Every Wednesday, my wife and I sit down to eat dinner in front of the TV so she can see her Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. In one episode they have the Battle of the Badges Boxing Match, and my wife went crazy for the young studs with no shirts on. The Battle of the Badges is a tradition across the country and is considered a friendly rivalry between these two public safety departments. Frisco PD & Fire held one back on July 21& 22 of this year The two departments duked it out to raise blood donations for Carter Blood Care and the trophy was awarded to the Fire Department at an August 2023 city council meeting.
Just like the Battle of the Badges these two public safety departments also duke it out for the Battle of the Benjamins (aka money) every year during the annual city budget meetings. Just recently at the October 17, 2023 council meeting under the Regular Agenda, item #35 to put Civil Service Law and item #36 to adopt the Fire & Police Employee Relations Act on the May 2024 election ballot. What we found interesting was Mayor Cheney’s response which can be seen in the council meeting recording at the 37:59 mark where we feel he berates the Frisco Fire Association for having the audacity to seek Civil Service and Collective Bargaining.
Cheney said, “Since 2004, the City of Frisco has had Public Health and Safety listed as a strategic focus area and we invest in this focused area heavily. For example, in Frisco’s FY2023 a total of $108,000,000 of the total $229,000,000 general fund budget was committed to public safety for personnel and equipment, surpassing spending on other essential services combined. Additionally, the city has previously approved substantial funding for public safety facilities and equipment through bond programs. As your elected officials, we take great pride in making public safety our number one priority, and we stand committed to educating the public over the coming months, regarding this ballot measure.”
For once we agree with the city on one key thing which is Public Safety should be any city’s number one priority. Mayor Cheney’s reference to the budget made us curious, what is the budget for public safety? What is the breakdown of the $$Benjamin’s$$ (aka money) between PD and FD. Anyone following Frisco Chronicles knows we don’t approve of how the city is managing the two “number one priority” departments so now we wanted to look at the budgets to see if Mayor Cheney and the city really are committed. What we found is the breakdown is far from equal.
For FY23 the Police Dept. is $56.3 million compared to the Fire Department Budget at $52.4 million. Besides equipment the PD budget includes a Grants Administrator, Police Quartermaster, Training Officer, 10 Patrol Officers, 4 School Resource Officers, 1 School Resource Sergeant, and a Detective for a total of 19 new hires, 16 of which appear to be operations and 3 in the office. However, the total number of new hires for the Fire Department is just 4! That’s right 19 for PD and only 4 for FD and none of the staff positions are for actual firefighters. Instead, the FD budget includes an Open Records Coordinator, a Public Safety Equipment Tech, an Emergency Management Analyst, and an Explorer Trainee. Surely we are MISSING SOMETHING HERE, only 4? No field positions, no actual firefighters?
We decided to look ahead to the FY2024 approved budget. The Police Department has a budget of 69.4 million, an increase of 14% and it includes 32 NEW PD POSITIONS. Compare that to the Fire Department with a budget of 55.7 million, an increase of 4%, and includes 3 NEW FIRE POSITIONS which are for a K-9 Handler/Investigator and 2 Fire Inspectors. The city budget even notes under Fire, “when compared to the FY23 revised budget, remains relatively flat.”That means our new Fire Chief, Lee Glover has asked for no increase in firefighters in a city with a growing monthly population due to the urban density our council likes to approve. I am not a genius but even I know growth equals a need for more public safety services in both departments and clearly the city is NOT SUPPORTING STAFFING IMPROVEMENTS in the Fire Department.
Completely perplexed, we decided to go back to the FY2022 budget and take a look at it for shits & giggles. The police budget in 2022 was 51.3 million compared to the fire department at 44.9 million. The PD was requesting 17 NEW personnel while then Fire Chief Mark Piland asked for 10 NEW Personnel and 9 of those positions were for FIREFIGHTERS.
In the City of Frisco’s FY22 Proposed Budget video at the 2:50 mark, King George Purefoy said “We estimate that in about two to three years that Fire Station 10 will be built and go into operation. There are usually somewhere between 24 to new firefighters that are needed for a new station. As you can imagine that takes a tremendous amount of funds to do that all at once, so one thought was to start hiring some of these firefighters now, they’re needed to help the current operations, and try to do that the next two budget years to hopefully provide the staff we need to, for the new fire station ten.”
That may have been what King George thought, but it was not the original thought or request by Chief Mark Piland. Records show he had originally asked for each of the 3 truck companies that responded to high-rise and high-risk structure fires adding to the number of firefighters that would be available for these types of incidents. That request didn’t happen either!
At a city council meeting on January 17, 2023, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Angelia Pelham asked Anita Cothran, Chief Financial Officer for the city (at the 17:43 mark), about Fire Department staffing which seemed out of the ordinary and a little random. Pelham mentioned at a previous city council meeting they talked about FD staffing and how she is aware the city was not approved for a specific grant that would have enable them to hire more staff, she was curious if something was planned in future discussions. Cothran replied yes that is something they would discuss with the city manager’s office and then with budget and audit committee. Pelham then asked if there was a specific time for that to happen and that is when City Manager, Wes Pierson spoke up.
Pierson said “The answer is yes, but there’s no specific time, that conversation can be ongoing. But currently, the budget, as approved, has enough staffing for the level of service that we’re providing currently. He then noted he believed the conversations of new staffing were in relation to opening a new fire station and were not there yet as Fire Station 10 was delayed a bit, but we’re preparing for that.” Delayed? A little bit? The city asked for Fire Station 10 in the 2015 Bond and Station 11 in the 2019 Bond, yet we don’t have either of them. Seems a little longer than “a little bit” Mr. Pierson.
