In our last blog we asked if local elections are truly non-partisan and from the response we received most readers responded with a firm NO. We are not surprised by the response because we believe local races stopped being non-partisan a long time ago. Political campaigns are serious business according to the book Political Campaign Craftsmanship by Edward Schwartzman which notes that over one BILLION dollars are spent in presidential election years. Where do the candidates get all this money?
Candidates for political office at any level of government, must hustle to raise money to fund campaigns. Campaign finance laws dictate who can contribute, how much one can contribute and how those contributions must be reported. In Texas, campaign finance guidelines are published by the Texas Ethics Commission. Before any campaign can start raising funds, they must first file paperwork to identify their campaign treasurer who is responsible for keeping up with the campaign finance reports that must be turned in to the city.
Generally, when a person donates to a candidate they have a specific reason or purpose that drives that decision. People may donate to support a specific candidate or party whom they share the same values or has the same goals. One may donate to try and influence an election outcome in their favor or to gain access or influence with the candidate. In Frisco, who is donating to our city council members and what are they doing with the money you donated?
In an early blog called The Ethics Conclusion & The Bogus Ethics Policy, we addressed campaign donations going back and forth between candidates and how it can affect them from being able to be independent when an ethics complaint is filed against a member of the council. In our blog Dark Money, we talked about the corrupt campaign finance system that has shifted the power in politics from the residents to the pay-to-play system that developers in Frisco seem to take advantage of.
As we said local elections are no longer non-partisan so if you are democrat you mostly likely donate to democratic candidates and the same could be said for a conservative donating to republican candidates. We decided to start with John Keating because he is currently running for re-election and his campaign finance report has been the most colorful over the years.
John P. Keating is a registered Republican. In 2015, Keating announced he would not run for re-election in Frisco because he planned on running for Texas House Representative District 33. According to TransparencyUSA he has received contributions from some interesting groups, most likely during the time he ran for the Texas House District. Empower Texas PAC $52,160.01, Texas Right To Life PAC $10,000, True Texas Project PAC $2239.86, and the Collin County Republican Party as well as 2 republican woman groups. One interesting donation to point out is the James Webb donation during his run for Texas House. Webb donated $20,000 according to TransparencyUSA and he was convicted of Medical Fraud in 2016.
What about locally? Keating made several donations according to his campaign finance reports, remember this is money donated to his campaign. Keating donated over $3000+ to The Frisco Chamber of Commerce, the most recent donation in 2022. In 2017, he “sponsored” $1500 for the Collin County Republican Party. Fast forward to 2021, John Keating’s campaign finance report shows he donated $1000 to each of the following republican campaigns: Angela Paxton Campaign, Jared Patterson Campaign, and Pat Fallon for Congress. Also in 2021, he continued donating to republicans like the Chris Hill Campaign for $500, Jimmy Angelino for $1000, and the Rob Altman for $1000.
In 2022, from his campaign donations, he donated $1000 to each of the following republicans: Keith Self for Congress, Jared Patterson, Matt Shaheen, Drew Springer, Frederick Frazier, and the Jimmy Angelino Campaign.
In local elections, using his campaign donations, he donated $1000 to the Bill Woodard Campaign, and in 2022/23 he donated $2000+ to the Cheney Campaign. Now what is interesting is that John Keating and then wife Leslie Keating, made around $7000 in donations to Angelia Pelham, a registered democrat. We could not find the donations on his campaign expense reports so we are assuming that came from personal funds. QUESTION:Keating has always made campaign contributions to politicians from his personal campaign fund so why when it comes to Angelia did he change that? Keating has donated to some very conservative politicians in recent years and received money from very conservative groups over the years, so we are guessing he didn’t want his “REPUBLICAN” donors to know he was donating to a democrat which would have had to be listed on his campaign finance report. Since it came from his personal funds, the only way to know he donated to Pelham is by looking at her campaign finance reports.
Why is this important? First if you donate to a candidate like Keating, but you don’t support Cheney or Woodard, would you be upset to learn he is using campaign donations to support them? If you are democrat voting for Keating, and never researched his campaign funds, would you be upset to learn Keating has donated to and accepted campaign funds to some very far right conservatives? Lastly, Keating supported Angelia for council then and now and the fact that he gave her $7000 could be an issue for party driven voters. Maybe that is why he didn’t donate from his campaign fund like he did with all the other candidates. We don’t know the make-up of Angelia’s voters, but if most are democrat do you think they know Keating is donating to some very conservative legislatures and accepted money from some very conservative PACs over the years?
In our next blog we plan to deep dive into the other council members’ campaign contributions to see who they are giving their campaign money to which was been donated to them.
Our investigation into The Preserve at PGA Frisco has offered up a treasure trove of information over the last year. We first talked about this back in February 2023 in our blog Fields West Dynasty where we discussed the historic future Fields development and the woven professional relationship conflicts. We began to unravel our opinion regarding the conflict of interest at play for Mayor Jeff Cheney vs Real Estate Mogul Jeff Cheney and his relationship with the Fehmi Fields development. Just the Fields Frisco website was cause for pause – why is there a letter from Mayor Jeff Cheney on it?
