The time leading up to an important election can seem more like a sports or entertainment show. You have journalists and pundits dissecting each candidate as far as their speech, appearance, or analyzing what they do right or wrong. In the end, the goal is to find the most authentic candidate that will represent you or be the Stateman or woman for your community. According to Cambridge, a statesman is a skilled, experienced, and respected political leader or figure, known for being versed in the principles of government and for displaying good judgment.
Recently, we came across The Art of Manliness which had published an article about the 4 Qualities of a True Stateman. The first quality is a bedrock of principles, which means a platform or a foundation of firm, unchanging, fundamental truths. These are things they believe to be the core of their being. The second is a moral compass, which is rooted in a sense of absolute right and absolute wrong. The third is vision. Statesmen must be able to see problems on the horizon and they must be able to come up with solutions that are good for both the short-term and long-term. Lastly is the ability to build a consensus which means they must enlist those they serve within in government to support their initiatives to achieve their vision.
We have long argued that John Keating does not meet the definition of a Stateman. What are his “Bedrock of Principles,” you know the foundation of what he believes to his core? We started at KeatingForFrisco.com where the landing page is a picture of Keating with his family. The same family he stepped out on in 2021 with another woman. Caught red handed, over a holiday weekend in a public community pool with Kristen Grammer in several compromising positions. Later they returned to her home in the community where he remained for a couple of hours. It is our understanding from friends who know the Keatings, that Ms. Keating was blindsided by her husband’s behavior, and they have since separated and they are working through the process that leads to divorce. His website however shows them happily married and implies everything is A-OKAY in Shaddock Creek Estates.
Then his page has a large blue banner that says “Public Safety is Job #1. It reads, provides our first responders with the equipment, training, and leadership they need to keep Frisco families safe.” If this is true, then how could he support City Manager, Wes Pierson when he hired Fire Chief, Lee Glover? At the time Glover had a 90+% no vote of confidence from over 210 firefighters and they made it clear to the council they did not want Glover as the next Fire Chief. How could he oppose House Bill 471 which protects first responders in Texas and how could he call Firefighters selfish on George Purfoy’s Facebook page? How could he support a leader who in a 2010/11 report was said to be toxic and the city needed to clean house of management in the department (referring to Mack Borchardt and Lee Glover)? How is Public Safety #1 when the President of the Frisco Fire Fighters Association in Jan 2023 stood before him at citizens’ input begging for the council to hire more staff and provide them resources to do their job? How can he support the city and how they have treated Cameron Kraemer a nearly 30-year Frisco Fire Fighter for the city when they fired him for running out of medical leave? He later won his worker’s comp case.
Keating is a Veteran of the Army which he makes very present on his page. We along with many others have complete respect for his service to our country. We are grateful for him and all the other veterans, but it does not excuse them from things. If you visit the Army website, they list their values. One is Integrity, to do what’s right legally and morally. Stepping out on his family does not display Integrity. Another is respect and the website says,” And self-respect is a vital ingredient with the Army value of respect, which results from knowing you have put forth your best effort.” We would say posting pics implying you were naked or using half naked photos flexing in a bathroom for social media or dating apps don’t show much self-respect, nor does it show respect for others who have to see it and can’t unsee it. Lastly your actions over and over don’t show respect for the citizens who voted for you to hold the position of Councilman Place 1 Again, his LACK OF JUDGEMENT as a leader is questionable.
In 2021 before the “pool party for two,” John Keating posted a few photos for a scavenger hunt to his social media page. In the first picture, he is holding a sign that reads “Get Naked” and it appears to be covering his groin area. Now, behind the sign he had boxers on which you can’t tell, but we question his judgment and the others in the picture. He is standing next to Mayor Cheney, First Lady Dana Cheney, and Councilman Bill Woodard, who appear to either be appalled or laughing at a 60-year-old man pretending to be naked. You are the LEADER or STATEMAN of FRISCO! Do you think this is how residents, who voted for you, want to see you? At the same event, you posted a video jokingly of the Mayor, First Lady, and Councilman Woodard tying up Angelia Pelham, our new councilwoman as they chant tie her to the tracks. In our opinion – NOT THE BEST JUDGEMENT!
