hurts to look like a crybaby!
The next post was about the Cockroach Theory. We must assume since the video was posted that the Safety-First Frisco Vote No PAC agreed or endorsed Sculley’s comments. It starts with her claiming that the San Antonio unions during elections would tell candidates to give them what they want, or they won’t support them and will run someone against you.
What we find humorous is that Bill Woodard, Jeff Cheney, Laura Rummell, Brian Livingston, and John Keating have all WILLING APPLIED AND ACCEPTED the endorsements from the Association (OH SORRY, UNION), over the years. Since they supported another candidate other than the incumbent, we are now we are supposed to believe they are in a power struggle and blackmailing people.
She then goes on to say the machine of the Union has to keep the “PRESSURE ON” the council members, and once they have them under their shoe like a cockroach, they had to apply pressure and change their tactics to keep them reeling until the Union’s goal is achieved.
We see this very differently because it was the city’s Vote No PAC that sent multiple mailers with different messages, multiple text messages with different verbiage, and talked about higher taxes and outsiders. At one point we felt like if we voted FOR the proposition “outsiders” being Aliens might abduct us in our sleep and take us to their leader to brainwash us and intimidate us into voting NO.
The next post was a video of Sculley and Cheney talking about how you can love your firefighters and disagree about having a union in your community. We could not agree more with Mr. Cheney. You can disagree civilly, however, that is not what you, the council, city and former city officials, and the Vote NO PAC funded by your friends choose to do.
Would you like examples? Angelia Pelham personally attacked the Frisco Firefighters Association board members at a forum and threatened to oust the firefighters who spoke to her in private. Then the Chamber did not allow the firefighters to present at an educational community forum. Lorie Medina, your former Chief of Staff, and campaign manager repeatedly shouted that our firefighters were liars at the polls. Mr. Dick Peasley verbally berated them saying they were overpaid and underworked. Friends of the council in a large social media group then accused firefighters of setting the fire in Chappel Creek to help their cause for the propositions. The Vote No PAC constantly attacked the character, integrity, and qualifications of the Frisco Firefighters. It was “NASTY” Mr. Cheney but it was one sided and the choice was yours, the councils and the Vote No PAC on how that played out.
In closing, social media has serious fire power when it comes to getting out a message. Maybe that is why the social media appears to be scrubbed and cleaned up. We could not find any of the previous posts from Safety First Pac who deleted their page, or photos of the council holding the VOTE NO signs at the polls.
While residents were shocked by some of the posts, employees and former employees of the city were not, according to insiders who emailed us. One said, “That type of behavior is standard operating procedure for the city from the departments to the king of the hill better known as City Manager, Wes Pierson.” Another insider email said, “The only difference is now the residents are seeing what happens behind closed doors at all levels of the city.” They concluded by asking us not to use their name for fear of losing our jobs at city hall. Fear of losing their jobs is something we hear often from City of Frisco employees.
When I was a kid, my dad used to say “listen to your 5 senses” because they will protect you. As a kid, I had no idea what he meant but as an adult, I understand the information collected by our five primary senses helps detect danger and allows our brains to understand and react to our surroundings. Personally, I always thought it was my bull shit meter, you know the internal gauge for detecting deception, insincerity, or exaggerated claims that made me smart. I think my wife got it right because she tells me the reason, I am such a good detective is due to the marriage of my “spidey senses” and my bull shit meter. She hit the nail on the head!
When we first heard in May 2023 that the City of Frisco fired 27-year veteran, Cameron Kraemer from the Fire Department over a work-related illness, we knew there had to be more to the story. Immediately our team started reaching out to sources within the city and it was a game of silence from all sides. Then we heard Mr. Kraemer might speak at citizens’ input, and we wanted to make sure we watched the meeting. First person to speak was Matt Sapp, President of the Firefighters Assoc and watching it today, it explains so much why our FD is fighting for Prop A & B during this election cycle.
Then we watched Mr. Kraemer speak at the city council meeting and it was enough to break anyone’s heart. A man poured out his soul and admitted to the public he had PTSD, a mental health issue, and the city should be ashamed of how they have treated him and the response from the council…nothing. We have a video with some highlights, but you can see the full video by clicking the link.
