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
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
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