It was a nice sunny day, and my dad called my name and asked if I wanted to ride with him to town and I jumped in the truck before he could even turn around and get an answer. I loved being with my dad because he was interesting yet peculiar, and he always had interesting things to say. I asked what we had to do, and he said in his gruff voice “get supplies” and I just buckled up. We hit a few stops in town including the 5 and dime to get our candy bars and then we started back down the pebbled roads to Chateau Vino (home). My dad slammed on his breaks out of nowhere he said “son, I smell smoke!” He yelled, start looking so as we drove we looked everywhere around us and there it was black smoke rising on a neighbor’s land. My dad slammed on the gas, and we drove fast towards the neighbor’s land, and I remember just bouncing up and down from all those damn pebbles. We got there and saw the old man holding a hose and we grabbed others laying nearby and started spraying. It took a while before the fire brigade arrived from town with a portable water truck. I don’t remember much after that as I think I was in shock as it was my first fire. We had the help of other local farmhands and the brigade and after it was out everyone sat on the back of their trucks watching for hot spots late into the evening.
Why is this important? Because when I was a kid my dad always told me that if your business involved the land you lived on such as a farm or winery then you know the most detrimental thing that can happen is a fire. He said within minutes a small fire in open dry land could decimate an area and destroy our family’s winery. When we first moved to Texas I learned the city we lived in had Citizens Fire Academy, so I signed up. We learned that a fire requires a flame, air, fuel, and heat. We learned a backdraft is caused by the sudden introduction of air into a fire that has depleted most of the available oxygen in a room or building. Firefighters look for signs such as smoke being drawn in along with the air under doors, and windows. They also look to see if the windows are showing signs of excessive heat, such as brown stains and cracking. It saves them from opening a door or window and being caught in a backdraft of fire. My experience as a young lad and my short time in Citizens Fire Academy gave me a whole new perspective on what these men and woman do.
As a Frisco resident in 2017 and 2020 when the Frisco Fire Fighters endorsed Cheney I figured if they felt he was the right leader I would support him too. Then in April 2021 you would have thought an El Paso dust storm full of tumbleweeds came through Frisco and upset the equilibrium of our city. As we discussed in our earlier blogs Where There Is Smoke PT 1 and There is Fire PT 2, there has been a long standing point of contention between fire fighters and the city in regards to workers compensation. In 2021 the city opposed House Bill 2242 brought forward by their own district House State Rep Jared Patterson. In 2023 the FFA and Patterson brought HB 471 and they have been working very hard to get it passed in Austin and it would protect first responders across Texas.
While our local Frisco Fire Fighters Association and State Rep Jared Patterson are working so hard to protect first responders, you can imagine our shock on May 2, 2023 when we learned a 27-year veteran of the Frisco Fire Department felt the need to speak at Citizen Input on how he was recently terminated by the City of Frisco while he was on leave and under medical supervision for PTSD.
Those that wish to watch the City Council Meeting, be sure to watch the end of citizens input for the disgusting smug pre-written response by our new City Manager, Wes Pierson to Assistant Fire Chief Cameron Kraemer’s passionate plea for the Council’s intervention and assistance.
The Frisco Fire Association also spoke on Kraemer’s behalf and on behalf of all first responders that may be suffering from PTSD or any other work-related injuries or illnesses. You can watch the meeting in its entirety here. Citizen Input begins at approximately 54:00 minutes.
In a post of Chief Kraemer’s Facebook page he confirmed that since this meeting, the City has not reached out to him. Then on May 16th Kraemer, along with the FFA President Matt Sapp, and Former Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland, spoke out again at City Council during Citizen Input. You can watch that meeting in its entirety here. Just go to Citizens Input at the 23:30 minute mark.
We are going to continue to follow Kraemer’s situation and if you want more information please visit the Fire Fighters Association Facebook page. They will be posting updates on Chief Kraemer, House Bill 471 and the City’s opposition to the Bill down in Austin. It has also been interesting following their page for daily updates on the Department’s Staffing issues that the city continues to deny exists.
As we always do every other Tuesday, my wife and I tuned in online to the council meeting on May 16 and as soon as the meeting started I wanted scream like Alanis Morrissette…
Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? A little too ironic And yeah, I really do think
Ready for the kicker? May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the city terminated a 27-year employee by email over mental health then Mayor Cheney presents a proclamation to Denton County MHMR for all they do for mental health. Nothing regarding this has sat well with me so my wife and I did find Chief Kraemer’s email and sent him a note to say we support him. We told him we didn’t expect a response we just wanted him to know as citizens we appreciate everything he has done for this city, and we hope for the best for him and his family.
Lastly are my words for Wes Pierson, a man the city hired about a year ago that now sits up high in his lofty thrown next to our City Attorney. I was shocked, stunned and dismayed at the absolute disrespect you displayed and spewed out of that mouth of yours to a man who served our city for 27-years. If my mom were alive she would say wash that disrespect out with a bar of soap. In my 70 years of life, I have never seen anyone as cruel and callous with their words as you were that night. It showed your character, and I am guessing you have no idea how Mr. Kraemer feels since you have never kept a job in the same place for more than 5 to 7 years and the good lord blessed you with perfect mental health. I am sure you are very proud of yourself sir, but you showed me and many other residents something that night. If you can have that much disdain for a 27-year fire fighter of this city, then how do you feel about us the residents who pay taxes here and your salary and the other first responders in this city?
If you live in Denton County and need help please reach out to the Denton County MHMR Center Crisis Line at 800-762-0157 or click on the May Mental Health picture and it will redirect you to their website.
I thought that I’d been hurt before But no one’s ever left me quite this sore Your words cut deeper than a knife Now I need someone to breathe me back to life
You watch me bleed until I can’t breathe Shaking, falling onto my knees
I’ll be needing stitches Tripping over myself Aching, begging you to come help
Every channel you turn to these days has some “investigative” show worth watching. A&E is probably one of the best networks for bringing “true crime” drama into our living rooms. Every Friday night my wife and I get cozy on the couch with a bowl of extra butter popcorn, and we binge watch episodes late into the evening. We decided to go back and dig into some cold case council meetings to see what we could find. Imagine our surprise when we found this…
We have been told by Fehmi Karahan it was about March/April, a timeline by the city says May and council folks have said September/October – but no one said April 6, 2021? Listen to it again while talking about the approval for The Link, part of PGA Frisco Cheney clearly says Universal. He then stumbles and quickly says University. It left us asking ourselves, did he accidentally misspeak and leak that the city knew about Universal in 2021? Only he who sits in the Mayor’s chair can answer that!