The question we have, was Pelham’s question random? The answer is no! How do we know this? Well, at every council meeting if you are a citizen and want to speak you can do at citizen’s input. You must fill out a blue card stating why you want to speak and hand it to the City Secretary, Kristy Morrow. She then hands those cards to Angelia Pelham who is responsible for calling the citizens one by one down to the podium during citizens’ input. At the January 17th meeting, Angelia Pelham saw a card from Matthew Sapp, President of the Frisco Firefighters Association that stated he was there to talk about “STAFFING!” Her goal was to preempt Sapps statements and after hearing his statement below you will see her question was very target based on what Sapp was going to speak about. Talk about sneaky and underhanded!
It makes sense why FFA President Matthew Sapp took to the podium during citizen’s input at the January meeting. Sapp read a statement, “This is the third time I have asked this question since the public hearing for the FY23 budget in August 2022…I’ve asked this question to you, the City Manager, and the Interim Fire Chief Lee Glover. We’ve yet to get a clear answer from anyone. I know the Interim Fire Chief has stated he has no plans on asking for staffing. They feel we’re appropriately staffed…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… The FY22 budget states we would be hiring 9 firefighters a year for the next three years…this was said to be in preparation for the future Station 10. The majority of this council approved of that budget. This has now been pushed back due to infrastructure reasons, and therefore, the staffing plan is on hold. This year’s budget for FY23, which was unanimously approved, contains 19 police officer positions and added zero firefighters… Now, there’s no plan for this fiscal year.”
After digging into the budgets and seeing the glaring lack of personnel additions to the fire department in several years you have a lightbulb moment. Now one can understand why the Fire Firefighters Association is upset and has petitioned for Civil Service and Collective Bargaining. They truly believe they “need a seat at the table” to fight for their safety and the citizen’s safety. It is clear in 2022 Interim Fire Chief Lee Glover didn’t believe we needed additional staff and therefore did not ask for it in the FY2023 budget talks. In 2023 as the New Fire Chief, Glover also didn’t ask for more staff in the FY2024 budget talks.
Fast forward to August 7, 2023, in a video posted on the City of Frisco’s Facebook page, Fire Chief Lee Glover states, “We have a five-year staffing plan and a five-year plan ahead of us. We’re looking at building Station 10 starting in the fall of this year. We have been given permission by the council to start the drawings with an architect for Station 11.” Based on what Sapp said at citizen’s input about it taking 18 months to train a firefighter, you should have started hiring a few years ago if you had a five-year plan. Why has the city not published this five-year plan since they know the issue of the FD personnel is a hot-button issue? I am not sure if anyone else has noticed besides me – FRISCO HAS BEEN AND IS CURRENTLY GROWING NOW! We need to plan for NOW! You have The Preserve @ Fields where homes will range up to 15 million by the PGA are we disclosing to all those home buyers they have no Frisco Fire Station to support their community and may not for another 5 years?
Final Thoughts, well I know some of the city champions will say then Fire Chief Mark Piland didn’t do anything for hiring, but he did. In private meetings with then and now city managers he spoke up for his department repeatedly. He also went as far as to apply for the city manager’s position and then ran for mayor and we believe Piland saw how the city was operating and recognized things had to change for the safety of the city employees and citizens. It appears to us that all this “progress in motion” was in place long before Glover engineered his way into the Fire Chief position. Station 10 & 11 were both approved in previous bonds as we stated earlier and then Fire Chief, Mark Piland. Chief Glover wants to take credit for a successful department while he deconstructs life-saving programs implemented Piland and his Leadership staff. The most important thing to ask yourself is how many more firefighters will get hurt under Lee Glover’s leadership before people take notice we are heading in the wrong direction. Lastly, ask how many have already been hurt under Glover’s leadership?
Now we are left curious about the bond programs and what we citizens have been asked to vote for. Stay tuned!
The season 7 opener of the tv show The Office was an episode entitled Nepotism. What is that? Nepotism is the practice among those with power or influence to favor, show bias, or give preferential treatment to relatives, friends, and close associates. The episode started off with everyone returning from summer to the office to find a new office assistant named Luke. It quickly became clear to those who worked at Dunder Mifflin that Luke liked to goof off, deliberately mess up food and coffee runs, and had a poor attitude that led everyone to quickly not like him. When complaints were made to Michael Scott (the manager) he was quick to defend Luke and soon it was revealed that Luke is Michael’s nephew. He had hired him in hopes that would end the bad relationship he had with his half-sister. After the staff’s concerns were ignored they found packages in Luke’s car that he never mailed and because of it they were losing customers. They went to the CEO of the company Jo Bennett and she called Michael the manager in and quickly told him to deal with the situation. During a team meeting later that day, Luke pulled out a laser pointer and started to annoy people so a frustrated Michael ended up spanking Luke in front of the entire office and Luke quit and ran away crying. Due to his actions of assaulting a coworker, Michael was sent by HR to six hours of counseling. After watching the episode, it is clear why Nepotism has no place in a work environment for everyone’s benefit.
If you really want to know what’s going on in the City of Frisco, be sure to tune in to the Consent Agenda for each City Council meeting. Consent Agenda items are considered routine in nature and are considered non-controversial and can be acted upon in one motion. I am curious who determines what is “routine in nature” and “non-controversial” before it is approved to go on the consent agenda?