Then in our Field of Dreams blog, we talked about how Texas Scorecard had questioned the same thing we did years earlier. We also shared an email by John Baumgarten to then-Mayor Jeff Cheney asking how he could get on the “unofficial lot list” for The Preserve and that he would like to make a “donation” to a charity involved in the development. We also pointed out there was no response to Mr. Baumgarten supplied in our PIR but there was a continuing conversation between Cheney and then Chief of Staff Lori Medina (MedinaUSA) on where the donation could be made.
We continued our questions regarding The Preserve and PGA Frisco in our blog, The Silicon Valley of Golf followed by our blog Dark Money where we pointed out some very questionable campaign donations from all these developers involved in future Fields / PGA / The Link. Then we laid out in detail the conflict of interest friendships Mayor Cheney vs Realtor Jeff Cheney built in our blog Anatomy of a Friendship.
Then we release our Breaking News: The Preserve Lots VIP Program blog where we have a recording of a builder rep telling local Real Estate Agents that Jeff Cheney has a lot in The Preserve along with other important people in the project, kind of like a millionaire or billionaire row so to speak of lots and future homes. Go listen to the recording you won’t be disappointed. Then we published the proof in Land Lies of the developer plot map which shows the names Cheney and Keating under a “Developer Hold.”
Why are we reminding you about this? You have to go back to the beginning to understand how what we uncovered today is concerning. For years now local Realtors have been questioning the potential conflict between Cheney’s role as Mayor and as Realtor/Broker of the Cheney Group. Questions also surround his convoluted relationship with Fehmi Karahan and the sale of the lots in The Preserve. Multiple times, Cheney has publicly stated he is not the Realtor of record for lots in The Preserve. He joked in front of a room of real estate professionals, please don’t call me as I am not the agent for these lots. Realtors questioned though how a majority of the lots were already sold before going public to real estate professionals.
With everything he has said publicly were surprised to see 3 lots worth over $2+ million for sale in The Preserve at PGA Frisco on his website. A few months ago it said it was listed by one of his agents but now according to the multiple listing service (MLS) the REALTOR OF RECORD IS JEFF CHENEY OF THE CHENEY GROUP!
In closing, we initially were doing research into some rumors about a possible shake-up or break-up within the Monument umbrella. That led us to these lots for sale which sparked us to look through public records, talk to some builder reps as we “house hunted,” and what we learned from our Realtor neighbor. The lots in question had been sold or contracted by other agents for client’s they had. So why are they for sale now? We can only assume the original buyers probably changed their minds or backed out for some reason which happens all the time according to my neighbor. If they were contracted by other agents, then why are those agents not selling the lots? Why are the lots now listed with the Cheney Group? Why is Jeff Cheney listed as the Realtor/Broker of Record? With so many questions, you can see we are still looking into this so stay tuned for more of what we uncover.
Everyone knows the saying, “Behind every successful man is a woman.” I searched for who originated this quote but that wasn’t too easy to find. I guess I should have asked my wife to hunt for it. What I could find is, it seems the expression originated in the early 1900s, implying, of course, that our wives or mothers were the major contributor to most of our success. Some argue that Groucho Marx’ came up with the quote originally. I joke that I prefer Jim Carrey’s quote, “Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.” Because, in my case, for every great idea I think I have, it’s really my wife that actually makes the idea come to life.
Now, most of you already know about my concerns about Fehmi Karahan and The Karahan Companies and his dealings in Frisco. They are completely out of control with Mayor Cheney doing his best to keep the train from jumping the tracks. We recently visited The Karahan Companies’ website to study some of his team players wondering if we could connect some dots. Well, I didn’t need my wife’s help on this one.
Sure enough, behind this man, is one great woman, the Company’s General Manager, Lori Decker. It says right there, she “has over 20 years in commercial real estate legal administration, managing client activities at the law firm of Grogan and Brawner, P.C. for 13 years.”
Clang! Clang! Clang! Why should we take notice of this? Well, R.J. Grogan, Jr. and Jeff Brawner have a firm in Dallas, off of Fairmount St., in the same building as GFF Architects who interestingly enough designed Cobb Farm. What a small world. Why we even take notice of these partners is the number of years that they have been donating to the various campaigns of the Frisco City Council. If you need to see more detail on this check out our story Dark Money
But, it doesn’t stop there. You guessed it, they are The Karahan Companies’ counsel too.
If that wasn’t one dot too many already, we continue to read on and learn from Decker’s bio, she previously worked for Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd and Joplin back in 2011. Really? For those that may not know, Richard Abernathy is the City of Frisco’s leading attorney. Well, it must be nice to know people.
Are we saying that Lori Decker is guilty of anything? Not at all! We are actually suggesting that perhaps she is the greatness that is behind all of these successful men. And, if so, she needs to ask for a really big pay raise!