Now after the “BIG Universal Announcement,” Keating heads out on a date, which is fine if he is separated from his wife. However, if he is not separated well then Houston we have a problem! Why is Keating choosing to show such a public display of affection at Grandscape, a place where there are families all around for the holidays? It is called, get a Room! Again, it is his JUDGEMENT or lack of that we are questioning. Take your date to Addison, downtown Grapevine, or somewhere in this large metroplex – other than your own backyard to show some respect to your family, to your constituents, and the families around you.
Mr. Keating, what you display via your website and the truth are very different. The fact that you continually display questionable or bad judgment, then want to ask voters to again come out to the polls to re-elect you as one of our Statesmen for this city is ridiculous. One thing is clear, you think very highly of yourself because you are continually without clothes or in compromising positions. It is great that you are in good shape, fit, and healthy but that does not mean you should post text, or tweet photos of yourself that should probably be on your Only Fans page. Last we checked you are 60+ years old, so PUT SOME CLOTHES ON AND ASK YOUR DATES TO PUT SOME CLOTHES ON. You have a choice to make, be a Statesman for Frisco or be a Baller aka Player, and move out of office and into your PRIVATE LIFE. As of now you consistently show LACK OF JUDGEMENT AND BAD DECISIONS… ONE AFTER ANOTHER. Whatever you decide, if you want to remain a leader in this city then ACT LIKE IT. We deserve better!
Bill starts off by saying let’s get some facts straight and WE AGREE Bill – let’s get some facts straight!
Woodard claims: The blood transfusion program isn’t going away. In fact, it’s expanding with properly trained personnel. First, are you saying the personnel you have today are not properly trained? As of right now, the Squad Program is a highly technical advanced EMS critical care program and also provides additional manpower to critical incidents and structure fires and is also capable of doing blood transfusions.
Woodard claims: We use data to analyze the best use of resources. Right now, the squad sits almost all the time. We would love to see the metrics Bobblehead Bill is relying on to show its idol “almost all of the time.” We reached out to our sources, and they have in fact said that Squad is one of the busiest apparatuses in the FD. So, show us your data and metrics that you analyzed please to prove Squad sits idle. Yes as of today we filed a PIR for those metrics so we will soon have data from the city unless they again try to send it to the AG in hopes of delaying us more open records.
Woodard claims: Staffing is being divided up and assigned to the BC (Battalion Chief) vehicles, along with the blood transfusion program. This will double (from one to two) the availability of this program on every shift, and better utilize personnel and equipment. However, Bill, our sources have also confirmed that they will not be in service because the lieutenant on the squad is being turned into a captain / safety / FIT / drone pilot / chauffer for the BC’s. The squad vehicles will not be in service, and no personnel will be assigned to them. I wonder when the taxpayers paid for those specialized vehicles for us to not use them now. Well, we know the city doesn’t care what taxpayers are floating for things just look at all the trips they take! More importantly, according to the department policies an officer cannot be the acting paramedic on a fire apparatus. Is Bobblehead Bill trying to say that an officer or Battalion Chief is going to be better than a highly trained medic at giving blood?
Woodard claims: In 2024 we expect to add this program to every ambulance we have further expanding the program, which necessitates the training of everyone on those pieces of equipment. Hold up Bobblehead…do you have a written agreement with a blood bank/hospital that they are going to guarantee enough blood for us to put on every ambo at a minute’s notice? Also, how much will the training of everyone cost on those pieces of equipment and is that best use of tax dollars versus having a highly specialized Squad? We would love for Bill, Chief Lee Glover, or the city to show us the proof that this will be rolled out in every ambo in 2024. We would also love for them to show us how they plan to fund the expansion, the additional training of personnel, etc. According to our sources every Ambo will have warmers but not blood! Mr. Woodard said there was 13 calls for blood in 2023. It seems the FD Squad units did their job then just fine, so does 13 mean we should expand it to every single ambo? HERE IS THE QUESTION FOR RESIDENTS: Do you want the medic who maybe does the procedure once or twice every 3 years doing your blood transfusion? Do you want a highly skilled team who does it up to 13 times in one year to do the procedure? As Homer Simpson would say, DUH!