At the end of citizens’ input, we were caught off guard when Mr. Wes Pierson, our new city manager leaned forward and announced he had something to say regarding Cameron Kraemer. This is the man who through the whole meeting sits back with a smug look on his face, swaying in his chair with an overall arrogance about him. We listened to him, and his words were so cold, so impersonal, and then we thought how did he have this whole speech prepared and ready to go that night? Had he heard that Kraemer maybe attending the meeting, or did he write it on the fly? Either way, alarm bells were ringing in my head.
My spidey sense bull shit meter went through the roof, and I was sure we were on to something, but what? Time went by and we followed the case. Kraemer and the Fire Association fought the city on whether his illness (PTSD) was work related and he won. Simply put, the city should hire him back or offer him a path back to work. However, the city is choosing to dig in their heels and skirt responsibility so Kraemer will likely end up suing the city which will cost the taxpayers. Because it is under wraps it is hard to follow the case and we thought our research was over.
Then fast forward to election time, where a new PAC is created called Safety Frisco First. We told you about this PAC in our blog The Secret PAC. We quickly noticed that Bill Woodard and City Shady Bunch running the PAC were putting out a lot of details and documents and none of them went to fighting the purpose. This raised our curiosity because the documents seemed more personal in nature and directed at a few specific individuals to malign and attack their character. It felt like the page was being used by the city to say the things they want to say but cannot say.
We filed two PIRs with the City. The first was for copies of any PIR requests and the corresponding documents made from Bill Woodard, Mike Simpson, Dick or Richard Peasley, Safety First Frisco PAC from 1/1/22 to Present. As you can guess the city has sent that to Texas AG in order to delay releasing the documents. What do you think they are hiding?
Then we filed another PIR for any emails, text, or handwritten correspondence between city officials regarding the Frisco Fire Association Prop A & B. Guess what…they sent it to the Texas AG to delay releasing the documents. What do you think they are trying to hide until after the election is over?
The PAC website has a document called “Letter from Weston Fire Chief regarding Asst Chief Kraemer,” but what does that have to do with fighting civil service or collective bargaining? The letter was a clear attack on a 27-year First Responder who worked for the City of Frisco, to discredit him. We kept asking ourselves, what does this letter have to do with the PACs purpose? Time to find some answers.
Our first question is, how did the PAC get these documents? Well of course they would have to go through the formal process like us and file a PIR, right? On 2/26/24 we filed a PIR that reads, “We recently visited the Safety-First Frisco PAC website, and we noticed a section called Resources that has the following documents which we listed out. All of these documents would have to have been obtained through a PIR or a series of PIRs so we would like to see the specific PIR(s) requests for the following information above.”
We got an email back on 3/8/24 and a few things piqued our interest in the city’s response. It said the Presentation to City Council regarding Salary Adjustments was NOT a PIR release. The document was released at the November 21, 2023, Budget and Audit Committee Meeting. Then they said the Letter from Western Fire Chief re Asst Chief Kraemer was NOT a PIR release. Lastly the Report on Residential Fire – 4 on a Truck was NOT a PIR release. HELLO, how did SFF get three documents, one appearing to being related to an HR file without filing a PIR and how would they know such a letter exists like that if it is in an HR file? Councilman Bill Woodard must have known about these documents due to his position which he is now using for political purposes for a PAC that he heads up. Ethical?
Next, we filed PIRs with the City of Weston and asked for a copy of any PIRs, and corresponding documents made by Bill Woodard or representatives from the City of Frisco. The response, “The City of Weston has not received any PIR request from Bill Woodard or any requests from the City of Frisco.” We also did a search of Weston’s agendas for the last few years, and you won’t believe what we found.
Guess who the City Attorney is for the City of Weston? Richard Abernathy (same as the City of Frisco)
Guess who the City of Weston hired as a city manager consultant? George Purefoy (former city manager for the City of Frisco)
Guess who the City of Weston hired as a fire consultant? Mack Borchardt, who CURRENTLY WORKS FOR THE CITY OF FRISCO AS SPECIAL CONSULTANT FOR THE CITY MANAGER. Wait, so we taxpayers are paying Borchardt, and he is allowed to work for other cities and make money at the same time?