On June 20, 2023, my wife and I noticed Item 22 on the Consent Agenda for the city council meeting. It read, “Consider and act upon adoption of an Ordinance approving the revised Nepotism policy and the revised Employee Code of Conduct policy. Nepotism? We thought it was such a random and odd change that left us with questions. Why is the city wanting to revise the Nepotism policy? How often does the city’s HR department go to the council to ask them to revise the Employee Code of Conduct Policy?
As you know the city’s Code of Conduct policy has been a hot topic on FriscoChronicles and our Curious George mentality came out. This policy was originally developed in 2006 so why now in 2023 are we suddenly changing it? We started with doing a meeting search for the word Nepotism and what we discovered was the city had already set the stage and made some changes to the Nepotism Ordinance at the city council meeting in April 2023. Item 24 of the consent agenda asked to revise the Nepotism policy to remove the 3rd Degree of consanguinity (blood). They argued it could cause them to lose the opportunity to hire some dedicated employees. The revision ordinance 19-11-91 can be found in the City of Frisco Personnel Policies.
So why did they change it again two months later in June 2023? In a memo from Lauren Safranek, Director of Human Resources to the city council, she asked them to consider a revision to modify the employment relationship of a Department Director with other employees. In the past a Department Director could not have an immediate relationship with someone else in another department. Now, with the June revision, it allows for a Department Director to have someone by blood, marriage, cohabitants, or roommate to work in the city as long as they are not in the same department. They also took the step to add to the list of blood, marriage, cohabitants, and roommates. In Section 3: Definitions the city added and defined the terms Identified Employee and Director. Further down in the policy under General Provisions/Violations, Section A: Supervision, they added No City employee shall be employed in a department in which the Director is related within the prohibited level of consanguinity and/or affinity, a cohabitant, roommate (“Identified Employee”) as specified above. Why now? Why all of the sudden is the city changing the policy 2x in a year, not even 2 months apart when it comes to Nepotism?
After talking to my wife, we thought the only reason to change the policy is if you wanted to promote someone to Director, want to hire someone, or have hired someone that violates the Nepotism policy. The first question we asked ourselves, who are the most recent new hires announced by the city in the last year? The second question we asked ourselves, who has left the city and did they leave because Nepotism was an issue? Wes Pierson was named our new City Manager, and he has since hired two new Assistant City Managers Rob Millar and E.A. Hoppe. We looked at all three and could not find any issues of Nepotism in our research.
The biggest loss for the city this year was Jason Cooley who served as Frisco’s Chief Innovation Officer. He accepted a position with The City of Allen, but we don’t think he left due to Nepotism as we could not find anyone he would potentially be related to working in the city. Cooley was the primary person who taught employees about Frisco’s Core Values. Frisco has a set of core values? Yes, they are Integrity, Outstanding Customer Service, Fiscal Responsibility, Operational Excellence and Our Employees. Ironically, they lead with, “Integrity is honesty, trustworthiness, ethical behavior and always doing the right thing. Integrity matters because we are entrusted with building and maintaining our community. Integrity is the foundation of all other core values.” Hmmm….
Next, we came across an article in Government Technology from July 19, 2023, talking about how the Chief Information Officer in Dallas County was leaving to go lead IT operations in Frisco, Texas. It stated Melissa Kraft made the announcement via her own recent social media post. The article stated that the Frisco FY23 budget included funding for a server and wireless refresh, disaster recovery expenses, switch and network replacements and a Police Department firewall refresh. It also planned to add a data governance program, according to budget documents. Kraft is so new she is not even listed yet in the online city directory, but she is listed on the FY24 Annual Draft Budget. Interestingly in our research we learned that Cory Kraft works as a Sergeant in the City of Frisco Criminal Investigations Unit. Could they be related? Both Melissa and Cory live at the same address, and we believe they are husband and wife which would prevent her from being hired under the Nepotism policy. Has Sergeant Kraft stepped down? Not according to the city’s online directory. Now it is starting to make sense why they made the June 2023 change to the Nepotism policy. Hiring Melissa Kraft would have violated the policy because she would have been a director. So, the city changed the rules to hire her, the pieces are starting to come together.
Now, one would have to wonder what Susan B. Olson, who is currently the Assistant Director of Information Technology, felt about this announcement. Olson has over 20 plus years of employment with the city and sources tell us she applied for the position. Sources also told us they believe she was not considered for the new Chief IT Director because of a “relationship” as defined in the city’s Nepotism policy and Employee Code of Conduct. Did the city of Frisco use the old Nepotism policy to push Susan Olson out and then change it to allow this new hire? If the information we have is correct, and I were Susan Olson I would be furious.
While looking at the Police Department directory we noticed Animal Services was listed. My wife and I were surprised that in a city of 200k+ people it would fall under Frisco PD as we thought it would have been its own department. We noticed from the directory that the Animal Services Supervisor was Steven Lerner who has served the city for 16 years. The positions of Supervisor and Director have two very different pay scales and one would think Steve Lerner would want to be a Director for the pay increase, as long as it didn’t violate the policy. We searched the directory and found a Shelby Lerner who is a Sr. Environmental Health Inspector and the two share a home address. According to the Nepotism policy, Steve Lerner could not have been the Director of Animal Services (if it was its own department) while his wife worked for the city. That means Shelby Lerner would have to step down, or should we say, “retire” as that is the Frisco way.