Imagine it is the early 80’s and your family is about to embark on their summer vacation. The day before you leave your dad is packing up the sports wagon, aka Wagon Queen Family Truckster, trying to figure out how each suitcase needed to be positioned on the roof, so nothing got lost along Route 66. You see your parents sitting at the kitchen table looking at the map one last time planning the ultimate route with amazing pit stops and fun things to do. Morning comes and it is time to hit the road. As you pull out of the drive all you can think about it is your destination…Walley World. Okay yes I am talking about Clark Griswold and the hit movie National Lampoon’s Vacation. It is a classic, timeless, and hilarious comedy and in my opinion one of the best movies of all time. Well soon families with small kids across the nation will pack up for that summer trip right here to Frisco, Texas. If you are wondering why then you have been living under a rock or in a cave for way too long. Universal Studios will be the Walley World of Frisco!
In January 2023 when residents learned Universal would be coming to town, they did not receive the Griswold welcome by locals. Instead, residents had a lot of questions and concerns about the project and its impact on the city. The biggest question still to this day is when did the city first hear about Universals interest in Frisco for this project? The answer is not as easy as one may think, and it varies depending on who you ask. In a council meeting Mayor Cheney said they first learned about the project at the end of August or September 2022. Then in an interview with local reporter Brett Shipp back in late January, Mayor Cheney said council had been thoroughly vetting the project the last 4 to 5 months. When announced in January several council members and P&Z board members admitted to not having the so-called traffic study, economic impact study, or crime study. In fact, several admit to having very few details on the project other than the colorful rendering seen by the world.
That is where we thought the story would end until one day I checked our email and there was a letter with a copy of two PIR’s by two different residents and I will admit I was a little verklempt and excited. The requests were for all communications regarding P117 / Universal, travel plans and expenses and more. Buried in one of the requests we found a picture of a timeline titled “Genesis of Universal Project” and after reading it we were very confused and perplexed.
Hold up! If the timeline provided by the city is correct then we have a lot of questions. It does not match the verbal statements/timelines given by the mayor and some council members and it does not match the emails received in the PIR. Who wrote the timeline? Who put the timeline in the PIR? Why are there no emails supporting this time frame? Are we to believe not one email went back and forth from May to the end of August regarding this big project that was in discussion?
According to this timeline the city officials supposedly had 3 meetings in June. The first was June 7, the second June 14, and the third June 21, 2022. However, when you get to July 13 it notes the June board meeting was canceled so the EDC board did not get a briefing until July. Let’s pretend we have a multiple-choice test question: Which June meeting was canceled? A) June 7, B) June 14, C) June 21, D) All of them or E) None of them. May, June and July? That is very different than September or October, which were the city officials statements given at city council meetings and meet and greets. I find it hard to believe my wife and I are the only ones asking why the timeline keeps changing. Why do I feel like we are being lied to and if they are lying, why? If the city council was briefed on a regular monthly basis since July 2022 then why is it when confronted after the big grand announcement most of the city officials and members of P&Z had little to no information about the project? When asked most looked like “deer in the headlights” and could not try to exit the conversation fast enough. What they did have were the same talking points that we later learned were lies and part of a bait-and-switch to what was really in the development agreement.
Confused we decided to go through the emails sent to us and we found the first email dated 8/22/2022 at 1:57 PM from Laura Cuzman (Sr. Admin Asst at the Frisco EDC) to Holly McCall and Sharon Perry (City Mgr. Admin Asst) is regarding a “High Priority Meeting.” It goes on to say Jason Ford (President of the Frisco EDC) would like to coordinate an “important meeting” with a “prospect” at the Frisco EDC office to be held 8/31/2022. It notes that city staff should include Wes Pierson, Ben Brezina and John Lettellier. Laura asks Holly to confirm if Mayor Cheney and/or Angelia Pelham from the council could attend and what 2-hour window would work so they could coordinate a meeting. Immediately Sharon Perry responds and asks, “Is this for Project US?” If it is Wes can be available all day. Laura responds that she believes so but will confirm with Jason Ford. Then an email is sent from Jason Ford to Ben Brazina (Asst. City Manager) and he states Cheney can be available, Angelia is on vacation and then he asks if Ben and Wes have suggestions of other council member(s) they should include. He specifically says, “ Mayor Pro Tem perhaps as part of protocol?” Then Jason asks Ben to make a call to Richard the next day to discuss any potential issues with the other member we discussed with related experience.
In my best Beyoncé I want to scream, ring the alarm, ring the alarm! Why would you not invite all the council members? Why exclude any of them from important conversations regarding such a big project? Is this typically how the city conducts business? What member could be a potential issue due to their related experience?
In the next series of emails that started on August 29, Emily Pollard (Marketing & Special Events – Frisco EDC) sends an email to Jason Ford and Leigh Lyons with a draft of the P117 Site Visit Presentation for August 31. Then Jason Ford sends an email to Wes Pierson, Ben Brezina and a cc to Marla Row (Visit Frisco) where he shares the first working draft of pitch decks for Wednesday’s meeting. That evening, Ben Brezina responded back they should highlight the month of May 2023 and talk about how many people are coming to Frisco with the PGA Frisco opening, Dallas Cowboys Training Camp Kick Off Party, ACM Music Awards and KitchenAid PGA Senior Championship. His point “inertia is moving…time for Project US to join us as our Partner. The next morning Marla Row sent 2 emails, the first talked about what statistics they should use for economic impact and the second email adds they should reference the meeting they had with all the venues to discuss them activating events around the ACM which further shows partnership beyond developments. Ben Brezina replies he likes that angle, it’s not just deal making, site development, construction, and grand opening but a partnership that extends far beyond the doors opening. Later that day Jason Ford sends out a revised “pitch deck” and working draft agenda for the August 31, 2023 meeting, along with a note to Jeff Cheney, Brian Livingston, Tammy Meinershagen, Wes Pierson, Ben Brezina, Marlo Roe, and John Lettellier with the subject line: Please sign NDA ASAP for meeting tomorrow. He goes on to say the meeting will be at the Frisco EDC office and the client has asked every participant to sign an NDA, which was drafted by Richard Abernathy.