Next, we went to Weston Fire and Rescue and filed a PIR and we asked for four things, response from Weston F&R are in bold;
I would like a copy of any PIR request and the corresponding documents returned in the PIR request from the City of Frisco relating to Cameron Kraemer and his time volunteering, serving as Captain, or working in the last three years. The PIR or request could have been done by text, email, or handwritten (formal or informal). WFR has no documentation.
I would like a copy of any PIR or request (formal or informal) from consultants named Mack Borchardt and/or George Purefoy (who are also consultants for The City of Weston) relating to Cameron Kraemer and his time volunteering, consulting, or working with the Weston FD in the last three years. WFR has no documentation.
I would like a copy of the letter from Kevin Deal (Former Fire Chief) supplied to the City of Frisco regarding Cameron Kraemer and the time he spent with Weston FD, and I would like to know if anyone else has requested this letter in the last two years. Attached and only you requested it
We could not believe our eyes! They attached the letter and right there in front of us we started to compare the letter supplied to the City of Frisco. We about fell over because the letters don’t MATCH!
What are the differences:
Weston F&R: No Date vs The Safety-First Frisco PAC: The letter is dated
Weston F&R: To Whom It May Concern vs The Safety-First Frisco PAC: addressed to whom it may concern and Attn: Wes Pierson
Weston F&R: Signature vs The Safety-First Frisco PAC: Signature = TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT SIGNATURES!
We would love it if the City of Frisco and/or The Safety-First Frisco PAC tell us how we have 2 totally different letters. While the body is the same nothing else is and that is alarming. It very clearly looks like the letter was forged or is a fake. Now we have so much more to this investigation to come but ask yourself, why does the City of Frisco want you to believe former Fire Chief Mark Piland was this horrible Fire Chief but according to his EVAL and his employment history he has NEVER been written up in 40-year career. Yet when he comes to work for Frisco, they want us to believe with perfect EVALS that he was such a bad leader? Now we have the Assistant Fire Chief whom they want us to believe is this horrible person even though he was only written up once in 27 years for bringing a smoker trailer on the property. They provide a letter that looks nothing like the original sent to the city and somehow the PAC gets it to post on their website. This letter just happens to show up to help the city’s case and they have 3 people contracting with the city with ties to The City of Frisco. We would think that this letter would be a part of someone’s personal or HR file, so how did the PAC get it? If you released it to the PAC, then does that mean we can go back to the Texas AG to review previous requests of HR files to reopen where you made a claim, they were confidential?
We have so much more on this to peel apart and will blog again soon. Ask yourself does this look like a targeted campaign to destroy two men’s lives and reputations? It does to us, and the question is for what? It all goes back to Sassy Lauren Safranek the HR DIRECTOR who falsified records. Also ask yourself if The VOTE NO PAC is willing to post a forged letter what else have they lied to you about? Lastly, did any of our current council including the two running for re-election know the letter had been modified before posted to the PAC site? What we do know for sure, is something smells like Shit in Frisco, and we are curious what part Bobblehead Bill Woodard is involved in?
When you get old, your routine becomes familiar which is not a bad thing. Every morning my wife and I have coffee on the back patio with our little TV turned on to the news. We make sure to pull out our TV trays every night before 6:30 and have dinner on our plate so we can sit down for our daily dose of Wheel of Fortune at 6:30. Lastly, the highlight for me is the weekly pilgrimage to the grocery store. While my wife grabs a cart I stroll right on in through those electric doors to my favorite place, the bakery. I like to look at every cake and cookie and if there are samples, well I am on cloud 9. I am a sucker for sweet treats!
When we first heard about the Frisco Firefighters Association’s push for Proposition A & B, my wife and I were coming out of the grocery store. A young lady approached us and asked if we would be interested in signing the petition for the firefighters. We talked and she was very pleasant and thoroughly explained what and why they were trying to get the propositions on the ballot. We asked if she was a firefighter in Frisco and she said yes and we learned she was at the station closest to our house. She humored us old folks and we signed the petition because we felt if this was something they felt that strongly about, then we should at least let them bring it to the voters.
