In less than 24 hours the “Mother of Frisco” seems to be upset by our blog “Heit-end Controls.” We received a copy of her “Victim Card Post” that went up on FRWC Facebook page about an hour ago. To say we are dumbfounded and confused is an understatement and we feel it is best to address her post paragraph by paragraph.
Heit’s 1st Paragraph: “This Facebook group, my character and my personal integrity has been attacked in an anonymously written hit piece that is now being shared as fact in other Facebook groups…including a group that pretends to be a resource for Parents of Frisco ISD students (despite the fact that several of the admin don’t live in Frisco or have kids attending Frisco ISD schools).”
Our Response: Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual and Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral uprightness. If you read our article, we wrote that my wife has loved your page for many years and that we appreciate all the hard work you put into your page. We made note of the fact that we met you at a few local events and truly believe you are a kind, polite and genuine person. All we did was question how you choose to admin your page which disseminates information to over 20+ followers. That is not an attack on your moral qualities or principles.
Questioning someone is not an attack; if it is, then we are all up a creek without a paddle. We pointed out that the admin of the page, which is you, does not allow any opposing views regarding local political posts. That is not an attack on your moral principles or uprightness. As for people sharing our posts, our page is public therefore, we cannot and will not stop anyone from sharing our posts to any page or group. We also will not close comments, stop discussion, or interactive sharing of thoughts. You share posts/articles on your FRWC page every day. Even though your rules state no posts on political candidates, you share them as informational but don’t allow informational posts regarding the opposing candidates. Ms. Heit, calling you impartial is not nasty and we did not refer to you using bad language. disparaging terms, or foul names. We simply questioned how you choose to admin one of the largest Facebook pages in our community, and that is not an ATTACK on your character or integrity.
Heits 2nd Paragraph: Why am I being slandered? Well, because it is election season, and I am supporting the passage of the Frisco ISD Bond & VATRE ballot measures and the folks who are trying to defame me do not. They are online bullies—the exact type of bullies that I raise my children not to be. Many of them are in this group. I have patiently and repeatedly answered their questions and responded to their twisted facts about the school district.
Our Response: Slander is a legal term that refers to a false, oral statement about an individual that harms his/her reputation or standing within the community. 1) To be clear everything we posted and questioned … ARE YOUR OWN WORDS OR RULES! At the beginning of our article, we stated that you support the BOND and that as election day draws near many residents are searching social media for more information. We never said your supporting the bond was a bad thing. We pointed out you will not find any opposing VOTE NO position on your page. 2) We did not SLANDER or DEFAME YOU IN ANY WAY! Several people contributed to the whistleblower, and we have not asked any one of them how they plan to vote on the issue nor would we. We don’t care that you support the bond, we don’t care if you vote for Harris or Trump, this is America, and it is your GOD GIVEN RIGHT to support any candidate or measure you want!
What we care about is that everyone makes an informed decision, and you have said the same thing. When one of the largest social media community forums blocks information simply because it opposes the admin’s moral principles or moral uprightness, then the admin can’t claim in the newspapers to be impartial. Also blocking comments and asking people if they have questions to private DM you makes me wonder, why not just answer the question in a public forum. It feels like someone is trying to hide something and by blocking views you do not allow for educational discussion which helps members of our community to learn more. In many of your posts you have said you want to make sure residents are INFORMED so let them be INFORMED of the good, bad and ugly and make their own decision. You choose to post about the bond, you choose to shut off comments, you choose to layout your expertise, you choose to have these discussions in multiple social media groups, newspapers and community events. Now when asked a question, you are choosing to play the victim card to your own posts and words.
Heit 3rd Paragraph: For complete transparency, I have put in the work to serve on school district committees for the last 7 years and I understand what our school district is currently up against. Those slandering me for my support of the district have not put that work in and to be honest, they seem to think they know better than our entire District Instructional Support Team. Funny how that is!
Our Response: Since you feel we somehow slighted you on your accomplishments, we’ll let us apologize for that! HEAR YE, HEAR YE… FOR THOSE READING OUR BLOG: PLEASE SEE ALL OF MS. HEITS INCREDIBLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT SHE LISTS OUT IN HER OWN WORDS from the website CheckOutDFW.com. “After moving to Frisco in July of 2015, I led and organized a year-long community effort with the City of Frisco to find the most suitable location for a large multi-acre substation being planned along Legacy Drive. I have served on the Frisco ISD Long Range Planning Committee, the Frisco ISD Facilities and Programs Evaluation Committee and participated in the Frisco ISD Insight program. I also successfully co-chaired the 2018 PAC for the Frisco ISD Bond and TRE and have served on the marketing committee for Frisco FastPacs. I am currently serving on the Frisco ISD District Advisory Council and am a current member of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Frisco class. In addition, I am helping a new, soon-to-be formed 501c3 charitable organization, Pride Frisco, become established in our community.”
As for your criticism of us that “we have not put in that work” and that “we think we know better than those who have” … 1) we have never claimed to know more than anyone and 2) you have no clue what we or any resident has done or not done so please hold your privileged condemnation. AGAIN, LIKE A BROKEN RECORD, we simply said we believe in educational dialogue to make informed decisions. We have NOT SLANDERED the work you have done or put in with our school district, but you did just slander any voter or about (99% of our community) by saying if they have not done what you have done that, they are not good enough to have an opinion or smart enough to decide how to vote. Some of us don’t have the privilege of Ms. Heit, meaning we do as much as we can for our community in our own way, while facing other issues in our lives.