We connected the dots to the change of the June 2023 Nepotism policy, and we could have stopped here. Something was nagging at me and this time it wasn’t my wife. It was the lingering question, why did they make a change to the Nepotism policy in April 2023? What was happening in April to warrant a change then to the 3rd Degree Relationship that they removed? That is when the alarms went off in my head that the city was going through the hiring process for a new Fire Chief and the acting Interim Chief was Lee Glover. We decided to look into Glover’s relationships and we learned through research that he is the nephew to Glenda Sue Hess, who is the sister of Alvin Lee Glover, Sr., his father. Glenda has two sons, Jason and James Darren Ponder. James has a son by the name Jarred “Daniel” Ponder who works in the city’s planning department. That means he is Lee Glover’s, second cousin.
We initially wondered why the city would choose Glover as the new Fire Chief after a recent association survey where he received an overwhelming vote of no confidence by the fire fighters. How was Glover promoted to Fire Chief when he has a second cousin that works for the city? Oh, that’s right, back on April 4, 2023, the city quietly eliminated the 3rd Degree relations of employees in the Nepotism policy via the Consent Agenda. The Nepotism policy should have disqualified Lee Glover and eliminated him from the “candidate pool” and in our opinion should have applied to him from the start of the search, just like it had for so many other city employees. But wait, there is more, should Glover have been named Interim Chief back in September 2022 while his relative was “pondering” in the city planner’s office? As Interim Chief he was running the department which is a clear violation of the Nepotism rules. I would even bet, with Lee Glover’s long history, we could find a few more “relatives, cohabitants, and roommates”.
Where there is smoke there is fire and in our research we found that Keith Siebert a Captain with the Frisco FD is the brother of Paul Siebert. Paul Siebert joined Frisco FD in 1991 and retired in 2017 and now works in Prosper FD. He applied in 2013 for the Frisco Fire Chief position which was later given to Mark Piland. Paul Siebert was more than qualified for the position but was eliminated from the running due to the Nepotism policy. We were told he could have given any candidate at that time a run for their money had he not been disqualified.
It really is some shady shXt if you ask me. A city insider confirmed our suspicions, telling us that there have been multiple other city employees disqualified or denied the opportunity to pursue director level positions within the city of Frisco because of this same policy. You know, the one that has been in place since 2006 and was used time and time again to control the candidate pool for years.
Remember Lauren Safranek told the city council in the original April memo that the reason they wanted to remove the 3rd Degree is they potentially could lose great candidates and future dedicated employees. Clearly the rules were changed for Melissa Kraft and Lee Glover. It also leaves us wondering did Lee Glover disclose his relationship or did city management and human resources already know this information? Either way they casually tried to sweep this nugget under the rug first in April and two months later in June, thinking no one would piece it together. How does the city determine who it will and will not bend the rules for? Is this more of the Frisco Way? The most important question we have for Ms. High Horse Safranek is don’t you think since 2006 we have lost many internal candidates who already were amazing employees due to this policy? Why didn’t you want to change it then? Why now?
It is good to be back from our month long sabbatical otherwise known as a holiday in my country and we have been eager to check the tip line for some new Shade. While visiting my country last month, I got to take part in the Gentleman’s Club (it is not what you think). It is a monthly tradition where the village gentleman holds a club night, enjoys some bottles of vino on the terrace, and tell wild tales. Meanwhile, the women go inside to also enjoy the vino and a couple hands of cards. We began to share jolly chatter when Paulo looked at me and said, “since you live in Texas, tell me about LAJITAS?” I politely asked if that was the name of a cocktail and he said “no, it is the name of a small famous town in far west Texas that feels like it sits on the edge of the world.” Shocked, I said tell me more as laughter abound from the men on the terrace. Paulo said, “Clay Henry is a delinquent politician full of tricks who ran for mayor of Lajitas. He was known for consuming up to 40 beers a day and he had a penchant for headbutting constituents without any warning. He was Lajitas most “FAMOUS CITIZEN” and he was the only mayor in the US with hooves.” All of looked at Paulo not sure if we should laugh or think he lost his mind, when he blurted out yep, Clay Henry was a goat! We all began to google and of course there are many stories and/or legends around Lajitas and Clay Henry. So many that it is hard to know what is true or false. One story goes that Clay Henry was killed by his son Clay Henry Jr. for being a ladies’ man and his love rival. Another story said in in 1992 when the Goat Mayor died he was stuffed chugging a beer and mounted in the general store for all the visitors to see. The craziest story of all is the one where Clay Henry was castrated by a local name Bob Hargrove after he became jealous of Henry drinking the last beer in town on a Sunday. According to the ABC News report the goat was found lying in the streets with his testicles cut off. With that all the men stood up and it was time to call it a night. The fun stops when it comes a goat losing his testis’s. I said goodbye to all my local friends and their wives then stumbled just down the steps to my room where my wife was already in bed reading a book. I said, “DAMN HUN, be glad we live in Frisco, Texas and not Lajitas with a testicleless goat!” My wife looked at me with the usual disappointment and like I was an idiot and said turn off the lights.
You are probably wondering why the hell did I tell you this story. Well, because I was thinking we probably didn’t miss anything while we were gone and yet we missed everything! We quickly learned that the City of Frisco hired a new, but old, yet still unwanted Fire Chief named Lee Glover, who has a 90+ percent no confidence vote from the Frisco Fire Fighters. Then we learned the Frisco Fire Fighters have started a petition to become a civil service organization and to have collective bargaining. The cherry on top was a Frisco PD Resource Officer, Kendal Augustus was fired then arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child and sexual performance of a child and yet his bond was only set at $55,000? Jackie from the TV Series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel said it best, “Life is a basically an all-you-can-eat shit show!”