As time played out, we were curious, I wonder what the conversations were like at city hall in regard to this push. We filed a PIR on February 26, 2024, that read “Emails, texts or handwritten correspondence between city officials, including the city manager’s office, assistant city managers, deputy city managers, city council, and department directors regarding the Frisco Fire Association Prop A & B regarding Civil Service and Collective Bargaining.”
On March 12, 2024, we received a reply from Julie Davidson, Deputy City Secretary that, “The City of Frisco has reviewed its files, and has located documents responsive to your request. However, due to issues of confidentiality, the City has chosen to seek a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General regarding the release of the responsive documents. You will be receiving a letter from Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd & Hullett, PC, attorneys for the City of Frisco, informing you of the City’s decision to seek a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General. The Office of the Attorney General has up to 45 business days in which to make a ruling regarding your request.”
Were we surprised to see the city send it to the Attorney General, of course not! We just assumed since they were so against it, they would have no issue sharing the communications they have had regarding the propositions. However when they did say they were sending it to the AG we began to wonder, why didn’t they want to share it. What secret conversations have they had they don’t want us the residents they claim to be so transparent with, to see.
As of now April 21, 2024, we still have no response from the AG. Common sense would tell you if they have nothing to hide they would release the communications because it would only support their vote-no stance. Then again the other half of our common sense says, the only reason to play the Attonrey General game is to delay what you don’t want residents to see. They know whatever we get back will be published and they know they may get caught with their hand in the “cookie jar!”
So we are calling on our elected officials Jeff Cheney, John Keating, and Angelia Pelham who love to claim “Accountability and Transparency” to hold a city council meeting and vote to release the documents just like they did last year on another issue.
Jeff Cheney was quoted in Community Impact back on October 18, 2023, in an article by Alex Reece as saying, “The resolutions were adopted because of council’s belief in transparency and residents’ legal right to call for a vote on their issues.” Mayor Cheney, if you believe in transparency and the right for residents to vote on an issue then we need to know everything before voting which starts in 24 hours. So why not fulfill the PIR?
Then we have John Keating who says right on his website under “The Mission” tab that he has served from a place of transparency and accountability throughout his time on council and that he will continue to uphold those values. Well, Mr. Keating here is your chance to UPHOLD THOSE VALUE and call for a full release of the PIR which ensures every action taken is legal and ethical as you write on your website. Mr. Keating will you take action or are those just words to get re-elected?
Lastly, there is Angelia Pelham who states in her campaign video that three years ago she asked us to take a blind leap of faith and vote for someone we didn’t know. She promised us that she would represent us with “Character and Integrity” as our elected official. Now three years later she says, “You know me!” Well, we searched her campaign website and while it talks about diversity in and out which is great, guess what it doesn’t mention? If you said TRANSPARENCY OR ACCOUNTABILITY, then you would be correct. Angelia we are asking you based on your character and integrity to call for a full release of the PIR requested because if you have nothing to hide and act with character and integrity it should be no problem to release, right?
Truthfully, we don’t expect any of the three to release the PIR’s because their claim of transparency is complete bull shit! Yep, we said it and we stand by it. If this city is as transparent as it claims, then why do you keep delaying and hiding PIRs that could change how we vote? Ask yourself this, what is our city and elected officials hiding when it comes to Prop A & B and how did the PAC get all this information from the city that no one else can get?
Lastly, we were asked will we hold Piland and Redmond to the same standard and the answer is yes. If they get elected, we will hold them to the same damn standard. However, we can’t call on them to be transparent right now because they hold no key to the kingdom of documents. You can bet if they get elected, we will ask them the same questions and hold them to the same standards and expectations that we are asking of our current council.
Where do we stand, we feel the Frisco Fire Fighters are the only ones being honest and transparent, so we are voting For Prop A & B in our household. We hope you make the best decision for your household.