Heit Paragraph 4 & 5: It’s ok that not everyone wants to support the public-school district’s ballot measures. That’s what freedom and democracy is about. I only ask that everyone be informed and make a decision based off fact and not hearsay or presumed facts.
But it is NOT ok to share a disparaging portrayal of my character and my commitment to spreading kindness in Frisco simply because we disagree on supporting public schools.
Our Response: We agree, vote how want on the district’s ballot measures. Again Ms. Heit over and over calls for “everyone to be informed” yet she won’t let an opposing factual view from the VOTE NO position respond. She implies those on the vote no side are working off hearsay and presumed facts. How does she know that? You are choosing to post about it so just let it play out in discussion and allow voters to make up their own mind. Lastly, Ms. Heit is choosing to play the victim again using big words such as “disparaging portrayal of my character” when we never disparaged her character for supporting public schools. If Ms. Heit is this upset by a single question, then Houston we have bigger underlying problems. We support our schools and teachers, Ms. Heit, we just disagree with the measures. Yet our opinion does not matter nor does 95% of Frisco residents because we don’t have the privilege of serving our school district for 7 years via a committee or our community to your expectation for it to count.
Heit’s last few paragraphs: But regardless of the election outcome, FRWC will remain a place for Frisco residents to come and seek recommendations, ask for resources and politely discuss issues facing our community. It will never, nor has it ever been, a place that fuels divisiveness in the community.
If you do not like this group, you are free to leave. If anyone tells you that they been removed from this group, it’s either because they are a spammer, a BOT, they have aggregiously broken group rules (likely more than once) or they refused to be a Frisco Resident Who Cares and were mean and ugly towards others.
I’m sorry I had to post this in the group to begin with. It’s honestly embarrassing that grown adults act like this on social media (I can only imagine what an example they set for their own children), but despite being a passive person, I will not allow my reputation or my group’s reputation to be hijacked and taken over by social media bullies.
Our Response: Regardless of the election, we stand by our original comments that we believe she is a nice person and seemed very genuine the few times we meet her. Our new page Frisco Texas Freedom Chatter will be open to all views. You can discuss local issues, political issues, post community events but we will not be shutting off comments. We have respect for both sides of the equation.
Ms. Heit, we never said FRWC fuels divisiveness, those are your words not ours! AGAIN, we simply questioned why you will not allow for discussion on local political candidates, propositions, and ballot measures. You post about it then shut everyone down from commenting or don’t approve oppositional posts so that is not impartial and that is all we pointed out. Ms. Heit closing commenting does not allow for others to politely discuss issues facing the community. Lastly, as grown adults we are not sorry about what we posted and when it comes to asking the question of how an admin can claim to be impartial when clearly, they are not, does not make it a personal attack, accusation, slander, or defamatory. THAT IS A FACT based on your own posts, words, and decisions.
You could have chosen not to respond to our article like most do in Frisco, but we want to say thank you for taking them time to write your “victim card post!” It happened just like we said in our blog closing, it would. How did we know? Whenever she feels attacked, Ms. Heit does a “poor as me post” for sympathy.
Now it is time for FWB to set the facts straight, we did not attack you, your character, or integrity in any way, shape, or form. However, we are a little perturbed now and ready to take a bite of the apple after you accuse us of such bad behavior! WE SIMPLY QUESTIONED YOUR ABILITY TO BE NEUTRAL WHEN IT COMES TO LOCAL POLITICAL POSTS. It is okay for you to do interviews with your comments about your need to be impartial, but it is slander if someone else questions you. You choose to put yourself out there, heck you just posted several articles that talked about you in the last few weeks. “Look at me!”
The fact is, you are not impartial when it comes to posts about local elections, candidates, or ballot measures. If FWB’s simple statement hurts your feelings, you have bigger issues to deal with. Having passion for a ballot measure is not a bad thing, many others would struggle to be impartial also in the same position. The difference is the other 99% don’t control or administer a page that goes out to 20K+ plus residents. We like your page; we find it very informative most of the time, you do great things in our community, and you are a well-accomplished Frisco individual which is why people trust you. That trust the residents put in you means you must be even more careful than normal to be impartial or fair. You can’t just type “be informed” and then control the narrative, tell them you will answer questions privately via DM, turn off comments, not allow opposing views, and expect no one to question you publicly. Your accusation that we are a bully is egregious and so is the fact you cannot spell it! You act as if we pillaged you at the center of town in our blog, but you were one of the first to laugh at our post as it went up today. Now… back to our regularly scheduled programming: “The Princess and the Pity Part Post!”
Over the last two decades, social media has transformed how we communicate with family, friends, and strangers. More importantly, it has transformed how candidates approach campaigning and how issues are pushed to the people including ballot propositions. Recently a comprehensive research project published the findings of a multi-year project, led by academics from U.S. colleges and universities and working in collaboration with researchers at Meta. It focused on how critical aspects of the algorithms that determine what people see in their feeds can affect what they see and believe.
These newly published studies from the project also show that social media algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram are extremely influential in shaping users and that there is significant ideological segregation in political news exposure. The result was algorithm adjustments made by social media platforms have been proven to alter the political news their users see and engage with. After reading it we wondered if they should study what power Facebook Admins of “local community group pages” could have on elections. If an admin only allows the dissemination of one side of a political perspective could that change, influence, or alter the readers’ perceptions? Could it influence a vote? Can you guess where we are going with this question?