Pictures of the P-117 Meeting Agenda show a list of participants and notes topics from prior meetings which may be revisited or carried over (site specific).
Discussion on workforce (i.e., how far would employees need to travel in from): A primary benefit mentioned over and over promoting this project was the jobs it will create for Frisco residents. If this was about local jobs then why are we talking about how far employees will have to travel.
Would the community be receptive to this project / land use?If not, why? Let’s just do a quick look at the City of Frisco’s social media Facebook page. On average daily posts can generate anywhere from 1 to 50 comments and maybe 3 to 4 shares. When you see posts with 100, 500, 1000 comments you can bet it is something citizens are paying attention to. Just look at the City’s Facebook page when it comes to Universal posts. On 1/11/23 the first post “The Announcement” had 1.9k comments and 4.8k shares and was one of the highest responded to posts on the city’s page in two years. It is important to note that most of the comments were against the project. Then a second post on 1/11/23 had 161 comments and 42 shares, 1/13/23 third post had 50 comments and 73 shares and the fourth post on 1/16/23 had 30 comments and 60 shares. February was not much different, on 2/10/23 the fifth post had 213 comments and 11 shares, and the final post announcing it had been approved on 3/7/23 had 349 comments and 76 shares (the majority saying it was a big mistake to approve it).
What sort of upgrades would be needed to facilitate the park (infrastructure)? I would be curious what the discussion was they had on this one.
What are the public approval hurdles we’d need to prepare for? Under what circumstances? They obviously were clueless to the opposition this project would face because they were not ready for the public hurdles that came after the announcement.
How might State/Local Economic Development help us (expedite permitting, political help, incentives, etc.)? I bet they didn’t expect the citizen opposition to incentives.
How hard is it to get a definitive answer to one simple question…When did the city first learn about Universal? Two months ago, at the council meeting, which was packed with residents, Fehmi Karahan spoke and said he was approached 10 months ago which means that would have been April 2022.
Depending on the timeline you believe, are we supposed to buy that for two months, Fehmi didn’t tell the city about the inquiry from Universal? If the city first started discussing this in May or even August 2022, and the project was thoroughly vetted as Mayor Cheney said, then why were some citizens told in January 2023 by council members and P&Z staff members that they really didn’t know too many details about the project? Why had the council or P&Z members not seen a crime study, traffic study, economic impact study from May/August 2022 to January 2023? Mayor Cheney besides using resident tax dollars (in excess of $10,000+) for a trip to vet Universal Orlando in person, what else was vetted?
At the climax of the Griswold’s Road Trip to Walley World in National Lampoons Vacation, everything had gone wrong that could go wrong and Clark’s wife and kids announce they vacation is not worth it and want to just go home. At his wits end, sitting in the sports wagon you can see the whites of Clarks wide eyes and the grinding of his teeth, and his meltdown begins. He launches into a foul-mouthed tirade: “I think you’re all f**ked in the head! […] This is no longer a vacation! It’s a quest! It’s a quest for fun! […] You’ll be whistling ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ out of your a**holes!”
We agree with Clark this is a quest but ours is for something so simple called “THE TRUTH.” I was one of those residents in January sitting at home watching the announcement live stream on Facebook and thinking to myself what in the nuclear detonation, I mean tarnation is going on in Frisco. All I could picture was the final scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation when the Griswold’s gleefully race to the entrance of Walley World, “America’s Favorite Family Fun Park,” in slow motion only to find the park is closed for two weeks for repairs and cleaning.
After doing all this research we are left with more questions than answers and we can say the inaccuracies in the timeline are very questionable, glaringly obvious, and truthfully alarming. A smart person once said, “Trust the timeline of yourself.” And with that Walley says, until next time…
“We The People” is one of the best-known phrases in the American political lexicon. They are the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and propose that the “people” should be the driving force behind government and what is does and does not do. These words should hold great significance because of the implication and meaning behind them but sadly many Americans today could not even tell you what the Constitution says and what it stands for.
We The People have the right to question our elected officials and our government which is why The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1967. It requires the full or partial disclosure of documents controlled by the government, state or other public authorities. My entire life I have enjoyed putting in FOIA requests because it creates a checks and balance system so to speak. It is an easy and simple reminder to our elected officials that they work for us, they are responsible at the end of the day to “We The People” and they need to remember that.
So why is it the City of Frisco delays turning over PIR requests? Based on what some citizens have sent us they get the same responses over and over such as we need you to clarify, or it has been sent the attorney, and so on. Our team has filed PIR request in cities across Texas for years and generally they are prompt (within 15 days) to provide the required details. So why does it take the City of Frisco 30, 60, 90 days to respond? Why do they constantly find excuses to delay turning over information? How can the city operate on an honor code since many of our elected officials use their personal devices and email for communication? They also think very highly of themselves because they charge more than any other city we have dealt with which is probably there way of trying to stop the public from making requests.
One example, a resident requested “All electronic communication via email for Project P117/Universal from 1/1/22 to 2/27/23 between all city council members, Wes Pierson, Maria Row, Ben Brezina, and Jason Ford. The city released a few details after 45 days but the guts they have delayed for over 2 months now. Recently the resident sent us the email that city has now sent it to the Attorney General which allows another 45 days of delays. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING FRISCO WHEN IT COMES TO THE UNIVERSAL PROJECT?
Based on the recent city council meeting where the city set a precedent to release information protected by an NDA (which the city insisted on) that included human resource records we decided to have a citizen ask for a copy of George Purefoy’s Severance Package, copy of any signed contracts between George Purefoy for Mac Borchardt, any monies paid by the city to lawyers, investigators, outside organizations, and associations to conduct internal investigations, and if Ben Brezina had any write up or complaints. The request was made April 10, 2023, and we assumed we would receive this one rather quickly but instead the city sent back the following message on April 25: Please clarify whether you consent to Frisco redacting any and all information it believes is confidential in accordance with the TPIA without the necessity of a request to the Texas Attorney General. Confidential information may include, but is not limited to, attorney-client privilege, attorney-work product, confidential personnel information and/or witness informer information.