Ah, the riveting world of campaign finance reports – where every local candidate in Frisco must parade their fiscal acumen before the discerning eyes of the public. It’s like Christmas for political sleuths, unwrapping the financial mysteries behind each contender’s bid for office. Because, let’s be honest, nothing screams “transparency” like the stress-induced wrinkles of trying to get those reports done on time. In Frisco, Campaign Finance Reports must be filed by local municipal politicians or political candidates seeking office and they must be filed with the City Secretary, Kristi Morrow.
We give each candidate the benefit of the doubt and assume from time to time there may be a mistake on the reports. If a candidate finds a report has a mistake they can file to correct the report. A candidate must file using a correction affidavit and make sure the pages of the report being corrected are attached. Easy, Peasy!
January of 2024, we download the semi-annual report or the annual report of unexpended contributions for each candidate for the time of July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. We were surprised to see on page 4 of Angelia Pelham’s report she had a donation of $1000 dated 12/26/23 that had the name of the Contributor and the address redacted. You cannot redact the field of the contributor as that is a public record. At the time the report was released, we of course saved it and filed it away with all the others.
On March 7th we noticed Angelia Pelham had filed a Correction/Amendment Affidavit for Candidates with the City Secretary. It noted she neglected to include an In-Kind amount in the total contribution. She attached the updated “totals” sheet, and the update changed her total political contributions from $3,630.00 to $8630.00 which is a difference of $5000. We were curious about what the In-Kind donation was and what it was for. We went back to the website and looked at the original report filed, and the contribution dated 11/1/23 was from Scott Ellis for $5000. The description stated it was for web design and hosting.
As we began to scroll back up through the report, we immediately noticed something was different than the first time we reviewed the report. That item from 12/26/23 reporting a donation of $1000 that had been completely redacted now showed the name of the donor. It was the very own Dono and Angelia Pelham who donated to herself. We thought for a minute, are we crazy we were pretty sure when we looked at this report in January that it was completely redacted. Luckily, we saved the report back in January, and thank goodness it confirmed we were not crazy!
Now is this life shattering or ending – no of course not. But when did Pelham or the city “un-redact” the report? Why did they not file a correction or make a note of the change on the report that the redaction was incorrect and updated? What it does do is build mistrust, because now we have no idea when the redaction was corrected. If we file a PIR to find out, they will probably send it to the attorney general to avoid answering our question.
If someone made a mistake (ok, no problem) but now it feels like they tried to change out the reports and hoped no one would notice the mistake. It feels shady that there would not even be a note that it was incorrectly redacted, and the new one was updated. Sound familiar? It should. Remember Sassy Safranek, the City HR Director, who edited a job description for the Fire Department that ultimately affected the pay of firefighters. You can read all about it in our Twelve Days of Christmas stories.
Why was it a big deal what Sassy Safranek did? She lied when caught back in the day and continues to lie today. She said Piland was aware of the change and that she didn’t feel it was a big deal to remove one word and not get an updated signature from the Chief. Based on emails from a PIR it was clear Piland had no clue the change had been made. The City of Frisco requires each department head to sign off on each job description. Sassy Safranek, THE HR DIRECTOR, knows that. If you change anything on a document that requires a signature, you get A NEW SIGNATURE! Imagine Fire Chief Mark Piland’s surprise when one of his firefighters inquired about the change and that is how he found out about the Sassy “Cover Up!”
Our point, if you upload a report to the public and you need to change something like a redaction there should be a note as to why, when, and who made the changes. It is simply a note in the ledger or the report. Are we surprised the city tried to change out documents and withhold the change from the public? No, it is a standard practice apparently for both internal and external documents.
In our blog Legal Logo Woes, we told you how the city website clearly states you cannot use the City of Frisco logo in any way for campaigning purposes. Multiple residents complained to the city secretary regarding the obvious infractions by the candidates using the city logo while campaigning, we were shocked the response from the city was it is not their problem. Morrow said, the city does not own the logo, BNSF Railway does. She went on to say the license agreement the City of Frisco has does not address the use of the logo by candidates in city or other elections. Then she ended the city does not have any jurisdiction in the matter.