A little over six years ago, in Frisco, Texas resident Jamie Heit formed a Facebook group called Frisco Residents Who Cares. Today it is a very important communication tool for the residents, the city, and for Ms. Heit! How did the group FRWC come about? Well, Ms. Heit answered that in her post in 2023 when she wrote “I have been the admin of this group since I created it in 2016, only about 6 months after my family and I moved to Frisco in the summer of 2015. The group originated under a different name and was devoted exclusively to a singular (then political) issue: the rezoning of a parcel of land on Legacy Drive that was being eyed as the future home for an 11-acre Oncor electrical substation. The substation was a complex issue that many residents were not happy about, but through many months of respectful discussions with city leaders, many compromises on both sides, and a lot of patience and trust in the processes, a mutually agreeable solution was eventually met. As a result of seeing what being an informed, respectful and involved resident could do, I decided to keep my group going. I renamed the page what it is today and have kept it going as a place for residents to connect and to share what’s happening IN, AROUND and TO the City of Frisco.”
My wife has loved the group for many years, and we do appreciate all the hard work Ms. Heit puts into being an admin for such a large page. We have met her before at a few city events and she was very kind and polite, and we believe she is a genuine person. With that said this is not personal at all, but when we receive over a dozen emails from residents, we have to offer a fair assessment of their concern about the dissemination of information on her page. My wife has mentioned a few times that as politics has become more divisive, she feels that the FRWC page has implemented some “Heit’end Controls!” The rules for the page state, “FRWC is not a platform to promote other Facebook groups, religious institutions, or political candidates.”
While Ms. Heit likes to claim to be impartial and have a respectful stance to ensure the information shared with the community is beneficial, it often appears to be a very one-sided perspective and that is Ms. Heit’s perspective. Residents must decide right now whether to Vote For or Against the Frisco ISD Bond & Vatre. Many residents are searching on social media to learn more about the pros and cons of the bond. We have seen at least 10 to 20 posts supporting the Vote For PAC posted by Ms. Heit on her FRWC page. We have yet to see, even 1 post for the Vote No position on FRWC. Why is that?
Ms. Heit mentions in her very first post she is in full support of the bond, why would she want anyone with an opposing view AGAINST the bond to post on her page to her 20.7K followers? She has 100% Heit’end Control over what is disseminated to her followers. In one article she claims she must be impartial and respectful, but the truth is, she can’t claim to be when she blocks the opposing view. She can require it to be a factual opposition and if it is she should allow for it to be posted.
On October 21, Heit posted for anyone looking for “factual information” about the bond propositions that were unable to attend the community presentations they could watch The Frisco ISD apple podcast with Dr. Todd Fouche, Kimberely Smith and Scott Warstler. If you don’t have a kid in the district, you may not realize this is the district’s own podcast, not an independent podcast about Frisco ISD. Heit fails to mention in the quick snippet on her post that Fouche is the Deputy Superintendent, Kimberly Smith is the CFO, and Scott Warstler is the Chief Operations Officer for FRISCO ISD. Obviously, the podcast will be in support of the bond 100%!
Then on Oct 22nd, Heit does a long post on FRWC about how she has seen questions and so much “MISINFORMATION” on social media today about the bond/propositions and states “I decided to post an explanation of the ballot items here as well.” At least in this post she did ALERT residents she served on the Bond Exploration Committee for the past year with other members and ends her statement with “WHY THEY ARE NEEDED, WHAT THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH AND HOW THEY WILL IMPACT YOU.” The “Heit’end Controls” are in action as there is no opposing view allowed to do an individual post.
What is the most offensive about this post is her closing which states “Lastly, I am closing the comments only to prevent misinformation from being shared. If you have questions, please feel free to DM me.” Heit’end controls any opposition to respond, she doesn’t answer residents’ questions publicly but in private DMs, and that right here…IS NOT IMPARTIAL! As admins of Facebook pages when you have the power to change an election you have a GREAT RESPONSIBILITY to be fair and Ms. Heit while we respect you, you are from FAIR!
Are the “Heit’end Controls” new on FRWC – absolutely not! In a post-dated April 13, 2023, Ms. Heit talks about the upcoming municipal and ISD contested races. She boldly states “THIS ELECTION IS A PIVOTAL POINT IN FRISCO’S HISTORY AND IN THE FIGHT TO KEEP FRISCO ISD ONE OF THE STRONGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE STATE.” She goes on to say she encourages every resident to do THEIR OWN RESEARCH, and how we must remember this is non-partisan.
She continues a few things I ask myself when looking at candidates (like we are too dumb to know what to look for) is 1. Which candidates are supported by OUTSIDE MONEY? Will a candidate with OUTSIDE POLITICAL MONEY truly have the BEST INTEREST in Frisco/Frisco ISD? Can we say, “pot calling the kettle black!”
Ms. Heit, as a proud supporter of the bond, would you like to tell us HOW ALL THE OUTSIDE MONEY DONATED FROM SUBCONTRACTORS WHO STAND TO MAKE MILLIONS OFF THIS BOND PASSING, WHICH HAS FLOATED THE VOTE FOR FRISCO ISD PAC, is in our BEST INTEREST? The wind is blowing in a new direction this year for Ms. Heit, and we are guessing she does not want us to ask the “best interest” question this year.
