Whistleblowers come in many forms. If we had to describe ours we would say they are like Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Recently one of our six geese-a-laying tipped us off to another high-ranking Frisco FD fire fighter who gave notice to retire.
Jeromy Porter is a 27-year fire service veteran. Most recently he served as Deputy Chief with the Frisco Fire Department. In 1996, Porter joined the Lake Cities Fire Department where he spent most of his years and climbed the rank to Deputy Chief. We asked ourselves why would a man with man years left retire now? Then we saw an announcement in Star Local Media that Jeromy Porter was now the Assistant Fire Chief for The Little Elm Fire Department. That made us ask, why would a man retire then go another city? We wanted to know if he did an exit interview so asked some insiders at city hall who told us yes, he did. We filed a PIR with the city to obtain those records and when we received them, well we were not disappointed.
We received a copy of the City Manager, Wes Pierson’s handwritten notes from the exit interview. At the very top it is dated 9/27 and has his name and initials next to it. Wes writes JP doesn’t want to leave but his relationship with Fire Chief, Lee Glover is unsustainable. Then we note 3 bullet points down the page.
The first point is titled Job Description Issue (preferred vs required). Pierson notes Porter said the job descriptions were changed without approval. On the side Pierson writes When, How and Why and we are guessing those were his internal questions or notes to himself.
We had heard rumors that some shady stuff was happening in HR but we still were perplexed by Porters comments. We went back to some of those who had reached out to us earlier from inside the city to ask more specific questions and the responses were eye opening. It started us on a new quest of digging.
The second point is titled Lee Glover. Pierson writes that for over 9 years Lee Glover has constantly insulted him, belittled him, made jokes on his height. It also goes on to say Glover yelled and cussed at staff and that he would flex. We asked an insider what “Flex” might mean she told us that Glover would Flex like he was going to shove or hit someone to intimidate them. Pierson notes that Porter was concerned about leaving because Glover may retaliate and go after his son who is a 3 Year Firefighter with the City of Frisco.
Are we surprised by Porters claims? No! In a previous blog we told you about the City of Frisco, Fire Department Employee Climate Survey done in the fall of 2011. It noted in the survey that this was the FOURTH one done over the PAST 10 YEARS. Why would a city need to do so many climate surveys? The firefighters felt that unless Chief Mack Borchardt and his entire Senior Staff, which included (drum roll) Lee Glover were replaced with someone from the outside, there was no way to correct the issues. The report said from the top down they ruled with things like a temper, iron fist, and threats. In 2023, a recent survey was done by the Fire Fighters Association and over 200 fire fighters gave Glove a vote of no confidence, so not much has changed since 2011.
The third point only confirmed what we already reported that our new Fire Chief, Lee Glover, has an alcohol problem. Pierson writes 3. Drinking (only while traveling). He writes JP claims that Vetterick, Owen and others felt peer pressure to stay and “close the bar.” Based on the notes we are only assuming that Porter may have told then Fire Chief, Mark Piland about the incident because in Pierson’s notes it reads Piland (response). Then there is a star symbol and a note it last happened at inspection of tiller and names the 3 fire fighters. It is hard to read Pierson’s writing, but it looks like Gilliam, Odum and Dixon.
Here is what we find interesting about Porters exit interview with Pierson and his personal notes. When it comes to point 3, we know of a July 2022 complaint about Lee Glover on a “travel trip” to inspect fire trucks and the names of those involved are different that those written in the exit interview notes. So, it appears when we wrote about Groggy Lee Glovers behavior in a previous blog, we weren’t wrong! It is called a pattern of behavior.
In closing, we believe Jeromy Porter and that he is telling the truth in his comments. He is leaving and has no reason to lie and he left on a professional level. We sent an email to Porter however we have had no reply to our inquiry. What we are curious about is what did the City Manager, Wes Pierson do after this interview. Did he file the notes and act as if these issues don’t possibly exist? Did he start asking questions?
Stay Tuned to learn about Sassy Lauren Safraneks acts of possible Malfeasance!
When you say the 12 days of Christmas people immediately think of the song, but did you know there really is a period called the 12 Days of Christmas? According to vox.com The 12 days of Christmas is the period in Christian theology that marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 and runs through January 6, also known as Three Kings Day. With the holidays around the corner, we thought we would share that little bit of info for fun.
Now we need to get back to ‘The 12 Days of MALFEASANCE!’ The Oxford Dictionary defines malfeasance as wrongdoing, especially by a public official. We dug a little further to see if there was more legal definition and we found the website for Cornell University, Legal Information Institute. Malfeasance is intentional conduct that is wrongful or unlawful, especially by officials or public employees. Regardless of how you define it, the word should not be thrown around loosely as it can easily destroy one’s reputation. We decided to write a song…
On the first day of Christmas
Our “Whistleblower” gave to thee
Notes from a recent FD employee exit interview.
On the second day of Christmas
The exit interview notes gave to thee
A lead that someone in HR forged documents and did not obtain updated new signatures.
On the third day of Christmas
The exit interview notes gave to thee
More tea on Mr. Lee…. Fire Chief, Lee Glover that is.
On the fourth day of Christmas
A PIR gave to thee
Copy of an HR hotline complaint regarding falsification of contracts, reports, or records.
On the fifth day of Christmas
A PIR gave to thee
A copy of the full Mayday Report.
On the sixth day of Christmas
A PIR gave to thee
A reply of no responsive records to our inquiry into a complaint against Fire Chief, Lee Glover
but wait, hold tight …let’s see.