Jackie is right that life is basically a shit show and sometimes it can also be the gift that keeps on giving. After unpacking I went to water my roses and my neighbor was outside, so he walked over and said I have something to show you. He pulled out his phone and said, yesterday we were on the lake, and you won’t believe the photos we captured. I quickly realized it was photos of Mayor Cheney and his wife Dana on their boat. He pointed out Zach Cheney, the mayor’s oldest son (still under 21), who was doing shots off the back of the boat with some friends while the Cheney’s watched from the head of the boat like the kings of the world!
Obviously, the Cheney’s didn’t learn anything after hosting the viral keg party at their house for Zach’s graduation in May 2021 in which their son later posted to his snap chat account. Now they will quickly deny this happened, but boat registrations do not lie! In Texas, every watercraft must be registered just like a car and that is the number you see on the side of the boat. In this case the pictures show a black Bennington 25 ft Pontoon with the registration of TX 5306 KL. To look up the current ownership of a boat is simple, and a matter of public record at the State of Texas Open Data Portal. When we ran the registration it shows the original registration date of 09/07/2022 and is due for renewal on 09/30/2024. The owner is listed as Thomas J Cheney Jr. and it is registered to his home in Frisco. We won’t give out his address, but you can look it up just clicking on the Open Data Portal link yourself.
Just because it is okay for a Mayoral Goat to get drunk does not mean the same rules apply to humans. What are the laws in Texas when it comes to minors drinking? Drinking when you’re under 21 or providing alcohol to a minor comes with consequences. If a minor attempts to buy, possesses or drink alcoholic beverages, or if a minor is intoxicated in public or misrepresents their age to buy alcohol they could be in trouble. They could face a $500 fine, attend a boring alcohol awareness class, do up to 40 hours of community service and could potentially lose their driver’s license up to 180 days.
On the other hand, adults who give minors alcohol could also face stiff penalties. Making alcoholic beverages available to a minor is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $4,000, confinement in jail for up to a year or both. Your driver´s license would also be automatically suspended for 180 days when they are convicted. Texas also has a “Zero Tolerance Law” which states, it is illegal for a person under 21 to operate a motor vehicle or watercraft in a public place while having any detectable amount of alcohol in their system.
Most interesting is that in Texas, a person may purchase an alcoholic beverage for or give an alcoholic beverage to a minor if he is the minor’s adult parent, guardian, or spouse and they must be visibly present when the minor possesses or consumes the alcoholic beverage. However, Texas Social Host Laws state it is illegal for a parent to provide alcohol to other minors who are not their children, and they could be responsible should that minor cause injury to themselves or cause property damage.
Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian once said, “patterns repeat themselves in history.” If that is true then one could say intentions are often hidden inside patterns of behavior and a good indicator of patterns is TIME! In this case history is repeating itself and just as publicly as it did last time. After watching the video which includes photos from the lake and Zach Cheney’s own open Instagram page it leaves us with a few questions.
How old are the young adults in the boat chugging shots like Clay Henry the Goat?
If they are under 21, then who purchased the alcohol for their consumption?
If the Mayor purchased the alcohol and provided it to his son that is fine, but if he provided it to his son’s friends (who are underage) that is ILLEGAL!
When the pontoon docked back at the marina – who drove the car or cars home?
Lastly, Mr. Cheney is not a secretary for the city he is the Mayor! The BUCK STOPS WITH HIM! He should be leading by example. How do you say this is okay, then say how important the Shattered Dreams program is at the high schools to stop underage drinking. As for Zach Cheney you would think his parents would have sat him down in 2021 and said “Son, you are an extension of us meaning what you do reflects on us and so you can not publish photos of you on social media platforms partying and drinking when you are clearly underage. Surely they told him to lock down his accounts so only his friends can see his debauchery. No, his Instagram clearly shows him drinking on bid day in 2022 when he was 19, as well as other times. It also shows him at AT&T Stadium tailgating – how did they get home after? It appears the Mayor and his wife were also attending the game and the Mayor clearly had on his City of Frisco Polo. Truthfully, old grouches like us are lucky – we did not have social media to get us in trouble. It is called common sense, if you are going to drink underage (most young adults do) and you are from a notable family then don’t post about it on an open social feed, and don’t take your kid out in the open to a cove on the Lake known for a good time!
Imagine you live in a city where the newly elected female mayor calls a press conference to make an extraordinary announcement regarding a new recruiting policy for the police department. Shortly into her speech she says the police department must accept ALL willing recruits meaning anyone, regardless of colour, gender, height and weight as long as they can attend and pass a 14-week course in the academy. A large number of candidates immediately come forward, sign up, and next thing you know they are standing before the Captain and Lieutenant of the academy. They are greeted by their instructors who say, “My name is Captain Harris! In case you missed it, this is Sergeant Callahan! We are the meanest instructors here. We’ve got you because you are the worst people here. You are “D” Squad; “D” for “dirtbags”. When I say: “Hey, dirtbags!” that means you. You people are going to hate my guts for the rest of your lives. I am going to make you sorry that you ever came here.” The group of misfit recruits work hard and train hard in order to prove themselves capable of carrying the badge. Funny thing is they end up succeeding despite and because of their eccentricities. Well, that is the plot of the very first Police Academy movie in 1984 which grossed $149.8 million worldwide. The series of films would become one of the most popular “police movie” franchises in history grossing another $387 million for the sequels. It was simple slap-stick humor, usually based on simple characterizations and physical attributes of the “underdogs” struggling to prove themselves even though they faced constant opposition from those who ran the academy. My favorite scene of all time is when Hightower gets a driving lesson on how to drive so he can pass the police exam.