Ms. Heit’s background is in Public Relations and Marketing with an emphasis on media relations and we think she is a phenomenal marketer. She should be very proud of her accomplishments including the most recent FRWC Community Gathering. Ms. Heit helped small businesses, worked with locals to get people out to meet each other, and oh by the way she was also going to have Frisco ISD leadership there to present information on the upcoming bond. Of course, not only did she get messages out online, but she took it to the people on the streets. We received numerous emails after the event there was a clear message being presented and it again was very one-sided.
In closing, we know Ms. Heit will probably play the victim card and say that we are beating her up once we publish this article but that is not our intent. While we truly respect and appreciate Ms. Heit, as a fellow resident, one thing is clear, Ms. Heit uses FRWC as her own personal pulpit. Heit carefully cultivates a marketing message for each post that reflects her views but sells it as an educational post for voters. She does not allow the opposition to post on her page and falls back on her rules of no politics or political posts. For example, in one of her posts from April 18, she writes “Admin Note – the following is an excerpt from the DMN article. It is not my (FRWC admin) words nor necessarily my opinion, but that of the editorial board of the DMN.”
Ms. Heit often posts pieces from newspaper articles that support her candidate or viewpoint. Crafted with care, she will never come out and say she is against the other candidate or viewpoint, but you will not see any posts supporting the narrative for those she opposes unless it is a negative piece. If Heit truly wanted to be impartial, she would have let both sides present and show her support in the comments for the position or candidate as a resident.
Another example was in 2021 when Ms. Heit did a post for a political candidate forum, and she tagged 4 others. The post starts off looking like a forum announcement. She talks about how Frisco has low voter turnout and encourages everyone to talk to the candidates all the while knowing they won’t. Heit’s support is clear by the tags and her last line I am more than happy to talk with anyone about who I support. If this was universal, why not tag all the candidates? During the election cycle, you didn’t see any posts on the FRWC Facebook page supporting candidates who were not tagged in her post. They may have been supportive in the comments but not individual posts.
Instead, she uses her position as the ADMIN to gain trust knowing her position does and will have influencing the vote. Just look at her post on Frisco ISD Parents where she starts the post with “Many of you may know that I am the admin for a Frisco Community Facebook group called Frisco Residents Who Cares.” Her statement is very calculated and said at the opening to gain immediate reader’s trust. She then promotes her community gathering not mentioning that the ISD board will be there but as soon as you as click the link to her “event” you will learn that.
What is our point? The “Heit’end Controls” on FRWC’s Facebook page are not impartial or a free flow of informative information. The fact is, FRWC is her page, and Heit can do, post, accept, and deny anyone or anything she wants. All we are asking for is transparency from Ms. Heit. Be clear and honest to the public that it is a page that supports her and her like-minded friends’ opinions and views and acknowledges that she markets it to others exceptionally well. We all as a community have to realize words are powerful. When you have control of a page with 20+ followers and want to claim to be impartial then be impartial! If you want to offer your view and only your view, then do so. Shutting off comments so that residents can’t speak or question you when your rules read, “Let’s try and make this a safe, informative, and welcoming place for residents to come to on social media. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem” is a huge problem. You said in 2023 to residents “Do your own research” but now you are preventing that ability by not letting both perspectives be heard and communicating on the largest community forum we have in Frisco.
Some of the world’s biggest titans have fallen from grace because someone took the time to simply follow the money. If voters knew how to follow the money it would be a game changer in helping them decide how to vote. However, voters lack understanding and confidence in numbers and finance, so they follow the leaders on social media who tell them how to vote. While we normally don’t pay attention to Frisco ISD, when you ask for a 1-billion-dollar bond that does perk our interest. As we have said before curiosity kills and we were curious about who is behind the PACs in this Frisco ISD Bond election.
We are starting with the Vote For Frisco ISD PAC whose campaign treasure is listed as John Hoxie. What we found should shock you! The “TOTAL POLITCAL CONTRIBUTIONS” is listed as $116,929.00. It lists the PAC’s “TOTAL EXPENDITURES” as $46,483.55. As of the last day of reporting the “TOTAL POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS MAINTAINED” was $115,486.80. That is a lot of money, so where did it all come from? We started combing through the reports on the state website and then compared them to the Check Registers listed on the district’s website.
Now before you say we may be “barking up the wrong tree” I bet if we were to ask the Vote For PAC how they raised over 100,000 dollars so quickly, they would not offer up the tricks they have up their sleeve. Instead, I am guessing the response would be “It ain’t about the money, but it is about the principle of why they donated!” That means it is about the money, and they just don’t want to spill the beans and answer the question.
We immediately noticed that 95% of the donors are companies and all but one are outside of Frisco. Our first thought was that this is a repeat of the May 2024 elections when the city went to its “BIG DEVELOPERS” and pushed them to donate/fund the Vote No PAC against the Frisco Firefighters. We looked up each company and determined they were all direct providers or subcontractors for commercial general construction companies. It made us wonder, who is the biggest provider of general construction to the district and here is what we found:
Core Construction: $306,297,212.88
Joeris General Construction: $73,671,804.65
Crossland Construction: 45,569,957.31
Lee Lewis Construction: $39,688,799.95
Corgan Assoc: $18,591,228.20
Hellas Construction: $11,585,144.34
Then we started researching the individual donors to the Vote For Frisco ISD PAC! We pulled up the check registers from 2018 (the time of the last bond) to 2024 and made our own spreadsheet comparing the year-over-year spend with different vendors. We also checked to see if any of them were on the Frisco ISD payroll.
