As a kid I always heard about my dad’s iconic work trips to the Big Apple. Every time he came home I hit him with a ton of questions, and he would always say son, New York is a state of mind. Now I had no idea at the time what any of those phrases meant but I dreamed constantly of the day I would finally get to go to New York, the city that never sleeps. So as a young teen when I overheard my parents talking about my dad’s upcoming business trip to New York City, I begged and pleaded with him to take me across the pond. To my shock and chagrin, he said yes and the next thing I knew I was in New York City. Walking down the sidewalk was overwhelming, so I held tightly onto my dad’s hand, and I stared up, looking at all the big buildings thinking this was nothing like the vineyards back home. You are probably wondering why I wanted to go so badly? Well in 1956, across the pond all we kept hearing about was a tv show that epitomized the ever-evolving aspects of American popular culture. It focused on popular music, youth, dance, fashion trends and relationships. Now sitting in a New York City hotel, I parked myself in front of a little tv and there it was…American Bandstand with host Dick Clark. It changed my life! On the way home all I could think to myself was New York was the art epic center of the world. It offered Broadway, Literature, Architecture, Film and Music and one day I would live there.
In February of 2022 Tammy Meinershagen entered the race against Shona Huffman for Frisco City Council seat for Place 2. Shortly thereafter Huffman announced she was resigning her seat and withdrawing from her campaign due to a breast cancer diagnosis. We all know someone who has had breast cancer, and we completely understand her need to refocus on health and family over politics. Since Place 2 and Place 4 were both uncontested the city council chose to cancel the May 7th general election. It was announced that Meinershagen would be sworn in at the May council meeting.
In March of 2022, the Frisco Chamber of Commerce held a Leadership Exchange in Cary, North Carolina. The website for the Frisco Chamber states, “on this trip, a diverse group of leaders will come together with one focus – to keep Frisco the best place to live and work.” According to an article written by Audrey Henvey for the Frisco Enterprise on March 31, 2022, the goal was to allow leaders to hear from the experiences of city and business leaders from a similar city that continues to grow and evolve like Frisco. We watched a recap video of the trip and what we found interesting was that Tammy Meinershagen went on the trip. Why is that interesting? While she was uncontested for her council position she had not yet been sworn in as a city council member yet, so we figured she went on the trip as a citizen, but a chain of emails stated otherwise.
In a March 3, 2022, email from Jeff Cheney to Holly McCall, he says Tammy has expressed an interest in going on the LEX trip. He thinks it would be good for her to join to get a head start on her development and start building relationships. He specifically notes, I know she will still be a council member elect as the time so not sure what hoops we need to jump through. McCall, Sr. Administrative Asst. to the Mayor & Council responds, “I’m sure it will be fine to pay for Tammy. We’re just waiting on confirmation/advisement from the attorney’s office before proceeding.”
Then on March 7, 2022, in an email from Tammy Meinershagen to Tony Felker, President/CEO for the Frisco Chamber she states it looks like she will be able to join “representing the city council” so can you let me know what you need from me. She also notes she has cc’d Mayor Jeff Cheney. Tony responded with an email asking Jeff Cheney what the best way for her is to register and then Jeff responds Holly McCall, the Sr. Administrative Assistant to the Mayor & Council, can book it. McCall responds again that she believes it will be fine to pay for her to go but she is waiting for the official city approval. Then on March 15 in an email from Brian Davis, Director of Marketing and Event Sponsorships to Henry Hill, Deputy City Manager it states Tony asked me to send over a copy of this invoice for Meinershagens registration for the LEX Trip later this month.
Fast forward to the April 19th, council meeting, Item #20 under the Consent Agenda (remember that is where they hide things) there is an action to consider and act upon approval of the attached reimbursement request presented to the Mayor and Council. The memo reads that the $3000 request was the cost for Tammy Meinershagen to travel to Cary, North Carolina for the LEX trip hosted by the Frisco Chamber. It states she is a ‘CANDIDATE FOR CITY COUNCIL RUNNING UNOPPOSED.” It further reads she will begin her term in May, but members of the council believe the trip provided knowledge and experience that serves the public purpose of the city and was beneficial to the duties of a city council member. Upon approval a payment of $3000 will be remitted to the Chamber for Invoice 94534 on behalf of Tammy Meinershagen. The cost was approved!