Any who, in Dragnet (Part 1) we went over the 27 recommendations from the Three-Year Strategic Staffing Plan for the Frisco PD and now we want to tell you about a few points that my wife and found interesting in the study. First, police calls are rated on a scale of Priority One to Three. Priority 1 calls are crimes in progress and incidents that put citizens at risk. Priority 2 calls are to ensure situations don’t escalate into a more serious incident. Priority 3 & 4 calls are non-critical. In 2019, the city had 595 Priority 1 calls and they expect that number to be over 900 calls in the next 3 years. The average response time in 2019 for a Priority 1 call was 5.25 minutes. Priority 2 calls had an average response time of 6.48 minutes and in 2019 they had 21, 571 calls. In regard to calls, the study said “Frisco PD patrol staffing increases are necessary to increase the capacity of the FPD Patrol Division to absorb the expected increases in calls for service to decrease response times for calls. With these changes, FPD patrol will align with contemporary patrol staffing standards and be able to accommodate modern police service demands.”
Another key point relating to patrol was “ The City of Frisco needs to make steady progress towards the goal of adding 42 patrol officers over the next 3 years. Without additional staffing, the FPD Patrol Division will not be able to absorb the expected increases in calls for service, increase self-initiated activities, or decrease response times without negatively impacting other patrol performance objectives (e.g., immediate availability and patrol visibility).”
Second, the study looked at the Traffic Division which handles hit and run accidents, traffic enforcement and accident investigation. The study said, “As the population of the City of Frisco continues to grow and more visitors come to enjoy its entertainment venues, additional traffic officers are needed.”
Third, when it comes to investigations we learned investigators assigned to the Crimes Against Children Unit was assigned an average of 13.6 new cases per month in 2018, an average of 20.5 new cases per month in 2019, and an average of 25.8 new cases per month in 2020. The number of new cases assigned to Crimes Against Children has substantially increased; almost doubling from 2018 to 2020. I will be curious to see the average number of cases per month once the Universal Kids theme park opens. It is important to point out that the study said there is not a national standard on the number of new cases that should be assigned to an investigator each month. The general standard used by the study is 12 cases per month for violent crimes (which covers crimes against children / persons).
Last, we learned that the Detention Division and the Communications Divisionat the time of the study operated with the minimum staffing level 24/7/365. More shocking was the Training Unit currently pulls their certified TCOLE instructors from their regular responsibilities as a patrol officer, investigator, or other role within the department to provide the in-service training. The study pointed out that with the size of FPD, this is an inefficient process and impacts the staffing levelswithin divisions and units from where the trainers are drawn. If the Training Unit is sufficiently staffed, it can provide all in-service training for FPD personnel.
In a city with a population of 227,426 residents, should we be concerned about staffing levels in two of the most crucial departments in this city? Absolutely we should be concerned about that! In fact, an insider told us that Purefoy didn’t care too much for Chief Piland because at internal meetings he would constantly try to address staffing issues and was quickly shot down by the then city manager. All we hear from top city officials, the mayor and some council members are the slogan “SAFEST CITY” and we that could be true right now, but what about the future? The question everyone should be asking themselves is will we be the safest city 10 years from now. More importantly, why does it seem as if city management at city hall is operating with a reactive management style meaning reacting to problems as they arise vs proactive management which is where we see ahead, anticipate problems, and take steps to prevent the problems from happening? Was the city proactive in taking steps to meet the 27 recommendations in the study over the last 3 years? If not, why?
Frisco is an amazing city and all we want is for it to stay that way. We must ask how is it we have all this money for incentives, developments, TIRZ and public/private partnership opportunities but we can’t find the money to fix staffing issues? Why is it we can find money in the budget for two more Assistant City Managers? If those questions don’t make you stop and think, then maybe this will. Imagine it is 12:30 am and one of our police officers answers the call for a disturbance in a Home Depot parking lot and upon the officer attempting to make contact with the subject, the man produced a gun and opened fire, striking our officer in the chest just outside of his vest. As he lays there he knows he is going to die so he calls out on the radio, “118, tell my family I love them.” Communications responds, “I can’t copy.” The officer responds one final time, “118, tell my family I love them.” That is what happened to Officer Dia in Toledo and there is nothing to say it can’t happen here. What if one of our fire fighters goes into the burning flames of a Frisco home to rescue a child and the next thing you hear is the PASS device sending out distress signals. Those signals mean that a fire fighter is motionless and probably trapped or deceased. The flames at this point are out of control and it is clear we have a firefighter down. Will it take losing one of our own before we before residents wake up and demand more answers? When does the city decide to step up to the plate, be transparent about our staffing levels and do the right thing? Is it too late?
Our question is, would they still both endorse Mayor Cheney today? They didn’t in the recent election so it makes you wonder, why?