RLK Engineering in Allen donated $10,000, and they specialize in civil engineering consulting. That is the least they could do when the school district has spent $197,879.57 with them over the last few years.
Acoustics & Drywall in Carrolton donated $5000. Who is that? The actual name of the company is Lasco ADI and according to their website they worked for the General Contractor Core Construction on Panther Creek High School. The website also shows a the logo for Corgan & Associates.
Armko Industries in Flower Mound donated $5000. They are an Engineering Firm with Architects and Building Envelope Consultants on staff. They specialize in the building envelope which comprises the roof and exterior walls. Armko is on the districts payroll as well, and since 2018, Frisco ISD has paid them $1,709,038.83. If your meal ticket calls, asking you to fund the Vote For PAC that is probably a good idea when you are banking in return.
Basden Steel in Burleson donated $5000. They are a certified steel fabrication and erection company. On their website it shows the Frisco Public Library as one of the many projects they worked on.
CT Excavating in Greenville donated $500. They don’t have a very lengthy website.
Cooper Excavation in Lewisville donated $1000. They have no website we could find and also have another name C-Con Services, Inc.
DMG Masonry in Arlington donated $5000. While they have a website it is very basic so we can only assume they too are a subcontractor for the FISD project.
EMA Engineering & Consulting, Inc donated $20,000. They provide MEP and technology design and consulting services to architects and building owners.
Foodservice Design Professionals in The Woodlands donated $10,000. The design state of the art food cafeterias. Not like a little old Luby’s from my day!
Greater Metroplex Interiors (GMI) in Southlake donated $5000. According to their website they are a facility construction for essential infrastructure projects.
Hawk Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning in Fort Worth donated $3000.
J&E Companies in Grand Prairie donated $5000. They are a masonry, drywall, acoustical, plaster/stucco specialty subcontractor.
John Cook & Associates in Dallas donated $3333.00. They offer HVAC solutions.
One Source Building Services in Plano donated $2500. They perform commercial construction services. One Source Commercial Flooring in Plano donated $5000. They appear to be in the same location.
Precision Demolition in Lewisville donated $2000.
Progressive Services in Phoenix, Arizona donated $5000.
Redden Concrete in Melissa donated $1000, and they are a commercial concrete contractor.
Signature Casework in Dallas donated $2500, and their website was not working.
Ramsey Landscape Architects in Frisco donated $5000.
Sizelove Construction in Euless donated $5000, and they are a leading concrete subcontractor.
Vaden’s Acoustics & Drywall in Fort Worth donated $5000, and we could not access their website.
Webb Builders Hardware in Dallas donated $1000.
Wildstone Construction in Fort Worth, Texas donated $1500.
WHAT DID WE LEARN? We have filed a PIR with the Frisco ISD to find out if these companies are subcontractors to any of the general commercial construction companies that they have paid out over $500 Million to over the last few years. It is clear some of them are directly on Frisco ISD’s payroll which left us with a few questions:
Who in the Vote For Pac is so popular that they know someone at each of these companies and called them up and asked them to donate to a PAC that would support Frisco ISD at the end of the day?
If Frisco ISD made contact with these companies or their general contractors asking for help to fund the Vote For PAC then could that or would that be electioneering?
It seems random that several subcontractors with no direct link to Frisco ISD felt the need to donate out of nowhere, and out of the goodness of their little kind hearts, to a district it has no affiliation to, right? If the PAC expects us to believe that, then they think we are dumber than elephant dung. The only reason these companies would donate is if they were asked to by one of the major companies they subcontract for.
Is anyone else questioning how this PAC got funded so fast?
Voltaire, one said, “When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.” In this case, that seems to be on point! Something underhanded and possibly crossing the line of ethical or even legal happened which funded this PAC. There are some hands in some serious cookie jars on this one!
Where does a school district’s money come from? School funding is largely in the hands of states. The primary job of the state finance system should be to account for differences between the districts in the cost of providing the right educational quality level, and then to distribute the funds. About 30 years ago the Texas Supreme Court ordered the Texas Legislature to fix the state’s unequal school funding system. The fix by lawmakers is often called the “Robin Hood” recapture plan. In 2023, three school districts voted to stop paying the recapture money to the state and two of those districts are here in North Texas. Carroll ISD and Keller ISD led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options. If you received one of the recent postcards, they sure look misleading!
So, what is the funding system? According to a 2019 Texas Tribune article, “Texas guarantees every school district a certain amount of funding for each student. State lawmakers determine the base number per student, which is currently $5,140. Many educators argue that the state should regularly increase that base number, at least with inflation, to get all schools the money they need. But the amount has not changed in four years.” What many Texans don’t realize is that Texas consistently ranks in the bottom 10 to 12 states for education spending per student. According to an article by Texas Standard, Texas hasn’t increased school funding since 2019. It goes on to say to keep up with inflation over the last four years, state lawmakers would need to add almost $1200 per student. Two North Texas districts, Carroll ISD and Keller ISD, led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options.
Remember when we were told if we approved the Texas Lotto, it would support education, where is all the money from the profits of these scratch-offs and power ball drawings? The truth is only 7% of the funding by the state for the state’s public school system comes from the Texas Lotto. However, the Texas Lottery is a better wordsmith to perfume the pig. The Texas Lotto website reads, “The Texas Lottery Supports Texas Education. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $33.9 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas.”