SO WHY IS THIS ALARMING? First these trips are paid for by tax dollars. Tammy, while running unopposed WAS NOT YET SWORN IN UNDER OFFICIAL OATH and she was NOT AN OFFICIAL COUNCIL MEMBER. Meinershagens own email stated she was going to attend and represent the city council. Let’s say the city paid for her to go and at the end of April she dropped dead, got a job transfer, or got struck by a meteorite – are you going to say then it was a good use of tax dollars. We don’t know what tomorrow brings but what I do know is that if Tammy wanted to attend she should have paid for it herself. Council members have to take an oath and sign and notarize the oath which Tammy had not done at the time of the trip. When the council approved the expense in April she WAS NOT A SITTING COUNCIL MEMBER. Runing unopposed or not should not matter – what should matter is she was not sworn in to uphold her official duties as a city council woman. Post after post we continue to show that the city and some members of the council live by rules for thee (ha, ha) don’t apply to me. It’s wrong!
Growing up we always had our hands in dirt or soil when helping dad with the Vineyards. I always complained and my Nona (grandma) would always say “oh, a little dirt never hurt anyone.” My dad would say “to most people dirt is just dirt, but to a farmer well that dirt is called potential.” I am sure these quotes belong to someone smarter than my dad and Nona but it did make me think, have you ever asked yourself, how much is the dirt below my feet worth? To an investor or developer dirt is like gold and depending on where it is located it can be worth a lot of money. Bill Gates began buying up land and farm operations years ago and while he leaves the farming to the professionals he understands land = asset appreciation. The dirt below the 2500 acres that PGA, Fields, and The Link is worth millions if not billions.
Developers and investors are betting heavily on Frisco which is great! With Mayor Cheney being so involved and so in love with the project I just assumed he would move out there to the greatest development of all time. Then at the debate he said he owns two pieces of property his personal home and his rental home (previous home). He said he does not own or have interest in any other land in Frisco. We were talking to a friend of ours who procured a lot in The Preserve, and we saw a picture he had taken of the builder’s map with written notes, and we thought, hmmm this looks interesting. Some realtor friends had said there was a rumor Jeff Cheney was given a lot or gifted a lot in The Preserve by the developer, but it was just a rumor.
Well by the looks of the picture Cheney and Keating have a lot under “Developer Hold” and it over looks …you guessed it…the 8th hole! It appears there is a “Friend & Family” row after all. I would love to hear from the Mayor what he plans to do with that lot next to his best friend Keating. Interestingly Cheney lives next door to Keating now in another community so I guess they are moving on up to the north side together like George & Weezy Jefferson. Cheney has to take his Florence with him which is Keating of course because you can’t leave Florence behind. Country singers Jordan Davis or Luke Bryan already said in their song “you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy dirt.” But did they buy it? I feel like breaking out in song since I don’t have any drums, and sing like Garth Brooks, ”Thunder rolls, And the lightnin’ strikes.”
Since childhood, I have loved a movie night with the family. My dad would take me to the corner store where he always got my mom a Bit-O-Honey and then he would look at me and say in his deep voice, kid you can pick a sweet treat too. I am sure I smiled ear to ear the whole way home looking out the window of the old truck with my $100,000 candy bar in my hand. Today the candy bar is called 100 Grand and I still pick one up every Friday with a quick pick lotto. In the movie Other People’s Money (1991), Lawrence Garfield said, “I love money more than the things it can buy…but what I love more than money is other people’s money.”
Our lives center around other people’s money, and we don’t even realize it. The bank owns the home until you make the last payment. The car belongs to the lender until you make the last payment. The new furniture you bought at Nebraska Furniture Mart that is financed over 24 months is not yours until the last payment. By now you see the connection, until we make the last payment the thing we love is not really ours. Politicians LOVE other people’s money because it helps pay for costly campaigns. The more campaign contributions they bring in, the less they will have to take out of their own pockets or through a loan. Political contributions are a time-honored tradition, and some would say “The Cost of Doing Business.”