Sgt. Joe Friday is a no-nonsense, by the book kind of cop. He can be calm at times and other times he is viewed as a little rigid, cold, and a fast talker. Imagine Sgt. Friday’s dismay when he is partnered with a lively, unscrupulous, irresponsible and foot loose partner named Pep Streebeck. At their first meeting Friday says his new partner “I don’t care what undercover rock you crawled out from, there’s a dress code for detectives in Robbery-Homicide under section 3-605. 10. 20. 22. 24. 26. 50. 70. 80. It specifies a clean shirt, short hair, tie, pressed trousers, sports jacket or suit, and leather shoes, preferably with a high shine on them.” Their first assignment is to investigate Jerry Caesar a criminal who traffics pornographic magazines. Strait-laced Sgt. Friday said to Streebeck, “There are two things that clearly differentiate the human species from animals. One, we use cutlery. Two, we’re capable of controlling our sexual urges. Now, you might be an exception Streebeck, but don’t drag me down into your private Hell.” Their investigation into Ceaser has a connection to a series of random crimes by a P.A.G.A.N., a criminal cult. Friday and Streebeck realize they must go undercover to rescue the Virgin Connie Swail, a woman who is about to be sacrificed. Swail agrees to testify against the leader corrupt Reverend Whirley. Shortly thereafter Friday begins a romance with Virgin Connie Swail which could hinder his police work. Want to know the rest of the story then you need to watch the 1987 hit movie Dragnet that topped the box office.
There is a general theme in most cop movies which is it is important that police departments have the staff and resources needed to protect and serve residents. During the recent 2023 mayoral election, “staffing” of our public safety departments was a topic raised over and over. In fact, Matt Sapp, President of the Frisco Fire Fighters Association stood in front of our city council in January 2023 and asked a simple question, “Will we as a city add firefighters to the budget this year?” You can read more about how our FD falls below the national staffing standard by reading Where There Is Smoke (part 1), and There is Fire (part 2). The city has repeatedly denied our Fire Department is understaffed and very own Mayor, Jeff Cheney, said he is happy with the staffing levels, and the departments have everything they need. At one of the debates Mayoral Candidate Mark Piland mentioned a “police study” the city had done sometime in 2020 / 2021 and how it stated our police department is understaffed. My wife and I looked at each other and said is it possible that both of our public safety departments are currently understaffed?
A PIR was filed for a copy of the study, but we were told it was only available for viewing at city hall because the documents are subject to copyright. That is truly the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard as an excuse. Whether or not something is copyrighted should not matter or be a reason you withhold it from the public. If you go to Barnes and Noble most, if not all, the items in the store are copyrighted by the authors. Shockingly they are on the shelves, available for viewing and for you to buy. In fact, a simple google search of the organization who did the study pulls up several other studies they have done for other nearby local agencies for example Sachse PD. Imagine our SURPRISE to discover most of those studies are available for full view online. Where is the copyright issue? We also found that Collin County Sherriff’s Office contracted a study for a 5-year plan in February 2022 and Murphy Police Department 2020 Racial Profiling Analysis online. Why does Frisco act like they are special or have the right to withhold information? Why would they tell us we have to come in to view the study – what makes it any different than any other study in other cities? What is in the study that the city does not want us to know? No worries, we have the staffing study in full because Shady Shit does not give up that easily.
Who conducted the study? In 2020, Frisco PD with the help of federal grant money contracted with Justice Research Consultants, LLC, and its principal researcher Mr. Fritsch for the development of a three-year strategic staffing study. Fritsch has done studies both nationally and internationally and is considered a leading expert on police staffing, patrol allocation and deployment strategies. He has conducted staffing assessments in several Texas cities including Allen, Prosper, and Richardson. Fritsch also developed a propriety software called Model for the Allocation of Patrol Personnel (MAPP) which is one of the only models in existence today and the only one that has been stringently validated. Lastly, he has taught graduate level research methods for over 20 years at a university and is a published author. He appears to be more than qualified to conduct the study and to produce accurate results.
The study which was done in 2020 pulled most the of the baseline from 2019 due to covid and how that affected certain indicators. It started with interviews with Frisco PD personnel and the research team conducted a comprehensive analysis of several different factors to validate and project patrol staffing needs. The report is structured into six primary sections and the summary had 27 recommendations for staffing improvements which are listed below:
Recommendation #1: Based on the results, it is recommended by the end of FY 24 that 42additional patrol officers be added above the current authorized patrol officer and corporal allocation. Implementation Timeframe of Officers: FY 22 – Add 14 patrol officers, FY 23 – Add 14 patrol officers and FY 24 – Add 14 patrol officers.
Recommendation #2: It is recommended that four new patrol Sergeants should be assigned to serve as supervisors for special shifts. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 2 patrol sergeants and FY 23 – Add 2 patrol sergeants.
Recommendation #3: It is recommended that a deployment team of one Sergeant and three officers be added for each of the next three years. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 sergeant and 3 officers, FY 23 – Add 1 sergeant and 3 officers, FY 24 – Add 1 sergeant and 3 officers.
Recommendation #4: It is recommended that one new Sergeant should be assigned to the Traffic Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 traffic sergeant.
Recommendation #5: It is recommended that two new traffic officers should be assigned to the Traffic Unit. Based on the needs of the unit, it is expected these additional traffic officers will be deployed in vehicles. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 traffic officer, FY 24 – Add 1 traffic officer.
Recommendation #6: Add 3 school resource officers to the School Resource Officer Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 school resource officer and FY 24 – Add 2 school resource officers.
Recommendation #7: Add 2 criminalists to the Crime Scene Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 criminalist and FY 24 – Add 1 criminalist.
Recommendation #8: Add 1 property & evidence technician to the Property & Evidence Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 24 – Add 1 property & evidence technician.
