Survey Says….

by friscowhistleblower | Jun 13, 2023 | Frisco Fire - Climate Survey / ICMA, Frisco Fire Chief Lee Glover, Frisco Fire Department, Frisco Firefighters Assoc, George Purefoy, Mayor Jeff Cheney, Politics, Wes Pierson

As a young adult, I loved watching game shows. The mid-1950s were a period of rapid growth in popularity for quiz shows. I remember watching Jack Barry, on-air host from 1947-1958 and 1960 – 1980 who produced and appeared on “High Low Quiz,” “Juvenile Jury,” and “Tic Tac Dough.” Then, there was Dennis James who is credited with hosting television’s first network game show in 1946 called “Cash and Carry.” One of the most popular of all times was, “The Dating Game” with Jim Lange. Rodney Alcala, a contestant on the show in 1978 is often referred to as “The Dating Game Serial Killer” because when he applied to be a contestant he had already committed at least four murders and decades later authorities discovered he was a prolific serial killer, but, I digress.

The best game show in my opinion is “Family Feud,” which started in 1976 and was hosted by Richard Dawson. He was the host known as the Kissing Casanova for his signature kiss on the cheek and lips to all his female contestants. The show would be hosted over the years by Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn (Home Improvement), John O’Hurley (Seinfeld), and Steve Harvey. My wife and I tune in every day to hear Steve Harvey say, “We asked a 100 people” and “The survey says!” Game shows give the audience the chance to live out our fantasies thinking, “Well, if someone must win, it could be me!”

Who uses surveys? And, what is the survey’s purpose? A better question might be “Who doesn’t use surveys?” It is common for companies to do employee surveys to measure staff engagement or companies may reach out to customers after a purchase to measure satisfaction. The overall purpose of a survey is to get feedback and ideas to understand areas of improvement. We were a little surprised and intrigued when we heard rumors in the last few weeks that the Local 3732 Executive Board of the FFA had done a survey of the firefighters in response to a new chief and in regard to some of the Mayor’s recent statements.

Let’s look at the questions in regard to the Mayor’s Statement Survey:

Question: Do you want Interim Fire Chief Glover to be the next Fire Chief of the Frisco Fire Department? The survey says 92.5% said NO, they do not want Interim Chief Glover to be the new Fire Chief, which is alarming considering he is currently running the Department. Have the firefighter’s lost confidence in Glover?

Question: Do you believe Interim Fire Chief Glover has improved/rebuilt morale and regained trust of the Department? The survey says 91.4% of the Association said, NO Glover has not improved morale or rebuilt trust.  Interestingly, this directly contradicts what Mayor Cheney said at the Star Patriot Debate where he adamantly said Glover has increased morale and is starting to regain trust. When the Mayor answered with such confidence, did he knowingly lie? Was it an attempt to mislead the public to win the election? Just listen to him in his own words…

Now, let’s look at the Fire Chief Questionnaire in regard to the future hiring process of the fire chief position.

Question: Do you believe the organization has any qualified candidates to assume the task set forth by the City Manager’s office?  The survey says 89.4% said NO that the organization does not have any qualified candidates as of now to assume the task. That is pretty telling that Frisco firefighters don’t agree with the Mayor’s view.

Question: Would you like the next chief to be an external hire or internal hire?  The survey says, YES, 93.8% would like an external hire which is mind-blowing because it shows they have no confidence in current interim Chief Glover.

Question: Do you believe the finalist list should be composed of National Candidates? The survey says 91.7% responded, YES it should have national candidates. So, if it were a “national” search, why did they need to be Texas Certified? Oh no, nothing to see here.

Question: Do you believe the finalists should have experience as a chief in a department of equal or larger size and city population density?  The survey says, 86.1% said YES they should have the current experience equal to Frisco’s department.

Question: Do you believe the department is appropriately preparing for the future or heading back to the past practices?  The survey said 91.5%, YES, that they are heading back to the past practices. Are they referring to Mack Borchardt, the previous Fire Chief, who works now in the City Manager’s office as a special assistant?

Question: Do you believe the Department is appropriately staffed?  The survey says 95.2% responded NO it is not adequately staffed. As a resident, that scares the shady shit right out of me that its own department feels that way.

Question: Do you believe there should be a stakeholders’ group of FF consisting of all ranks involved in the hiring process?  The survey said 96.6% responded YES, they want to have a say in picking their next leader.

After seeing the survey, we too had some questions and decided to do some research.

Frisco’s Fire Chief was Mack Borchardt who started as a volunteer firefighter in 1973. Then, in 1982, he became the Administrator and Chief of Volunteers until 1987 when he became the City’s very first Fire Chief. Oddly, in September of 2011, the City announced he would retire and then assume new duties as a Fire Programs Consultant and Special Assistant to then City Manager George Purefoy.

Why would a fire chief take a new role out of the blue? Multiple off the record sources tell us that Borchardt was caught in some compromising situations which could have been a factor, or it could have been his staff and the association just didn’t like him either. 