Driving up the Dallas North Tollway (DNT) towards Frisco, Texas all you can see are the rows of new developments that line the feeder roads. Gone are the days when Frisco was a residential bedroom community of North Texas where most locals had to commute to a nearby city for work. Stop and talk to the original Frisconians, and they can tell you Frisco dates back as far as the 1840s and was once located along The Shawnee Trail, also known as The Texas Roadway stretching from Texas up to Missouri. Later it would be called the Preston Trail (hence the name Preston Road).
Fast Forward to 1908, Frisco incorporated, and had grown to a population some estimate to be 1000 people. Around 1940, Frisco became part of “the great cotton belt”, which was unique in that it was nestled in both Collin and Denton County. Around the 1970s, the cotton gin business began to dwindle, and real estate developers and their investors began buying cheap land bordering Preston Road. By 2000, Frisco had grown to almost 34,000 residents; in 2019, the city had over 200,000+ residents. Frisco was no longer that little town outside of Dallas. It was on its way to becoming named one of the “Best Places to Live” in the nation.
What changed and spurred this growth? The answer depends on whom you ask. In my opinion, the change began in 1994 when State Highway 121 was extended along with the extension of the DNT to 380 in 2007. You then add Stonebriar Mall in 2000 at the intersection of 121 & DNT and life becomes easier for those in the suburbs of Big D. Frisco’s city manager at the time realized it was time to develop a long-term plan for the city, and they began to focus on sports. They added the Frisco Rough Riders in 2003 and in 2016 America’s Team, The Dallas Cowboys moved in. Development became key and everyone wanted a little piece of the pie.
Today, if you ask residents if they love Frisco, you will get mixed reviews. The original Frisconians believe the city has lost the heart and nostalgia of what it once was. Frisco leaders have forgotten that the heart of Frisco is and will always be its residents. For the last several years, the biggest complaint from residents is density which is the number of people living in a particular area and an important aspect of how a city functions.
In 2019, the Dallas Morning News did an opinion piece by Sharon Grigsby about how residents are tired of bright-and-shiny change, and they are working to become more effective in fighting city hall and the city council. Now in 2023, Frisco is congested with traffic on most side streets, major intersections, and feeder roads exiting the highway. Yet, residents continually hear from the council about how their traffic studies tell them these developments will not affect them. Residents are now calling it “BS” and are demanding change, and many believe it starts with the head of the snake, Mayor Jeff Cheney. So, who is Jeff Cheney?
A few years ago, Frisco residents were divided on the idea of an Employee Wellness Center that supposedly would save taxpayer dollars and improve employee health outcomes. At the time, Frisco Chronicles and many residents, raised concerns because the clinic was projected to operate in the red for years before ever breaking even. Funny how “trust the process” always seems to come with a blank check.
So naturally, we decided to follow up.
We filed a Public Information Request asking for basic operational information for the following:
1. Annual Usage Statistics; Number of clinic visits by employees each year.
2. Employee Participation: Total Number of employees using the clinic each year.
3. Financial Performance: Annual revenue and expenses related to operating the clinic, including whether the clinic operates at a surplus or deficit each year.
4. Any additional reports or summaries detailing the clinics’ utilization, cost savings, or operational performance.
Asking for usage numbers, costs, financial performance, and general metrics. Not patient records. Not private medical files. Just the kind of accountability data taxpayers should expect when public money and public partnerships are involved.
Instead, the City of Frisco is now claiming much of the information is confidential. Premise Health, the private company operating the clinic, also argued the records should be withheld by the public.
That response raises even more questions. The public has the right to know where taxpayer dollars are going.
Since when did taxpayer-funded operations become private just because a corporation is involved? If a city contracts with a private company that operates on taxpayer dollars, then transparency is part of the deal. You don’t get to step into the public arena, collect public money, make promises to taxpayers, and then slam the door shut when someone asks for performance numbers.
Nobody is requesting employee medical files or protected health information. We fully support protecting patient privacy. But there is a massive difference between protecting personal health records and hiding operational data from the taxpayers footing the bill.
The city and Premise Health appear to be blurring that line intentionally.
How many employees use the clinic monthly? How much taxpayer money has been spent? What are the annual operating losses or gains? Has the clinic reduced insurance costs as promised? What metrics are being used to measure success?
Those are not invasive questions. Those are standard accountability questions.
And frankly, if the clinic is performing well, why fight so hard to keep the numbers hidden?
The public has every right to question why officials are circling the wagons over usage statistics and financial data. Transparency should not suddenly disappear because the answers may be politically inconvenient.
Government transparency in Frisco increasingly feels like a game of “public when convenient, private when questioned.” The city loves press conferences, ribbon cuttings, and glossy announcements when launching programs, but when residents ask for follow-up data years later, suddenly everyone discovers the word “confidential.”
Maybe the Employee Wellness Center is a success story. Maybe it’s exactly the financial sinkhole critics warned about years ago. Either way, taxpayers deserve facts, not carefully crafted legal objections designed to keep the public in the dark.
Read our original article and decide for yourself whether this is about protecting privacy — or protecting politics.
Disclaimer: This blog includes satire, parody, and comic relief. It contains summarized accounts created solely for humor and commentary. Any resemblance to real events is either coincidental or intentionally satirical. Reader discretion — and a sense of humor — are advised.
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