Recommendation #9: Add 2 digital media technicians to the Investigations Division. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 2 digital media technicians.
Recommendation #10: Add 3 civilian investigative assistants to the Investigations Division. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 2 civilian investigative assistants and FY 24 – Add 1 civilian investigative assistant.
Recommendation #11: Add 1 Office Manager to the Investigations Division. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 office manager.
Recommendation #12:Within the Crimes Against Children Unit, add 1 internet crimes against children investigator, 1 digital forensic analyst (non-sworn), and 1 crimes against children investigator. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 internet crimes against children investigator and FY 23 – Add 1 digital forensic analyst (non-sworn) and 1 crimes against children investigator.
Recommendation #13: Add 2 investigators to the Crimes Against Persons Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 investigator and FY 24 – Add 1 investigator.
Recommendation #14: Add 1 investigator to the Property Crimes Unit to investigate economic/white collar crimes. Implementation Timeframe: FY 24 – Add 1 investigator to investigate economic/white collar crimes.
Recommendation #15: Add 2 Community Service Officers to the Community Services Division. One of the officers should have the primary responsibility of working with businesses while the other officer should primarily work with hotels/motels. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 Community Service Officer and FY 24 – Add 1 Community Service Officer
Recommendation #16: Add 4 Detention Officers to the Detention Division. One Detention Officer should be assigned to each of the four shifts. Implementation Timeframe: FY 24 – Add 4 Detention Officers
Recommendation #17: Add 2 Records Clerks to the Records Division. One Records Clerk should focus on open record requests while the other Records Clerk should focus on digital media requests. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 Records Clerk and FY 24 – Add 1 Records Clerk
Recommendation #18: Add 3 Communications Officers to the Communications Division. These officers can be utilized to provide coverage of the new second Frisco PD radio channel which is expected to be operational in FY 22. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23– Add 3 Communications Officers.
Recommendation #19: Add 1 Communications Supervisor to the Communications Division and develop a fourth shift in communications. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 Communications Supervisor.
Recommendation #20: Add 2 Radio Technicians to the Radio System Division. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 2 Radio Technicians.
Recommendation #21: Add 1 Public Service Officer to the Radio System Division to assist with fleet maintenance. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 Public Service Officer.
Recommendation #22: Add 1 Office Manager to the Radio System Division. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 Office Manager.
Recommendation #23: Add 1 Deputy Chief of Police to supervise the Services Bureau. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 1 Deputy Chief of Police.
Recommendation #24: Add 2 background investigators to the Professional Standards Unit. One of the background investigators can be a non-sworn employee who handles the background investigations for non-sworn applicants. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 2 background investigators (one sworn and one non-sworn).
Recommendation #25: Add 3 training officers to the Training Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 22 – Add 2 training officers and FY 24 – Add 1 training officer.
Recommendation #26: Add 1 administrative assistant to the Training Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 administrative assistant.
Recommendation #27: Add 2 intelligence analysts to the Crime Analysis Unit. Implementation Timeframe: FY 23 – Add 1 intelligence analyst and FY 24 – Add 1 intelligence analyst.
Iris Murdoch once said, “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” Every day that I live in Frisco I feel like we live in a fantasy world. The illusion is whatever the city wants to buy or has shoved down our throats. Based on the way the city tried to deny us the staffing report it is clear they did not want us to learn the study had a total of 27…yes 27 recommendations for more staff. Ask yourself, why does the city want to withhold a study that several other cities have published online? The studies recommendations were to be completed by 2023 or 24 so how many of the 27 recommendations has the city followed through on? During the Universal council meetings, it was Chief Shilson who said he has no concerns about what potential crime Universal could or would bring. The city loves to tout here and there Frisco is the SAFEST CITY, but I am wondering if those that determined that would have the same opinion if they read the staffing study and how “UNDERSTAFFED” we are. Why are we understaffed with life-saving personnel? In my opinion our growth rate is out of control. We have a current population of 227,446 residents and we are growing rapidly with more residents moving here every day. We are growing so fast the city can’t keep up with its own infrastructure. As residents we see it every day with traffic, our roadways, parks and more. However, we don’t see behind the red curtains of city hall every day to realize that our growth is happening faster than we can hire and train more police officers and fire fighters. That means we are now being reactive instead of being proactive years ago, which could have helped us avoid the current situation. Secondly, we have city leaders and management who don’t want to slow growth. They refuse to say no to anything development related so as we continue to bring in big events like PGA golf tournaments, the ACM Awards, and don’t forget a theme park all while we are putting at risk our understaffed departments and residents. It begs the question, why is Frisco and our City Manager Wes Pierson hiring two more Assistant City Managers (and what are their salaries) but we are not working towards hiring more life-saving personnel in the Fire Department or Police Department? Instead, we have a new city manager with a GOD complex and a clear disdain for First Responders.
In our next blog we will dive into some interesting points in the study but for now we leave you to ponder a simple question. Now that we are in 2023 how many of the 27 recommendations can the city mark off the list as completed?
I came down here in 1988 to interview with TI in Lewisville. While going down 121 every so often I…
there are several massage "parlors" behind LaHacienda that are foreign run..very questionable activities..one parks a junk car on the street…
there are several massage "parlors" behind LaHacienda that are foreign run..very questionable activities..one parks a junk car on the street…
Thank you for the correction.
Minor correction, Aprils was across Preston from LaHacienda Ranch about where the law offices are today. Keep up the good…