While funding is an important part of the discussion so are the spending habits of some of these districts. How did our school district choose to spend their money? Are the funds being distributed properly? Are they spending based on a well-thought-out budget? We decided to investigate the spending habits via the Frisco ISD Check Registers on the district’s website. The district has 4 funds: The General Fund, Child Nutrition, Debt Service, and Capital Projects. We started with the General Fund!
$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Abernathy Law $40,851.93, in 2023 they paid $85,913.58. We are curious, would it be a conflict of interest if the same law firm represented both the city and the School District? Was the legal advice received around these “Public-Private Partnerships” that are sold to residents as success ventures.
$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Walsh Gallegos Kyle another law firm $411,336.57 and in 2023, $353,028.02. Why does the district have two different law firms? What kind of legal services is the district needing?
$$ Amazon: In 2024, the district spent $2,271,090.30 on “MISC SUPPLIES.” That is slightly higher than the 2023 spend, which was $2,047,880. That is a lot of Amazon!
$$ Dallas Physician Medical Services for Children: In 2022, the district opened a medical clinic to provide FISD employees with free access to health and wellness. As we know nothing is free! In 2024 the district paid DPMSC $470,000 dollars, and in 2023 the district spent $472,000 dollars. We are curious why they would partner with a medical service for children – when it is supposed to be for adult employees.
$$ Blue Star Frisco EV: In 2024, $457,915.28 for “Rentals”, in 2023 the district paid 359,028 dollars. When the public-private partnership was announced for The Frisco Star residents were led to believe this was a good deal for the school district as they would have use of the facilities. The city website reads “It houses Frisco ISD events such as football games, soccer games, marching band competitions, commencement exercises, and other similar events.” Everyone failed to mention how much the district would pay for it each year on top of what the district paid for in the original agreement.
$$ City of Frisco (Contracted Services): In 2024, the district paid the city $2,361,742.00 and back in 2023, they paid $2,135,134.56 dollars. What contracted services cost that much?
$$ City of Frisco/Park (FISD Debt Payment): In 2024, the district paid $4,511,073.80 and back in 2023 they paid $5,678,818.38. What is the district getting back from that?
$$ Hilltop Holdings (Yearly Investment): In 2024, the district paid Hilltop Holdings $63,301 and in 2023 it was $81,017.98. What is the yearly investment for?
$$ GCS Trails of Frisco (Contracted Services): Par for the course the city is paying for the use of the facilities for GOLF! In 2024, the district paid $61,555.85 and then in 2023 they paid $54,893.94. I thought the whole point of the PGA partnership was to have “USE OF THE FACILITIES” so why are we paying to rent facilities.
$$ Population & Survey (Demographics Survey): The most interesting expense was the 2024 payment for $115,700 for a survey. Then we noticed in 2023 they paid $113,450.00 for another survey. Why? For What? We plan to file a PIR for the information.
The district’s website reads “OUR MISSION is to know every student by name and need.” At Frisco Whistleblower our mission is to understand how the district spends its money and the need to ask us for more Bonds = More Taxes! There were many more payments in the 2024 and 2023 General Fund Report that some may question. While we wanted to highlight a few, we are still left with the question of what the point of the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ). If all we are doing is paying out on them then how are they beneficial? What are we getting back from these TIRZ if we now have to go and ask residents for another $1 Billion dollars? Next up we will look at the 22/23/24 Capital Fund spending. Until then, you can review the Financial Reports on the district’s website. Lastly, look over the check registers as you might find some interesting things like we did.
Frisco ISD has proposed a new 2024 Bond Vatre which the district and the so called “Vote For Frisco ISD PAC” are pushing hard for. They want us to vote on four (4) propositions that they claim will fund important projects. What is a VATRE? A VATRE is triggered when a board adopts a tax rate that exceeds the district’s voter-approval tax rate (VATR). The VATR is determined for each district by a statutory formula and is the highest tax rate a board can adopt without holding an election. A district’s adopted tax rate has two components: its debt service rate or its interest and sinking (I&S) rate, and its maintenance and operations (M&O) rate.
While a bond election authorizes the issuance of bonds to generate funds for a district’s buildings and infrastructure and to be repaid from I&S revenue, a VATRE approves an increase in the district’s M&O tax rate, which can only be used for items related to programs and people, such as teacher salaries and stipends, training programs, educational programs, and other student activities, such as extracurricular programs. Confused yet?
The school district and the Vote For PAC are selling it to you on the basis that the priority has shifted from building new schools to maintaining the district’s existing facilities. A key piece of the proposed bond is refreshing aging schools and the supposedly includes a refresh for 20 Frisco ISD campuses that are 25 years old. The VATER portion according to the district’s website is needed to increase teacher pay and be more competitive. The district claims this will affect every campus, but they promised similar things in the 2018 bond, and we question if the money was used as they promised. Now they are back, asking us to trust them again but remember they DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT FOR THE REASONS THEY ARE ASKING FOR NOW. That means you can vote for it and then they can change how they or what they use the money for just like they did in 2018.
Getting the information out to the public about the upcoming propositions is not cheap. In fact, principals and the district are trying every avenue possible to get the information out, from using the PTA’s to hold informational sessions to ADVERTISING! Community Impact is one of the largest community papers for Frisco and for a long time we have thought they are in bed with Frisco political powers. We have never seen them write a hard-hitting story or an investigative story, instead most of the articles are “watered down” informational pieces. We have always had one burning question when it comes to Community Impact, how much does it cost to advertise during campaign season. I mean we know Jeff Cheney can afford it because he always owns the back cover for his business – but at what cost?
