Blow-By-Blow Breakdown

by friscowhistleblower | Apr 12, 2023 | Elections, Mark Piland, Mayor Jeff Cheney, Politics

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!