Makes you wonder why if the city has no jurisdiction and the license agreement the city has does not address the use of the logo by candidates, why would they put a rule on their website and in the candidate packs that clearly states the logo is not legally available for your use during the campaign. The city documents and website 1000% imply the use of the city logo is not allowed. If they can’t enforce the rule why have the rule?
We reached out to BNSF Railway for a comment regarding the complaints. On February 6 we received a note back from them that they had forwarded the issue to their legal department to see what the next steps were for them. Then on February 8, we received an email from Kendall Kirkham Sloan, Director of External Communications that said “BNSF does not endorse political candidates. We are working with the city on the use of the logo.”
We decided to check back to see if BNSF Railway, The City of Frisco, or Wes Pierson, the City Manager would make sure his current sitting council members followed the rules. Attending a city event is fine but “the purpose of campaigning” is when you cross into dangerous territory. For example, the Keating For Frisco website is being used FOR CAMPAIGNING and the point of the site is to get him reelected which is why it is on every campaign printed piece of material. “Learn more at Keating For Frisco” or just click the QR code which takes you to his website. Even though we pointed out the RULE VIOLATIONS back in early February, imagine our surprise to learn Keating still has the City Logo in two different places on his website as of today. Just another way Keating is giving the middle finger to the rules that apply while campaigning.
Then we learned about a Private Meet & Greet held by none other than our first family, Jeff and Dana Cheney. The invite states it is a Mix and Mingle Happy Hour, not the same as a Keg Party, for candidates John Keating, Angelia Pelham and the Safety-First Frisco Vote No PAC. To us, this is a campaigning invite since they are using the “Re-Election” logos that belong to the candidates and the logo telling citizens how to vote for propositions. Surely, we will not see the City of Frisco logo here, right? Wrong!
Several pictures have been posted across social media of the event and it is CLEAR, Angelia Pelham is breaking the rules of the use of the city logo while campaigning. She is wearing her City Council Member Badge with the city logo. Now many would say this is no big deal, but it is because if anyone knows ‘THE RULES’ it is our current city council members who have already been through a campaign in the past. We can prove Angelia knows the rules, just look at previous events like the Frisco Chamber Forum or SLAN Forum, she is wearing her Re-Elect Angelia Pelham badge.
We plan to reach out to BNSF Railway again because their last email to us said they were working with the city regarding the proper use of the logo, so either A) they endorse the candidates or B) they don’t, and they make them stop using a trademark logo that the city does not own while campaigning. It is simple folks, follow the rules, not sometimes, but all the time.
We have wondered for years how these political endorsements and donations work in the City of Frisco. We have pointed out that council members donate to each other, that they take rather large donations from developers, and that it all gives off the wrong appearance to the public. We have been met with such resistance to the suggestion that this city is bought and paid for, and the victims are the residents, just living their lives paying taxes. All we have wanted is for the residents to have a voice and a right to vote for what they want in this city, something that terrifies our council and city management. So how are things bought and paid for, well grab some popcorn because we are about to tell you.
Let’s start with Safety First Frisco, a PAC, set up to oppose Proposition A & B for Civil Service and Collective Bargaining put forth by the men and women who serve our city in the Fire Department every day. The PAC was set up by members of our city council (Bobblehead Bill Woodard), Former City Manager George Purefoy and Mike Simpson, Dick Peasley, and many more of the Cheney klan. Then add to that our current council members (minus Brian Livingston) who are out block walking, holding community events, and taking to social media to oppose the propositions and take jabs at our firefighters while trying to tell us how to vote. Yes, I know they will say we are crazy!
Well, this morning we pulled down the Safety First Frisco campaign finance report which was filed 3 DAYS LATE. What we saw was chilling, appalling, disturbing, and intimidating. We talked about how the PAC was set up in our earlier blog, The Secret PAC. Today’s campaign finance report shows that from 1/1/2024 to 3/25/2024 the PAC took in $105,201.32 which breaks down to $22,950 in monetary political contributions, $12,251.32 in non-monetary contributions (in-kind), and $70,000 in monetary contributions from CORPORATIONS OR LABOR ORGANIZATIONS. Stop and read that again and let it percolate that in 2 months a PAC took in $105,201.32.