Woodard claims: There is a 12-page contract that he is happy to share with anyone who emails him (so we will be doing that as well as we already placed a PIR request 15 min ago for it). He then posted the “RELEVANT SECTION OF THE AGREEMENT” that he claims stands as proof that the Hospital will supply blood for the expansion. We just filed a PIR for the contract unless he wants to email it to us for free as he said he would. Our email Mr. Woodard is FriscoWhistleBlower@protonmail.com but we won’t get our hopes up you would send it.
The image reads, “Upon request by the City. Hospital shall supply to the City the Blood Products from time to time. in such quantities and types as maybe requested by the City; provided. however that due to the unpredictable nature of the demands for the Blood Products, Hospital cannot and will not guarantee the City the availability of all or any portion of the Blood Products to be supplied hereunder. Hospital does agree. however. that it will use its best efforts to supply all Blood Products ordered by the City in an expeditious fashion to the extent the Blood Products are available to the Hospital. Hospital has no reason to believe that in the absence of special circumstances it will be unable to provide any and all Blood Products required by the City during an emergency.
Well, we have a few questions about the image and wording of Woodard’s so-called proof he published. Let’s take a moment to point out the incorrect punctuation throughout the paragraph and the incorrect written sentences. For example, Upon request by the City. Hospital shall supply to the City the Blood Products from time to time. in such quantities and types as maybe requested by the City; If that is proof who the heck wrote it? Also, what does “TIME TO TIME” mean Mr. Woodard? Is it all the time? Is time to time on every ambo? What does it mean when it says, in quantities and types, “AS MAYBE REQUESTED BY THE CITY? You can say you’re expanding it but just not request the blood to actually have it on hand? It mentions the hospital CAN NOT GUARANTEE AVAILABILITY DUE TO THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF THE DEMANDS FOR THE BLOOD BUT IT WILL USE BEST EFFORTS. That does not sound like a guarantee Bobblehead Bill that you will have this on every ambo in 2024 and why pay for additional training if we may not be able to get it? Lastly, it reads the hospital has no reason to believe that in the ABSENCE OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES it will be unable to provide any and all Blood Products required by the city during an emergency. Was COVID special circumstances? No one expected the world to shut down the last few years, but it did, is that a special circumstance? Mr. Woodard, this so-called image you posted first looks fake, second is not a guarantee as you said in your statements that it will be available for every ambo, and it is not dated so how do we know if this is a current or previous agreement signed by the city? You really expect citizens to be stupid don’t you?
Lastly Mr. Woodard claims if additional personnel are needed for a fire, we can send more apparatuses as necessary. I am quite certain we have the personnel and equipment to do that. Fires at this point represent less than 2% of total calls. He goes on to say this is not a shortage of personnel (okay sure). Any good organization will evaluate its operations and make changes when it makes sense. QUESTION FOR THE FRISCO FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION: In response to Bobblehead Bill’s statement do you agree we have enough personnel to call out for more apparatuses and still provide the same level of service? Mr. Woodard did you read the firefighters’ survey that says they have no confidence in Chief Glover? Did you still think it made sense after your evaluation of operations to make him Fire Chief? Bad leadership has bad consequences and in this case sir it can be deadly! Robert Townsend once said, “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so they can get on with their jobs.”
Mr. Woodard likes to talk and hear himself talk, which is why he just can’t stop responding to us once he gets started. We are going to return the accusation and call Mr. Bill Woodard, Place 4 for the Frisco City Council a liar and if he is not a liar then he is misguided by facts! He asks us for proof but what proof has he published that contradicts our last blog Another One Bites The Dust? The fact is the City Manager and Council are going to double down to protect Fire Chief Lee Glover, they can’t stop now. They also are in a pissing match with the Fire Fighters Association and don’t want to give in or admit they may have been wrong so again the city will double down over and over. God forbid they just do the right thing!