On the seventh day of Christmas
A second filed PIR into the complaint gave to thee
The records we requested after we gave them one more chance to come clean.
On the eighth day of Christmas
The trail of details gave to thee
Malfeasance committed by public employees and officials throughout the city!
If you are a fan of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Clark Griswold then you know the scene where Clark is holding the envelope sent by his company that he thinks is holding his “Big Bonus” check. He starts to talk about how he is going to use the check to put in an inground pool as soon as the earth thaws out. After a few more words he opens the envelope to find a big shock. It’s not money, it’s an annual membership to the Jelly Club. Clark is shocked and dismayed and in the silence Cousin Eddie bursts out “Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year.” That is how we feel about the consent agenda in the Tuesday City Council meetings. In our last blog All In The Family, we said if you want to know what is happening in the city just look at the consent agenda. For us, it is the gift that keeps on giving for those who are curious.
Watching last night’s city council meeting we noticed Keating called to remove items 25 and 32 and that was seconded by Brian Livingston. We noticed item 25 which was a Human Resources item several days ago when the agenda was posted. It reads consider and act upon adoption of an Ordinance to approve the new Public Safety Workers Compensation policy and updated Information Security Policy. Many are probably wondering what is so important about it, well we are going to tell you! If you keep up with what is going on in the city the Fire Fighters have been advocating for a better WC policy for several years. They took their fight to the state this year in Austin and with the help of local State Rep Jared Patterson they brought a bill that would give public safety workers true workers compensation coverage. This bill passed both the house and senate with overwhelming support.
We were a little shocked by the cattiness and mean spirit of the memo submitted by Ms. Sassy Lauren Safranek, Director of Human Resources to the city council. She talks about the new public safety workers compensation policy that had to be changed to align with Chapter 177A of the Texas Local Government Code that was recently amended by HB 471. Remember our council likes to tote they support our public safety workers, yet they fought and opposed HB 471 the entire time. In this memo Sassy Safranek states the city will be FORCED to develop a different WC policy – one policy for public safety personnel and the other (the current policy) for all other employees.
Sassy Safranek goes on to call out The Fire Association President, Matt Sapp and his public comments before the city council supporting the city’s policy back in April of 2021. She notes he supported the changes to the policy at the time and that he was active in the process to develop the policy. She said the goal was to develop one policy for all employees. Well, we went back and while he did support the changes he also stated several times in the last two years that it was a step in the right direction but not the total solution. A step in the right direction does not mean he agrees and is content with the 2021 policy, it simply means it is better than what they had before. The city was not happy about the FAA lobbying in Austin for a more comprehensive plan and they have made that clear many times. Does Lauren Safranek honestly think that one policy can cover all employees? Does she honestly believe the WC policy should cover the park guys who have a much less dangerous job mowing parks, and the same policy should cover a police office or fire fighter whose job inherently has more risk and danger?
Sassy Safranek is upset with the new policy. She writes in addition to at least one (1) year of paid leave for an on-the-job injury, HB 471 requires at least one (1) year of light duty while recovering from a temporary disability. One (1) year of paid leave (paid by the City 100%) and one (1) year of light duty, during which the employee will receive their regular wages, provides little incentive for the employee to return to full duty promptly. She notes the 2 significant differences between the new policy and the city’s current policy are 1) one year of paid leave and 2) one year of light duty. She notes that up to another year of paid light duty provides little incentive for the employee to get better and return to full duty promptly.
Ms. Safranek your note about “LITTLE INCENTIVE” is offensive and ridiculous and it is obvious you have no clue what kind of attributes a person has if they choose to go into the profession of being a police officer or a fire fighter. Most of these men and woman have a keen sense of duty and service. Other traits include courage, physical fitness, they like structure and routine, they work well under pressure, they are adaptable to unpredictable environments, they have a compassionate nature, and they thrive off teamwork and collaboration. Those are just a few of the natural instincts these men and woman have. Your comment implies they have no incentive to go back to work, and they are going to milk the system. These are not people who want to sit at home and eat bon bons like you, they don’t achieve a thrill by laying on the couch and binging all the seasons of Suits on Netflix.
Safranek mentions the city has benefited from modified duty work by injured police officers valued at over $300,000 and injured firefighters at over $1.3 million. She says if the city assumes that 10% of the time police officers will decline modified duty and if they assume 25% of the time firefighters will decline modified duty it would cost the city over a $120,000 a year in salary paid while someone is off work. Again, the statement is offensive and ridiculous at its core. It’s not like the City of Frisco doesn’t have the money. We sent numerous people within the city over the last 2 years to Cary, North Carolina, PGA golf events in Tulsa and just last week they galivanted off to Fort Collins, Colorado. Thousands of dollars of taxpayer money used for some to travel all over but we can’t find enough to pay officers or fire fighters hurt on the job. Really? As a taxpayer, I will happily pay for someone’s salary who is injured on the job. If you ask me, based on a conversation Keating had last night at the council meeting I think we can cut back on the unnecessary trips where a planning and zoning board member gets drunk and belligerent and Council Woman Tammy Meinershagen doesn’t need to fly to different cities to play piano and see art, then and post it on her Instagram like she is having a great vacation on the city’s dime.
Ms. Safranek, your bias is showing and how you feel about city employees is starting to show simply by how you wrote this memo. Screw the peasants who risk theirs! Your venom and disdain for public safety workers are more than clear in this memo. So are the cities. As we said at the top of the blog the item was pulled from consent and Councilman Livingston asked for it to be held for further discussion. Maybe in that time, you might want to reconsider the “oh bless your heart” southern slam slightly written into the memo.
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?
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