Where, oh where, did the monetary political contributions come from:
Bill Woodard For Frisco: $1000.00
Craig and Kathryn Hall (Hall Group – Developers): $10,000
Jeff Brawner and R.J. Grogan (Law Partners): $500 each
Kyle Wilks – President Wilks Development of Firefly Park Project: $10,000
Where, oh where, did the non-monetary (in-kind) contributions come from:
George Purefoy, former City Manager: $4000 for Polling Expense
Bill For Frisco Campaign: $8000 for Polling Expenses, and $54.92 for Printing Expenses, $39.50 for Website Expenses, $206.22 for Printing Expenses, and $59.53 for Website Expenses.
Where, oh where, did the monetary contributions from a CORPORATION OR LABOR ORGANIZATION come from:
Mario Sinacola & Sons Exc, Inc: $10,000 (they have active contracts with developers & the City of Frisco)
K-N Ventures (aka Fehmi Karahan of Fields Development): $10,000
Columbus Realty Partners (aka, Staubach, Richard Reupke, Robert Shaw & Fields Development): $10,000
Rudco Land, LLC (aka Trey Sibley III or Hillwood Properties – Fields Development): $10,000
Hunt Funding Group (aka Hunt – Fields Development): $10,000
CrossTie Capital (aka Philip Rose – Fields): $10,000 *click the name to read our last blog.
Chief Partners III, LP (aka William Vanderstraaten – Fields): $10,000
It is important to note that any of the names above that are underlined, DON’T LIVE IN FRISCO. Yes, they have a development here, but they are not Frisco Residents.
What does all this money mean? It means Frisco was bought and paid for by DEVELOPERS!!!! These same people who run the same corporations have donated to almost every one of our council members, some more than others (meaning Cheney). Just look at Keating and Pelham’s current campaign finance reports, the same names appear across the board.
Ask yourself, why are current council members so OPPOSED to the Frisco Fire Fighters Association, which has been around since 1997, but they all took ENDORSEMENTS & MONEY OR IN-KIND DONATIONS from them when running for office? The firefighters spent about $10,000 on Bill Woodard and about $8,000 on Laura Rummell. They have paid for signs and billboards for the candidates they have endorsed. Now, they want you to believe the Frisco Fire Fighters and the ASSOCIATION are trying to RUIN AND DESTROY FRISCO?
We have been to a few events now and the message from the Fire Fighters has been consistent at each one. If you don’t like Prop B, then don’t vote for it, but please understand why they are pushing for Prop A and consider voting Yes for Prop A. They also have said that come May 5th when the election is over, they will still show up at your door and be here to service the citizens of Frisco the same way they have all these years. That begs the question, how is our City Council serving the citizens? Wait, they don’t care about what citizens want. Yet when you follow the Safety-First Frisco website or Facebook page all they have done is attack with absolute hate and anger our firefighters, our former Fire Chief, and yet they claim they love them. It feels very personal, to be honest.
They are serving themselves! Bobblehead Bill wants his bikes, trikes, and trails. Tammy wants her performing arts center. Keating stands up for Veterans which we respect but outside of that he is just there for the photo opp and to be a cool kid. Laura Rummell claims to be the pet advocate, yet she has done nothing. Brian maintains his concerns about density and resident welfare. Lastly, for years, rumors have followed Mayor Jeff Cheney or should we say Real Estate Broker Jeff Cheney that he has used his position as Mayor to further his own business and personal wealth. For years, Jeff Cheney has denied over and over any wrongdoing, favoritism, or personal benefits from his relationships. All his loyal subjects fall in line and defend him and say it is just a COINCIDENCE.
In closing, we saw a post from Brian Livingston earlier about how he is not very confident that his discussion regarding lobbying restrictions will pick up any traction, well duh! He is not sure why the transparency of money movement between lobbyists, clients, and politicians is a concern for some people. We assume that “some people” he is referring to is the Frisco City Council and City Management. The same council member who when he endorsed Mark Piland for Mayor in 2022, was later removed from all committees as well as his campaign manager. Revenge or just COINCIDENCE.
Ask yourself one question, who is the real bad guy here?
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