The city FD is understaffed, and the Fire Fighters Association has repeatedly requested the need to hire more staff. Hell, the FFA went as far as to go to the city council meeting during citizens input and beg for them to hire more staff. The response, nothing you could hear a cricket if it chirped. While Mayor Cheney likes to break the rules of citizens input and respond to concerns when it comes to development or to defend his reputation, he can’t even crack a smile for the firefighters. Mr. Veteran John Keating won’t even fight for them! He should be ashamed of himself because if there is anyone on that council who knows what it means to serve it is Mr. Veteran Cheating Keating who sits there like a dumb puppet!
Mr. Woodard, if we are not hiring more personnel then how are we expanding the program? Can you honestly say it makes sense to consolidate Squad and the Safety Program? If you can then I hope your family never needs them and they don’t have the personnel to get to you because they have called out more apparatuses to other scenes.
Growing up we always had our hands in dirt or soil when helping dad with the Vineyards. I always complained and my Nona (grandma) would always say “oh, a little dirt never hurt anyone.” My dad would say “to most people dirt is just dirt, but to a farmer well that dirt is called potential.” I am sure these quotes belong to someone smarter than my dad and Nona but it did make me think, have you ever asked yourself, how much is the dirt below my feet worth? To an investor or developer dirt is like gold and depending on where it is located it can be worth a lot of money. Bill Gates began buying up land and farm operations years ago and while he leaves the farming to the professionals he understands land = asset appreciation. The dirt below the 2500 acres that PGA, Fields, and The Link is worth millions if not billions.
Developers and investors are betting heavily on Frisco which is great! With Mayor Cheney being so involved and so in love with the project I just assumed he would move out there to the greatest development of all time. Then at the debate he said he owns two pieces of property his personal home and his rental home (previous home). He said he does not own or have interest in any other land in Frisco. We were talking to a friend of ours who procured a lot in The Preserve, and we saw a picture he had taken of the builder’s map with written notes, and we thought, hmmm this looks interesting. Some realtor friends had said there was a rumor Jeff Cheney was given a lot or gifted a lot in The Preserve by the developer, but it was just a rumor.
Well by the looks of the picture Cheney and Keating have a lot under “Developer Hold” and it over looks …you guessed it…the 8th hole! It appears there is a “Friend & Family” row after all. I would love to hear from the Mayor what he plans to do with that lot next to his best friend Keating. Interestingly Cheney lives next door to Keating now in another community so I guess they are moving on up to the north side together like George & Weezy Jefferson. Cheney has to take his Florence with him which is Keating of course because you can’t leave Florence behind. Country singers Jordan Davis or Luke Bryan already said in their song “you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy dirt.” But did they buy it? I feel like breaking out in song since I don’t have any drums, and sing like Garth Brooks, ”Thunder rolls, And the lightnin’ strikes.”
Since childhood, I have loved a movie night with the family. My dad would take me to the corner store where he always got my mom a Bit-O-Honey and then he would look at me and say in his deep voice, kid you can pick a sweet treat too. I am sure I smiled ear to ear the whole way home looking out the window of the old truck with my $100,000 candy bar in my hand. Today the candy bar is called 100 Grand and I still pick one up every Friday with a quick pick lotto. In the movie Other People’s Money (1991), Lawrence Garfield said, “I love money more than the things it can buy…but what I love more than money is other people’s money.”
Our lives center around other people’s money, and we don’t even realize it. The bank owns the home until you make the last payment. The car belongs to the lender until you make the last payment. The new furniture you bought at Nebraska Furniture Mart that is financed over 24 months is not yours until the last payment. By now you see the connection, until we make the last payment the thing we love is not really ours. Politicians LOVE other people’s money because it helps pay for costly campaigns. The more campaign contributions they bring in, the less they will have to take out of their own pockets or through a loan. Political contributions are a time-honored tradition, and some would say “The Cost of Doing Business.”