On April 28, the citizen responded the request was clear and it should not be an issue to release it based on current actions taken by the city and city council. If it was an issue the resident suggested they hold another city council meeting and vote to release it. They also noted they have no issue with the city redacting it. The citizen sent us an email today they are still waiting and now the request shows “sent to attorney.” WHAT IS THE CITY OF FRISCO HIDING? THEY ARE THE ONES THAT SET THE WHEELS IN MOTION AND NOW DENY THIS REQUEST? If they don’t release this request it will be clear the reason for the previous release was solely as a POLITICAL HIT JOB!
Another example is a PIR that requested “All electronic communication including emails and text messages between John Keating and Veton Krasniqi from 2020 to the present and Angelia Pelham and Veton Krasniqi from 2020 to the present.” Within 11 days of filing the response received was there are no documents responsive to your request. It seems weird that not one email exists with Veton when he donated $10,000 to John Keating’s campaign on March 10, 2021 and $5000 to Angelia Pelham on May 15, 2021. Surely there would be at least one email that details the relationship between these two sitting council members and a mystery man. What we did find is several cases in Collin County regarding debts with the name Veton Krasniqi attached to it. Things that make you go, hmmm!
Lastly a PIR request was made for a copy of the “Public Safety Study regarding the Police Department Staffing funded by federal grants.” The response was it would only be available to be viewed at city hall. They won’t actually give anyone a copy of it which has me curious. Maybe because it tells us that staffing is an issue just like we have been hearing. What we can tell you, is that you can bet Susan McFarland with the DMN won’t report on it because that would be a real news story with real truth.
My wife said she had this crazy dream, and my first mistake was asking her what it was about. She said I was White Goodman from the movie Dodgeball and I was strutting and striding on up to the City Secretary’s Office at city hall. Magically the song Apache by The Sugar Hill Gang began playing, “Ho, ho, ho, Tonto, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it, Kemosabe, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it.” When I walked into the office, I was greeted by the public records militant who said, “White, what are you doing here?” I responded, “it is called FOIA, The Freedom of Information Act. The hippies finally got something right. Just Kiddin’, not really!” I learned an important lesson – don’t ask my wife about her dreams and if I am White Goodman then I think I am damn sexy!
The questions we are left with are simple, why does it take the City of Frisco so long to respond to PIR requests? Why do they play games and delay releasing information that “we the people” have the right to ask for and receive? What is the city hiding?
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!
Density is generally defined as the amount of residentialdevelopment permitted on a given parcel of land. Typically measured in dwelling units per acre – the larger the number of units permitted per acre, the higher the density; the fewer units permitted, the lower the density. Smart growth can reduce air and water pollution and preserve open space. Compact development that uses land efficiently is integral to creating neighborhoods that offer convenience, value, and a high quality of life. Density has always been and will always be a hot topic in Frisco among residents. So what is Mayor Cheney’s take on density?
Let’s get in our DeLorean and take a trip back in time to 2017.
In 2017, Jeff Cheney who was running for Mayor made a video on Density. He said the maximum build out was 350,000 residents, but that is not what people moved to Frisco for. People moved to Frisco for the quality of life and in order to protect that we need to build towards the original goal of 280,000 residents. We need to build out with world class level development’s with more open space, less multi-family all over the city and an overall less dense environment. Did someone just hit with me brick? Did you say LESS MULTI-FAMILY throughout the city? What have you approved the last 6 years? Mixed use with multi-family!
Where are we in 2023 then on density in Frisco? Currently we sit with an estimated population of 227,426 residents based on the city’s website. What are the projections now based on how Mayor Cheney has been “developing” our city? The current buildout population is estimated to be 325,000 by 2040.
What happened to protecting our quality of life? What happened to less multi-family?
Now to his credit he said in 2017 we need world class developments – and we have achieved that due to many amazing people, although Jeff would like to you to believe it is all him that made it happen. He said it is primarily a “political dog whistle used at election time for political mailers.” That must be why it appears on this his 8.5 x 11 full color Choose Cheney mailer sent out to Frisco residents last week. We immediately noticed “reduced the population projections at build out, from 450K to 325K” – what happened to 280,000 and protecting the quality of life and reason people moved here?
Then he said when you educate people, what? Over the years he has said that over and over, I don’t need to be educated Mr. Mayor as I understand it quite well and probably better than you do sir. Another example is when Edgestone residents organized last year and fought the developer who was going to try and sneak in town homes as part of their neighborhood. In front of him, resident after resident said we don’t want town homes and his response was let me tell you what you want, let me educate you as to why this is good for your neighborhood. Mr. Mayor let me educate you sir, maybe LISTEN TO THE RESIDENTS. What happened to 280,000 and less multi-family? Resident after residents has stood before our mayor and council telling them what we the residents want. Local resident, Mr. Pvale said it best and we agree with him. (If you need insurance look him up, and support local business) Does it matter what “WE” the residents say? No, and that is why one might think or say our Mayor was bought by developers.
The last thing Mayor Cheney said was it was IRONIC that people who consider themselves CONSERVATIVES don’t look at the economics behind these developments and how it is driving our tax bills down. What does being a conservative have to do with any of this? Does he really think it is just conservatives who don’t understand the economics behind these developments? Mayor Cheney my tax bill has never gone down in 16+ years of living here. In fact I just got the notice from the appraiser and they went up the max 10% so please show me where this multi-family you speak of has lowered my tax bill? That is the biggest crock of shady shit ever!
So what does Mayor Cheney want to do to our city with his last term if re-elected? Just listen to him explain it himself below and remember the proof is in the pudding as my mom used to say.
Cheney has lied to us since 2017, and his talking points change as much as wind direction does in Frisco. The truth is he wants his last term to be about what it has been about for 6 years… himself! Do residents want to live in a city where we test the limits of what our city is capable of? What will we be left with? Not the 280,000 maximum density he said we should build out to in 2017. We are going to be a city of multi-family nightmares. I didn’t buy a Money Pit, but the longer I live in Frisco I feel like I am paying a money pit of taxes, and my city is being overrun by Cheney and his developer dipshits.