In 2019, Sharon Grigsby with the Dallas Morning News did an article about Phillip Michael Carter, who was accused of taking advantage of elderly investors for million dollars, and the relationship he had with both Cheney and Keating’s campaign. Cheney received $15,000 and Keating received $5000 from Carter, both said they were returning the donations which was the right thing to do. She interviewed Cheney for about 45 minutes and Cheney told her he met Carter sometime after he became Mayor in 2017 and Carter later visited his office at City Hall about a sign-ordinance provision that was causing him difficulties at his Preston Road commercial property. Cheney said it was not unusual and most developers reach out to the mayor and ask for help. Cheney confirmed he helped resolve the issue but was steadfast that the 2018 campaign contribution was not tied to that case and said, “there was never a this for that.”
Cheney also told Grigsby that his “reputation is everything to me.” He regrets not looking deeper into the allegations but he is “so busy every single day, from sunup to sundown to the weekends.” The article goes on to say Cheney first learned of Carter’s state charges and arrest relating to fraud charges on November 14, 2018. He immediately linked the $5000 donation from Carter but said he had completely forgotten about the entire case until he began reviewing his campaign finance reports in anticipation of his interview with Grigsby. He admitted in the interview much of what Grigsby was laying out in regard to charges was news to him. The article was riveting but it never discussed the timeline between his donations and when the “issue” got fixed so we did some research.
May 24, 2018: Cheney $10,000 by Carter Family Office LLC (Phillip Carter)
October 10, 2018: Cheney $5,000 by North Forty Development (Phillip Carter)
October 15, 2018: Keating $5000 by Texas Cash Cow (Phillip Carter)
October 23, 2018: P&Z holds a public hearing for Sign Variance: Preston Wade Crossing by Frisco Wade Crossing Development Partners, LLC (Phillip Carter)
**Interesting fact the P&Z Commission in 2018 was led by Robert Cox who was appointed to the Commission in April 2016 with the first motion by John Keating and second by then councilman Jeff Cheney.
January 2019: SEC Files Charges against Phillip Carter for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme that took place from May 2015 to Feb 2017 and totaled around $45 million dollars and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
In 2019, Frisco’s population according to the US Census was about 200,907 people. It is hard to believe that someone who is the mayor of a booming and bustling town and also an extremely successful businessman could just “forget” about a fraud case that involved a real estate developer and millions of dollars. At the time it was plastered in local DFW papers and the top story on most local news stations. To be fair, Cheney and Keating accepted a campaign donation and nothing illegal occurred. They were never named in allegations that involved Phillip Carter and both returned the donations. Again, this is just another situation that “doesn’t look good” and could lead many to believe that something improper was happening, even if it wasn’t. That old perception is reality for many folks is a stinker.
Another thing we learned from Grigsby’s March 2019 DMN article was Cheney’s personal policy of not accepting more than $10,000 from a single donor when it comes to campaign contributions. I am not sure when that became his policy because he accepted $20,000 in 2017 plus $6000 in 2020 from Ali Kahla who we believe was a representative for IGO-USA, The Gate developer. I guess he also must have been ridiculously busy and forgot his personal policy almost 9 months after his interview with Grigsby and the article because in 2020 he accepted $15,000 from Fehmi Karahan (Fields). Again, we want to say there is nothing illegal about the donations (we don’t want to be sued) other than they seem to break his personal policy. I guess it is good to have a flexible policy that benefits you when needed.
Philip Anthony Hopkins who played Odin in the movie Thor said, “Even with two eyes, you can only see half of the picture.” If that is true, then we should all go to the Ophthalmologist to get our eyes checked out. The problem is repetition, the action of repeating something that you have already done or the recurrence of an action or event. The repetition of “it just looks bad” starts to become a theme and that can have a detrimental impact on the citizen’s perception of you and the city. The conversation becomes about the lack of trust and confidence in our city, the city council members, and our mayor.
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