We started looking into these questions awhile back and set what we had found to the side until we saw a post on social media asking, “How much did Frisco ISD pay for the four-color glossy sticky notes located front and center in the recent Community Impact?” The paper has several different avenues of advertising such as an insert, sticky notes, direct mail postcards, online presence, and in-paper display ads. If our research is right, we can tell you!
We were sent a copy of their Frisco Elections Advertising PDF and according to the document, Community Impact goes out to 85,264 mailboxes in Frisco and their online presence in Frisco hits about 10,176 daily subscribers. Not bad coverage for a city with voter apathy! You can also bet they are working their inside connections in the Desis community as they alone can decide this vote.
Drum Roll Please…… Sticky Notes cost $0.15 each! If the district did 85,264 sticky notes to the Frisco readers, then the district spent $12,789.60 for one paper. Additionally, inserts are $0.15 each, sticky/insert combo is $0.25/set, and direct mail postcards are $0.26 each. If they decided to use the website ads on communityimpact.com it would cost $300/month per market for 30 days. If they choose to advertise via the morning impact email newsletter that goes out to 10,176 subscribers, it will cost $500 for the top of the newsletter and $450 for the middle of the newsletter.
We have a lot of questions:
Should the district be paying $13k for advertising when there is a Vote For PAC who has organized?
Are they advertising clearly, correctly and honestly? For example, on the districts website it reads “100% of bond funds stay in the district and is not subject to recapture by the state.” Will it really stay “IN THE DISTRICT” such as our schools and facilities, or will any of it (even $1 dollar) go to one of the public-private partnerships they have? You might have heard the City of Frisco approved a $182 million renovation for Toyota Stadium, but did you know Frisco ISD pays part of that bill? The recent headlines don’t alert you that the ISD is paying part of that BIG BILL!
That is right, $77 million of the $182 million comes from the public-private partnership TIRZ for the City of Frisco and Frisco ISD. They just did stadium improvements in 2016 for Toyota Stadium. I thought the point of all these public-private partnerships was to make money not just spending it. They also have a TIRZ / public-private partnership for the PGA Golf Course, Ford Center, Expansion of Dr. Pepper Arena, etc. Read more about it on their website.
While they are claiming 100% of the bonds are staying in the district, they are not telling you the VATRE is subject to recapture. According to Community Impact, “the new tax rate would generate an additional $11.5 million in revenue for the district. In total, the increase would generate $19.5 million in revenue, but $8 million would go to the state in recapture.” But they are not advertising that, are they? FISD voters last approved raising the M&O portion of the tax rate by $0.13 per $100 valuation in 2018.
We are just diving into the ISD stuff but as of right now we are not sold on voting for this bond/vatre. Just a few concerns include, we question if Waldrip the Super Intendent is the right might to lead the district as the last city he was in didn’t want him. We also don’t trust the school board President who has a history of personal financial problems to oversee tax dollars. We also don’t believe Frisco ISD is being smart, transparent or effective with the money they have now and we are unsure if throwing more money in the pot is the best solution. Last but not least our ISD needs to explain if any of this money will ever be used for public-private partnerships because if it will that makes it a no for us!
There is a magical art behind asking for something you want and then getting it! I read an essay many years ago that talked about how culturally it was not always the norm to ask directly for what you want and when we do, we are usually bad at it. People tend to hem and haw and often walk away from asking because we cannot clearly articulate the message. For example, many are uncomfortable asking their boss for a raise or salary bump.
Persuasion tactics are strategies that can help you convince people to see things your way and being good using these tactics is usually an art form. To be good, or to be great you must first know exactly what you want and what you need others to “buy in” to. Second you must ground yourself in why you are doing it and make sure it resonates with you so you can “sell it from the heart.” Third, you must be able to state clearly and with no confusion what you are asking for or trying to sell to the people. It must be direct, clear and specific. Lastly, you must be selective and targeted about who you ask or when you announce it.
In Frisco, one man is very good at Persuasion Tactics and his name is Mayor Jeff Cheney. When he “wants” something in Cheneyville, well he gets it! He is very good at “telling you” what you want versus “asking” residents what they want. For example, he has put together his team and he has been gathering his clan of supporters to push for the Performing Arts Centre. When he hit a no with the public/private partnership with the school district and Hall Group, he didn’t stop. Nope, he just changed course and came back at it again with his little clan in toe. Next thing you know he will get what he wants, residents will bitch, and no one knows the wiser of how we ended up here.
The talk of a Performing Arts Centre is not new, but what is new is we are curious “How much has this cost taxpayers?” The city has spent $1.6+ million on the current Theatre Projects assessment or feasibility study, but how many others have we done in the past? What were the costs to taxpayers in the previous studies? Why are we doing so many studies? When it comes to wanting studies and assessments what is the magic number of how many we will do before we say enough is enough? We did some research, and this is what we found:
Feb 17, 2015: Under the consent agenda for the city council meeting item 17 reads, “Consider and act upon approval of publishing a RFQ for the development and implementation of a study to examine the feasibility of a performing/theatre arts facility within the corporate limits of the City of Frisco.” We looked high and low and could not determine how much any of this cost. We could not even find the RFQ they approved to publish.