How do politicians win an election? Successful candidates must persuade voters they deserve their individual votes and garner critical votes from current friends and current followers. Every political campaign has ups and downs and sometimes they just go sideways. Locals will tell you they were surprised to see they had a choice this year for Mayor since previously Cheney ran unopposed. Others would say its a “Long Shot” but there is power in grass roots movements. Cheney said at one of the debates the reason he needs these “large donations” is to run a campaign like his it takes big bucks. Sometimes its not just about the money, it’s about the desire for change and truth that can set things in motion depending on the political climate. Cheney is right, the easier way would be to simply “buy an election!”
With all the drama surrounding the city and the Frisco Fire Department, it makes you wonder what is Cheney thinking? Cheney constantly touts we are the “Safest City” and he holds the Police Department in high esteem, which he has mentioned many times. However, he has not said much about our Fire Department in quite a long time. Looking back at Cheney’s words in 2017 we must ask how is this all sitting with him today? He has been silent on defending our fire fighter first responders and that is not sitting well with me.
Imagine you are a high-strung marketing executive on a business trip in New York and you just want to get home for the Thanksgiving holiday. You get to the airport and your flight is delayed and you get seated next to a goodhearted but annoying shower curtain ring salesman who likes to talk. Your plane gets diverted to Wichita due to a blizzard in Chicago which is your final destination. You can’t get a room but the annoying guy next to you did and he offers to share the room with you for the night. The next day you both get on a train which breaks down near Jefferson City leaving passengers stranded in a field. You then travel with the annoying companion by bus to St. Louis where you try to get a rental car by fail. Then that annoying travel companion shows up in his rental and offer you a ride and with no other options in site you head out for a 24-hour death-defying ride. Finally in Chicago, the new friend drops you at the L-Train (subway) and you jump on to get to your house with the hopes to just enjoy some turkey. Now imagine how funny it would be when the travelers are played by Steve Martin and John Candy.
Personally, I loved the movie and I think a trip full of nonsense sounds like a lot of fun. This old fart would love to be young and travel carefree like even if it was a trip from hell. Somewhere in all the crazy you find a little big of “it was worth it moments.” In our previous blog Frisco Delays PIR Request, we mentioned that a citizen reached out to us after they could not get the PIR they requested from the city. As of today, its been 2 months are still waiting for what the city sent to AG claiming proprietary work product. It is our opinion that the City of Frisco wanted to delay the citizen receiving the information until after the election. Is the city with holding information that could change peoples decision on how they vote?
Mayor Cheney said more than once they (the city and council) took a trip to Universal during citizen town halls, council meetings and on social media. It made us a little curious about the trip, was it anything like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? Probably not, but the Curious George in me went into overdrive. So when we were sent the details we dove right into the deep end to start going through it.
Who went? Based on the travel documents provided to us through the citizens PIR we learned that Jeff Cheney (Mayor), Angelia Pelham, Brian Livingston, John Keating (City Council), Wes Pierson (City Manager), Ben Brazina (Assistant City Manager), John Lettelier (Development Services Director), Marla Roe (Visit Frisco), Jason Ford (President of Frisco EDC), and Phillip Climer (Building Inspections Division.
When was the trip? It appears the participants had different travel dates. Jason Ford and Marla Roe traveled 10-8-22 to 10-11-22 and the rest of the city staff went flew out on the 10-9-22 to 10-11-22. Then Jeff Climer went in November for two days, but we are not sure what the point of that trip was.
How much was the airfare for City Council?Jeff Cheney, Angelia Pelham and Brian Livingston were booked for direct flights on Southwest Airlines from DFW to Orlando and the total shows $2678.88 (base fare + fee’s) and each Amex was charged $892.96. Then we noticed a credit was issued for Brain Livingston’s ticket and a new ticket was purchased in the name of John Keating. It was a direct Southwest Airlines flight which cost $809.96.
How much was the airfare for City Staff?John Lettellier’s direct flight on Southwest Airlines was confirmed on 09/19/2022 and it totaled $553.20. Wes Pierson our new city manager confirmed his ticket 09/22/2022 on American Airlines for a total of $911.04 which included the Preferred Seat Charge of $15.71, Main Cabin Extra charge of $78.13. Ben Brezina’s trip was confirmed 9/22/2022 on American Airlines and cost $730.20 and Phillip Climer airfare was $623.00.
How much was the airfare for Frisco EDC and Visit Frisco? We did not find any airfare cost for Marlo Roe so we assume she rode on the magic carpet with Aladdin. According to Jason Fords expenditure sheet his airfare was $1284.73.
How much was the hotel cost? Each room at the Sapphire Falls Resort was $167.63 (tax included) per night. All together it was about $4000 for the travelers. Now here is where it gets interesting.
Resort Details: If you remember there was a ticket for Brian Livingston that then was credited back to the Amex. A new ticket was purchased for Councilman Cheating John Keating. However there is a room expense for Brian Livingston and NO room charge for John Keating. My wife did her thing online and confirmed that Brain Livingston was in DFW during the time of the trip, so how did he have a room in Orlando Florida for $335.26. If Livingston didn’t go, and Keating went in his place then the city should have updated the reservation with the hotel, but they didn’t. Awe golly, maybe he stayed in some girl’s room as he is known to get around and he didn’t need a room. We feel confident that he stayed in Livingston’s room, which still leads us to ask – why did the city not change it? Is it illegal to expense it under Livingstons name? Did Livingston know he had an expense in his name?
What about other expenses? There are no expense reports for Cheney, Pelham or Keating so we have no idea what they spent on food or “extras.” Ben Brezina and John Lettellier expense reports had no food charges, and based on both men being pretty fit we just assume they don’t eat. Both men had about $56.00 each in parking or taxi expenses. Phillip Climer had $172.50 in food for two days.
Who wins the award for the “HEY, BIG SPENDER” gold trophy? Well, that would be Mr. Jason Ford, President of the Frisco EDC. We believe his travel expense report may be inaccurate because it does not add up to what we received. It reads his flight was $1284.73, then $116.77 in transportation charges, $439.16 for meals, $3047.89 for lodging and $15 for airplane Wi-Fi. Let the suspense music begin because when you look at his Sapphire Falls Resort Hotel Bill his room for 3 nights was $512.04. That means he either paid the bill for everyone’s room or something on this report is NOT RIGHT.