In the fall of 2011, a Climate Survey was done in the Frisco FD to identify growing concerns of firefighters and officers. It notes, “…there is a lack of trust, respect, and dignity between officers and firefighters. The culture… is very negative and one of intimidation, retaliation, and fear.” The examiner notes that in the conversations with the Chief and Officers they lead her to believe there is some truth to the claims. The report also notes there is considerable animosity regarding Chief Borchardt and that many in the department felt the entire senior staff along with the Chief needed to be replaced because they were all trained in Borchardt’s style. The most telling part of the report was that many firefighters believe the then Chief Borchardt was trying to run the growing department like it only had 20 employees, and instead of hiring those best suited for the job, he hired his friends.

Lastly, it notes the department is understaffed for the growing population (ding, ding, ding). At the time 76.3% of the respondents indicated they would leave the department if they could.

While we have no concrete evidence, multiple sources said Borchardt was pushed out. George Purefoy stood up for him and said, if he goes then I go, so instead Borchardt was moved into a new job at city hall working for George himself. After reading the report, it begs the question was Chief Borchardt removed “not retired” because of his personal behavior and management style that had torn apart the Department?

Did then City Manager George Purefoy save his friend with a cushy job right next to him at city hall? It is important to note that the current Interim Chief and candidate Lee Glover steadily advanced through the ranks of management in the fire department under the leadership of Mack Borchardt; so, based on the report, it might be plausible to assume Glover still has Borchardt’s management style and that is why the new survey shows no confidence in him. Either way, Borchardt and Glover are what some would call “thick as thieves.”

In 2013, the city hired Mark Piland as the new Chief of Frisco Fire Department. According to many of the sources we talked to, YES, change did start to happen, but it didn’t help that Piland was met by resistance from then Manager George Purefoy who conveniently had Mack Borchardt, the previous fire chief, in his ear. Think about it, if you are an old fire chief of 20+ years, would you want to see what you built in the Department change right in front of your eyes?

Tension began early on from what sources tell us, making it very difficult for Piland to make significant changes. Borchardt worked the ear of his longtime friend and boss George Purefoy for years, straining the relationship from the onset with Piland and Purefoy. We are guessing Piland realized early on he was facing a losing battle going up against the old fire chief in the City Manager’s ear day-after-day during his entire tenure. One has to wonder, is this why Piland thought he might better serve the City as Manager? One also wonders if the new City Manager Wes Pierson was really chosen because he would fall right in line?

As a side note, I had some of these suspicions months ago when I filed a PIR asking for Borchardt’s recent contract renewal by Purefoy that was signed just before retiring, which, NO, we still have not received.

Now, it’s 2023 and Glover, who has been the Interim Chief, is a candidate for Chief of the fire department.  You can bet he wants that position badly, and his mentor and friend in the city manager’s office, Mack Borchardt would not mind seeing him in the position either.  If that wasn’t enough, we asked around, and multiple officers told us shocking things regarding Glover that left us flabbergasted. YES, flabbergasted!

Obviously, out of fear of losing their jobs, I can understand why they would not want to go on the record. With that said, multiple firefighters spoke off the record. They have witnessed the Interim Frisco Fire Chief belligerently drunk multiple times in public and threatened them if they ever spoke up about it. The same firefighters confirmed he was recently seen in the street at a FD Conference, again belligerently drunk, peeing on a tree in the median during the middle of the day. Witnesses also say he drank heavily at lunchtime during some of these conferences. So now, the current survey makes total sense. All of these factors, history, and more, contribute to the survey results. We were told he has a known history of maliciously undermining all ranks of FD leadership for his own personal gain.

Based on what we were told, someone at city hall might want to ask the following interview questions of Interim Chief Lee Glover:

Is it true you have a history of being belligerently drunk at FD training conferences and FD apparatus purchasing meetings?

Do you have a DUI on your record from August of 1985? Were you sentenced to 2 years’ probation? Is the city aware of this?

Did you urinate on a tree in the middle of the street at an FDIC conference in Indianapolis? And is it true, you threatened FD staff if they spoke of the incidents and suggest they would “regret it?”

Is it true you have a history of using your rank to cause people in your department to fear losing their job should they go against you?

If we told you there was a tape of you making racially inappropriate statements how would you respond? Do you have a history of making racially inappropriate statements?

If the City had the guts to sit down with the staff today face to face for an honest conversation, would your current staff say all these incidents were true?

Lastly, does the Public Lewdness charge from 1992 and the indecent exposure charge in 2000 belong to you or your father?

From the City’s recent meet and greet, we now know the candidate shortlist is Rob Bergersen, Richard Davis, Lee Glover, Kenneth Johnson, and Marc Pate. None of them have held the position of Chief. But, we learned of a few names that were removed, and we are interested in asking, why since they seem to have much more experience? Take Paul Henley, who is the Fire Chief in Flower Mound and President of the Texas Fire Chiefs Association–why was he taken off the list? Chief Lasky in Lewisville, a 40-year veteran and has served as a Fire Chief for the last 12 years–why was he taken off the list? Hello?  With the stellar background of on some of these candidates, one should wonder why they were removed from the list.  “Survey Says…“