2015: Frisco Association of the Arts commissioned a “Facility Programming Report” by Page Southerland Page. According to the minutes for the Citizens Bond Committee on 01/26/2015, Tammy Meinershagen provided an update that a feasibility group has been identified to conduct a study for the PAC in Frisco. She went on to say it would take about six (6) months to complete the study and has an estimated cost of $200,000 dollars.
2018: The City of Frisco commissioned a “Needs Assessment” by Webb Management Services and Parkhill Smith & Cooper (PSC). According to a Community Impact article, the study showed there 14 performing arts groups that have 667 days of demand for performance facilities in Frisco. According to the study, the majority of this demand—466 days—calls for a facility with 225 to 500 seats while 177 days of demand calls for a facility of 1,001 to 1,750 seats. At the June 2018 Council Summer Work session, PSC Associate Michael Howard presented the findings and told the council there is not enough capacity in Frisco right now. At that time Cheney told Community Impact that “it was council’s preference to use available bond funds to build a 300- to 500-seat facility to meet the current demand of community arts groups with the hope of working with a private partner to build a larger performing arts center.” Of course, Cheney always changes his tune later! The CI article goes on to say the Councils “Performing Arts Committee is in the middle of a feasibility study to determine the size and needs of a potential PAC.” HOW MUCH DID IT COST – We don’t know! We can’t find anywhere in an agenda search where this shows up from 2017 to 2019.
August 2020: Frisco ISD commissioned a “Programming Report” by Schuler Shook. We can’t determine how much this one cost our ISD Taxpayers either. We have sent a PIR asking for that information.
October 2020: The City of Frisco and Frisco ISD commissioned a “Feasibility Report” by Garfield Public Private and Schuler Shook. Well Shocker – we cannot find anywhere what this one cost taxpayers either!
September 2021: Frisco Arts Foundation commissioned a “Market & Feasibility Study” by Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc. We cannot find out how much this one cost either. However, we are guessing since each year the city “FUNDS” the FAA through Hotel/Motel Fund somehow Taxpayers still paid for it.
May 2022: City of Frisco, Frisco ISD, and Hall Group commissioned a “Space Analysis Narrative by Corgan + Studio Gang. In February of 2022 the city council authorized an agreement for services in the amount of $175,000 dollars. Remember in late June of 2021, the city and Frisco ISD entered a public-private partnership with developer Craig Hall to construct a $67 million performing arts center. The city has agreed to contribute $14 million in voter-approved bond money, while Frisco ISD will contribute $43 million from the 2018 bond package, and Hall will contribute $10 million. Remember this is the one that “FELL APART” and truly if the city had wanted a PAC would have been the best option for everyone involved but we have learned from city insiders that “to many chiefs got involved” which caused the band to break up.
July 2022: Hall Group commissioned and performed a “Proposal and Outline” and we could not find out what the cost of this study was.
January 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned and executed an agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., for consulting services related to a performing arts venue in the amount of $99,300 which was to be paid for by Bond Funds
September 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned part two of the agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., in the amount of $1,415,500 dollars. Recently in 2024 after some CLARITY they Upp’d that amount to $1.6 million as we told you in our last article.
We did learn a few interesting facts along this deep dive…
According to the Dallas Morning News, “Frisco leaders also launched the HEARTS Project initiative — an acronym for Hall, Education and the Arts — to crowdsource an additional $100 million in donations for auxiliary upgrades. The amenities could include a large video screen facing The Star in Frisco, box suites, a VIP arts club with membership benefits, Frisco summer musicals, and a restaurant or bistro, according to the campaign website, but would not contribute to additional seating.” The 2021 article went on to say that “although city officials have previously said the center could host professional performances, the petition states that the limited seating capacity is too small for consideration by Touring Broadway. Experts recommend between 1,750 and 2,000 seats, according to the petition, which cited Theatre Projects’ market assessment and feasibility study for Frisco.
Next, we found it interesting just a few years ago in 2021 Frisco ISD had committed $43 million from a 2018 bond package and now they are back in 2024 asking voters to VOTE FOR the new 1-billion-dollar bond because they are broken penniless poppers! Just a few years later, they are begging for us to vote in favor of the bonds so the Frisco Kids can have an 11,000,000-tennis center.
We also learned Keating was a huge fan of the arts from a 2018 article in Lifestyle Frisco. He is quoted as saying Deputy Mayor Pro Tem John Keating said, “This is our chance to blow it out of the water, Frisco style!” Remember, Keatings motto in his last re-election we are #1 this, #1 that, #1 here, #1 there! Now he is closing on his house in The Preserve at Fields the #1 most exclusive community in King Cheney’s Frisco.
In closing, the city has buried how much these things cost deep in agendas, under nicknames and code words, hoping that you or I will give up looking. We did but what we can tell you with the most recent study in 2023 plus the other three we are at about $2 million alone in just “STUDIES, ASSESSMENTS, ANALYSIS” done for a Performing Arts Center. That means we are going to keep paying money for these via the bonds, hotel/motel tax fund, or something else until King Cheney gets his Performing Arts Center. You can bet little pretty Princess Tammy will be right next to him the whole way. Trailing behind will be their wingman “John “The Infamous Cheating” Keating.
Diving into all this has taken a lot more time than we expected and unless you understand the arts and all these studies it is a bunch of well-pitched jargon crap to confuse the residents of Frisco. We will continue our deep dive into this because we know the city is about to hit us with a bond. It will be through the City or the secret weapon “THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD”. Just wait and see…. the EDC will make the pitch because the city has been called out.
Mr. Thakur will be getting my vote!
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.