We did find some of his receipts. The evening he arrived he had a meal that included a Flatbreed Pizza, two side salads and lava cake which came to $38.34 + $7.20 tip for a total of $46.24. Then on 10-9 Jason Ford expensed a dinner that he notes with John Keating on the receipt, and it included sliders and Mich Ultra- since when does the city pay for alcohol? The total came to $24.50 + $5.50 tip for a grand total of $30.00. It appears the morning of 10-10 Jason took Keating, Pierson and himself to breakfast and the total was $89.46 plus a $15.54 tip! It appears that evening he took everyone to dinner at a Universal Sports Grill and the total was $194.64. Before I tell you THE BIG TIP, just remember at this week’s city council meeting the city tried to hide on the consent agenda a $5 million parking garage for some collector’s cars that were donated to the city and candy store (side note Livingston removed the item from the consent agenda to post pone it). Either way that must mean the city has a “big purse” and we have the money to spend! As Angelia said the night of the council meeting in March where they made the big Universal Decision “money is not a bad word, it is how people use money that is troublesome.”
DRUM ROLL PLEASE: Jason Ford left a $5.35 tip! We thought maybe they included gratuity since it was a large party but we could not find it so unless it got cut off the page, it was $5.35. (You can’t make this shit up).
It was clear after reviewing everything that a lot of details for the traveling city representatives was missing from this PIR request. There was not a travel expense report for each person. Hotel room bills for people who didn’t go, and no hotel room bills for ones who went. We are guessing the trip cost tax dollars at the minimum $10,000+ dollars. As a taxpayer I think maybe instead of sending 9 people we could have done it with half the number of people. Now they will argue, it will bring us millions in tax revenue over 30 years, but I am old and most likely will be 6 feet under in a few years and my kids will be arguing over their inheritance so who am I to care about 30 years from now. I like many other taxpayers hope you had a good time on our dime. If I were not in a wheelchair I would come to the next council meeting and break out in song during citizens input and sing
The minute you walked in the joint I could see you were people of distinction Real big spenders Good lookin’ so refined Say, wouldn’t you like to know what’s goin’ on in my mind? So let me get right to the point I don’t pop my cork for everyone I see Hey big spender, Spend a little money on me
Wouldn’t you like to have fun, fun, fun How’s about a few laughs,
Hey big spender Hey big spender Hey big spender Spend, a little money on me …or just help me with my property tax bill that is due since we have money to build a garage and take $10,000 dollar trips.
Growing up we always had our hands in dirt or soil when helping dad with the Vineyards. I always complained and my Nona (grandma) would always say “oh, a little dirt never hurt anyone.” My dad would say “to most people dirt is just dirt, but to a farmer well that dirt is called potential.” I am sure these quotes belong to someone smarter than my dad and Nona but it did make me think, have you ever asked yourself, how much is the dirt below my feet worth? To an investor or developer dirt is like gold and depending on where it is located it can be worth a lot of money. Bill Gates began buying up land and farm operations years ago and while he leaves the farming to the professionals he understands land = asset appreciation. The dirt below the 2500 acres that PGA, Fields, and The Link is worth millions if not billions.
Developers and investors are betting heavily on Frisco which is great! With Mayor Cheney being so involved and so in love with the project I just assumed he would move out there to the greatest development of all time. Then at the debate he said he owns two pieces of property his personal home and his rental home (previous home). He said he does not own or have interest in any other land in Frisco. We were talking to a friend of ours who procured a lot in The Preserve, and we saw a picture he had taken of the builder’s map with written notes, and we thought, hmmm this looks interesting. Some realtor friends had said there was a rumor Jeff Cheney was given a lot or gifted a lot in The Preserve by the developer, but it was just a rumor.
Well by the looks of the picture Cheney and Keating have a lot under “Developer Hold” and it over looks …you guessed it…the 8th hole! It appears there is a “Friend & Family” row after all. I would love to hear from the Mayor what he plans to do with that lot next to his best friend Keating. Interestingly Cheney lives next door to Keating now in another community so I guess they are moving on up to the north side together like George & Weezy Jefferson. Cheney has to take his Florence with him which is Keating of course because you can’t leave Florence behind. Country singers Jordan Davis or Luke Bryan already said in their song “you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy dirt.” But did they buy it? I feel like breaking out in song since I don’t have any drums, and sing like Garth Brooks, ”Thunder rolls, And the lightnin’ strikes.”
Dave Ramsey: You will either learn to manage money, or the lack of it will manage you!
Growing up my mom used to get a call from the headmaster at least once a week because my brother or sister would always get in trouble. So, you can imagine my mom’s shock when the phone rang and this time it was not about my brother or sister, it was about me. The headmaster told her I challenged one of my teachers and told them they were wrong, and her statement was stupid. It didn’t matter that I was right, and she was wrong I still got in big ole trouble. I remember the ride home that day at first it was silent and then my mom asked me what I was thinking. I explained the teacher said wealth was about having a lot of money and I told her that she was wrong and that was a stupid way of thinking. I told her wealth is about having a lot of options.” She just looked me dead in the eyes and said son you have always been a precocious young man but my curiosity and boldness is what was going to get me into trouble one day. All these years later, my mom was right!
When we moved to this country my kids went to public school, which was very different from our upbringing and the type of education we had. I quickly realized that the main function of the school boards was to provide local, citizen governance and oversight of education. School boards were responsible for employing the superintendent, developing, and adopting policies, budgeting, and overseeing facilities. I always wondered what the signs of an effective school board member are. One article I read said board members should have a clear vision for the district, have good communication skills, work well as a team, and be fiscally responsible in order to adopt a school budget. They must also be accountability driven and be a little tech data savvy nowadays.
I was a little shocked this week when a new local whistle-blower messaged us some tidbits on a candidate for the Frisco ISD school board. We did our research, and we were able to confirm what we had been told and we believe residents have the right to know.
Is Dynette Davis fiscally responsible, you decide. She was sued in Collin County Courts in 2022 (case # 004-02178-2022) by Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC for “BREACH OF CONTRACT” related to the purchase of a vehicle. It also noted that she resided in Plano, Texas. The paperwork notes that account was charged off on October 30, 2019, and as of the filing, there remained an unpaid balance of $20,835.37. Ms. Davis, despite being issued a demand letter has never paid on the account.
We thought surely this is a one-off situation and we all have tough times so grace should be given. Then upon further research, we learned that Estancia at Ridgeview Ranch filed eviction proceedings 14 times from 2013 to 2015. While each case was dismissed eventually because she must have paid the rent, to have 14 evictions filed on you is outrageous.