In 2019, Sharon Grigsby with the Dallas Morning News did an article about Phillip Michael Carter, who was accused of taking advantage of elderly investors for million dollars, and the relationship he had with both Cheney and Keating’s campaign. Cheney received $15,000 and Keating received $5000 from Carter, both said they were returning the donations which was the right thing to do. She interviewed Cheney for about 45 minutes and Cheney told her he met Carter sometime after he became Mayor in 2017 and Carter later visited his office at City Hall about a sign-ordinance provision that was causing him difficulties at his Preston Road commercial property. Cheney said it was not unusual and most developers reach out to the mayor and ask for help. Cheney confirmed he helped resolve the issue but was steadfast that the 2018 campaign contribution was not tied to that case and said, “there was never a this for that.”
Cheney also told Grigsby that his “reputation is everything to me.” He regrets not looking deeper into the allegations but he is “so busy every single day, from sunup to sundown to the weekends.” The article goes on to say Cheney first learned of Carter’s state charges and arrest relating to fraud charges on November 14, 2018. He immediately linked the $5000 donation from Carter but said he had completely forgotten about the entire case until he began reviewing his campaign finance reports in anticipation of his interview with Grigsby. He admitted in the interview much of what Grigsby was laying out in regard to charges was news to him. The article was riveting but it never discussed the timeline between his donations and when the “issue” got fixed so we did some research.
May 24, 2018: Cheney $10,000 by Carter Family Office LLC (Phillip Carter)
October 10, 2018: Cheney $5,000 by North Forty Development (Phillip Carter)
October 15, 2018: Keating $5000 by Texas Cash Cow (Phillip Carter)
October 23, 2018: P&Z holds a public hearing for Sign Variance: Preston Wade Crossing by Frisco Wade Crossing Development Partners, LLC (Phillip Carter)
**Interesting fact the P&Z Commission in 2018 was led by Robert Cox who was appointed to the Commission in April 2016 with the first motion by John Keating and second by then councilman Jeff Cheney.
January 2019: SEC Files Charges against Phillip Carter for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme that took place from May 2015 to Feb 2017 and totaled around $45 million dollars and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
In 2019, Frisco’s population according to the US Census was about 200,907 people. It is hard to believe that someone who is the mayor of a booming and bustling town and also an extremely successful businessman could just “forget” about a fraud case that involved a real estate developer and millions of dollars. At the time it was plastered in local DFW papers and the top story on most local news stations. To be fair, Cheney and Keating accepted a campaign donation and nothing illegal occurred. They were never named in allegations that involved Phillip Carter and both returned the donations. Again, this is just another situation that “doesn’t look good” and could lead many to believe that something improper was happening, even if it wasn’t. That old perception is reality for many folks is a stinker.
Another thing we learned from Grigsby’s March 2019 DMN article was Cheney’s personal policy of not accepting more than $10,000 from a single donor when it comes to campaign contributions. I am not sure when that became his policy because he accepted $20,000 in 2017 plus $6000 in 2020 from Ali Kahla who we believe was a representative for IGO-USA, The Gate developer. I guess he also must have been ridiculously busy and forgot his personal policy almost 9 months after his interview with Grigsby and the article because in 2020 he accepted $15,000 from Fehmi Karahan (Fields). Again, we want to say there is nothing illegal about the donations (we don’t want to be sued) other than they seem to break his personal policy. I guess it is good to have a flexible policy that benefits you when needed.
Philip Anthony Hopkins who played Odin in the movie Thor said, “Even with two eyes, you can only see half of the picture.” If that is true, then we should all go to the Ophthalmologist to get our eyes checked out. The problem is repetition, the action of repeating something that you have already done or the recurrence of an action or event. The repetition of “it just looks bad” starts to become a theme and that can have a detrimental impact on the citizen’s perception of you and the city. The conversation becomes about the lack of trust and confidence in our city, the city council members, and our mayor.
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