We also found Ms. Davis filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the Texas Northern Fort Worth court on February 10, 2014. She was appointed a trustee from Dallas and the attorney was Patrick Swindell. What is Chapter 7 Discharge it releases individual debtors from personal liability for most debts and prevents creditors owed those debts from taking any collection against the debtor.
Now my kids have been out of school for years but someone with this much of a financial hot mess probably should not be a board member with significant fiscal oversight or responsibility. Actions like this could get you removed from some boards of directors for companies. Why is someone who lives in Plano or has a Plano address running for the Frisco Independent School Board? Should residents be concerned about her disaster of a financial mess dating back years? Is this the person we want to have oversight of our kids? I don’t know much about any of the candidates but what I do know is that anyone we elect to the ISD or city council should have the qualifications and stability needed to be in a position like that. While I understand a financial hiccup, where there are this many one should stop and ask questions.
Benjamin Franklin once said these powerful words, half a truth is often a great lie. The Armstrong Lie is a powerful documentary about Lance Armstrong, a sports legend who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 – 2005 after surviving stage 3 testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Armstrong will go down in history for committing one of the best kept lies in sports history while he amassed a fortune from the sport and its sponsors. Over the years he was plagued with rumors that he was doping or using performance-enhancing drugs which he denied emphatically. Then a teammate became a whistleblower which caused Armstrong to be stripped of his titles, sponsors ditched him, and he faced several legal cases. So why did Armstrong lie? Why did he risk losing it all if it ever became public? Sports writers and enthusiasts have questions for years, but will we ever really know the truth?
The art of lying is among the most sophisticated accomplishments of the human mind. Children must learn how to lie, how to assess the reactions of the listener, and how to adapt a story to fit a believable narrative. Kids also need to learn how to decipher a lie to protect themself. Learning to lie during the impressionable years of our life is why some adults conquer the art of lying. But are all lies bad lies? Studies have been done for years to answer this question. I was blown away when I read one article that said there were 10 types of lies or deception. In Armstrong’s case he lied by omission (partial truth), used lies of falsification (lie to get attention or sympathy), told bold face lies (one tells a lie, and everyone knows it’s a lie), used lies of exaggeration (lies based on some truth), and he was a pathological liar (lies for no apparent reason).
Lies, regardless of whether they are big or small can cause a physical change in our bodies. It can trigger increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and elevated levels of stress hormones in the blood. It can also cause dry mouth, upset stomach, vomiting, sweaty hands, nervous facial twitches or hand twitches and can cause your skin to break out in a rash or turn red. I know what you are thinking right now, where are we going with this Shady Shit? Well forum after forum Mark Piland mentioned transparency and how he wanted to put in place an ordinance, like the City of Plano’s that said if you received over $1000 from any individual you could not hear any case or be involved in any discussion that could come before the council to avoid a conflict of interest or perception of wrongdoing. You can still accept large donations, but you just can’t be involved in items that come before the city – seems simple and common sense.
At one debate Cheney said campaigns are expensive and without donations it would be hard to run a campaign of this magnitude. This go around I have received a postcard, a magazine, and newspaper all with Mayor Cheney’s “Vote for Me” message. Unless you are living under a rock everyone knows who Mayor Cheney is, his record, and his accomplishments, so why is there a need to spend that kind of money? At the forum, Cheney responded and said Plano’s ordinance was put in place two years ago after all their developments were done or largely done. He said he spoke to a Plano elected official recently (no name mentioned) about their policy and the official told him that the ordinance is not even enforceable, there are no teeth to it, and it was put in place because of a political ideology in their community who was having a tough time getting traction for their candidates that they wanted to support. Now they have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with other special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections. Watching the forum, I noticed Mayor Cheney would twitch his hands, blink his eyes and his face would turn red so it made me wonder, was he lying?
The morning after the forum I woke up, had coffee and white powdered donut (love those), and talked about the Forum with my wife. While we were perplexed we let it go and went on with our life because we did not think for a minute this was some smoking gun. Several days went by and we got an email from a follower who said they too were curious about Piland’s idea and Cheney’s response, so he emailed the Plano City Council. He forwarded us the emails and responses and that is when I the light bulb turned on. The whistle blower asked which one of the council members spoke with Mayor Cheney, could they confirm or deny his statements made at the forum, and what is their personal feeling regarding the ordinance. Surprisingly several responded and all of them had a similar consensus. We are publishing the first two responses in full below as we just don’t have time to post them all.
Shelby Williams responded, “the ordinance truly does have no teeth—that’s something I’d like to fix.” Williams went on to say, “ Whomever Mayor Cheney spoke to from Plano was not correct, A) The only political ideology that drove the campaign finance ordinance was the desire to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections and B) while it was argued that the ordinance would cause PACs to dominate our elections, it never happened. After the ordinance was adopted, PACspending went down significantly. He also said he wrote about this in 2021 when the new council proposed to repeal the ordinance. Here’s my article from then, which includes links and screenshots to more data: https://shelbyhwilliams.com/campaign-finance-recusal-ordinance-up-for-repeal/.”
Anthony Ricciardelli (Place 2) responded, “I voted for the ordinance when we enacted it, remain a big fan of it, and believe that it is meaningful. I agree that there are still loopholes in it, unfortunately. I would like to close those loopholes. Respectfully, I don’t think it would be prudent for me to comment on something attributed to a different council member. I can tell you that I’ve never said anything like the statements that Jeff Cheney attributes to someone on the Plano City Council.”
Like we said earlier, lying is an art form!
TRUE: Mr. Cheney was correct that there is a loophole in the ordinance that needs to be fixed and they hope to do fix it in the near future.
LIE: Mr. Cheney said it was put in place by a political ideology in Plano’s community that was having a tough time getting traction for candidates that they wanted to support. Williams said it was to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections.
LIE: Mr. Cheney said they now have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections. Williams said after the ordinance was adopted, PACspending went down significantly.
Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “A lie cannot live” and he is right. Lies may take care of the present but they have no future. If you tell one lie and get caught then all your truths become questionable. I have always believed that when someone lies to you what they are really telling you, is that you were not worth the truth. That is a slap in the face, it tells you what they think of you and how little they value you or think you are worth to them. In the end we are left with one question, Mayor Cheney, who did you speak to on the Plano City Council that you quoted at the forum?
In the last week we have been sent a treasure trove of information from citizens who are “spilling the tea” and telling us they are tired of the Shady Shit happening all around Frisco. The note with this little tidbit read “my discussion with a builder rep out at The Preserve.” The builder rep talks about how some lots were held back then the rest of the lots were distributed to the builders which is what he has to sell. The builder rep says that the lots on the Golf Ridge and the Hilltop were part of a VIP Program. Upon more questions the builder rep says the VIP program was put on Jeff and the owner of the development. He says some of those lots still remain for example “JEFF HAS A LOT AND THE DEVELOPER THEMSELVES HAVE SOME LOTS.” He goes on to say “kind of like hold this lot for me because my family may want to build on it, maybe hold for a client.” Then the rep notes the development is owned by multiple billionaire families from Dallas and they reserve the right to hold some of those back, so in summation these will be held but they may fall out so stay close to the builders.”
Now we are pretty sure that Mayor Cheney said at every single debate or forum that he owns two pieces of property his personal home and one rental property. That appears to be true by tax records but if they are holding a lot for him isn’t that just semantics and slightly dishonest if he plans to build a personal home there next to his new friends the “BILLIONAIRE” families from Dallas.
Now you may ask who our source and we will just say another Frisco Whistle Blower! Thanks for tea friend! We have sent the rest on to a source in the local tv news since we learned Mitchel at the DMN omitted this from his Cheney story.
In the 1998 movie Primary Colors, John Travolta plays Governor Jack Stanton who is running for President, and he said, “I’m going to tell you something really outrageous. I’m going to tell you the truth.” It would be refreshing if more people would tell the truth. We laid out some cold hard facts about Frisco Registered Voters and Elections in Vote For Pedro that should scare the hell of those us who call Frisco home. Early voting starts in a week and out of a population of 218,314 people we can expect maybe 10-20,000 registered voters to turn out based on previous general elections.
We have some very important races that will directly impact our city and school district. It made me curious; how any registered voters can name all the candidates? Have you researched all the candidates? Have you checked out each candidate’s website to see what they are about? If you are one of those that say I am voting for Jim Bob because that is who I voted for last time, then please don’t vote. If you are one of those deciding based on a social media post that says “I am not voting for them because they are democrat, republican, left or right-wing extremist” then please don’t vote. If you are one of those who just blindly follow what everyone else is doing, then please don’t vote. If you are voting and you have not looked at all the candidates on an individual level to understand what they stand for then please don’t vote.
The world around us is changing every day and if we are going to vote we need to be responsible for our own decision. That means you need to research, watch the debates, go meet all the candidates even if you think I would never vote for them. Even if a candidate is unopposed learn who they are and what they are about. We must make educated decisions based on our own personal views, values, and philosophies after meeting all the candidates. You could surprise yourself and learn the one candidate you never thought you would vote for is the one you end up casting your vote for.
Below is information regarding the City of Frisco race and bond election as well as the Frisco ISD Board of Trustee race. Start with the simple question, who is running and for what office or position? We put these by place, then the order in which they drew for the ballot. All you must do is click on a person’s name and you can go their website.
City of Frisco
Mayor: Jonathan David Spencer (we could not find a website for him), Mark Piland, and Jeff Cheney
Proposition A: The issuance of $131,400,000 tax bonds for public safety facilities and equipment. taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds will be imposed.
Proposition B: The issuance of $240,000,000 tax bonds for street and road improvements. taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds will be imposed.
Proposition C: The issuance of $39,000,000 tax bonds for a parks operation center/building maintenance facility and a logistics equipment and storage building. taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds will be imposed.
Proposition D: The issuance of $43,000,000 tax bonds for parks, trails, and recreational facilities. taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds will be imposed.
Proposition E: The issuance of $20,000,000 tax bonds for a downtown parking garage. taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds will be imposed.
We received an email today from a resident who said they are upset that their PIRs are being delayed. The resident asked for “All electronic communications via email for Project P117/ Universal from 1/1/22 – 2/27/23 amongst all city council members , Wes Pearson, Maria Row, Ben Brezina, Jason Ford.” We have laid out the timeline sent to us by the resident below and we are wondering why the city is trying to delay this information from being released until after “THE ELECTION” Feb 27, 2023: Resident files PIR request
March 14, 2023: Resident receives response that the documents will cost $72.36 (for labor)
Resident Makes Payment
March 20, 2023: Resident sends message asking when they can expect files?
March 23, 2023: Resident notices status change reads “sent to attorney” sends message asking when should they expect their documents? Then they ask why has it been sent to attorney?
March 29, 2023: Resident receives a response asking for them to clarify what information they are seeking from the city.
April 2, 2023: Resident replies asking them to confirm they are asking for clarification of the request after they charged the resident $72.36 for files. They state what they are asking for is very clear all files related to the Universal Project (code name P117 or US). They state all emails between council members, city management, and Frisco EDC, the developers Fehmi and Universal management. Travel Expenses for the 10 people who went to Universal Florida. The resident states how did you determine a price for labor if you did not know what I was asking for and why are you delaying the records release?
April 5, 2023: Resident writes to city again asking where are the files they have requested and paid for? They note they have been waiting patiently since Feb 27, 2023. The resident notes the games the city are playing by charging them, then asking for clarification, then sending to city attorney. The resident then asks how they can have a city council meeting, vote to releases records for a PIR request regarding a MAYORAL CANDIDATE and an article can be in the paper the next morning but they can’t seem to respond to others requests regarding Universal. The resident asks for a response in 24 hours.
April 18, 2023: Resident “FINALLY” receives an email that that they have released a few documents but the rest has been sent to the Attorney General in Austin, Texas due to “confidentiality” issues. The resident said he received travel invoices, 6 redacted emails and a Choose Frisco presentation. Is the city trying to say there are no emails regarding this project?
April 21, 2023: Resident calls AGO and asks the turn around time on approval or denial to the city’s request and how they can file a objection. They are told by the state representative it can take “UP TO 45 DAYS” for a response and gave the resident the address to mail a letter of objection.
QUESTION: HOW CAN THE CITY RELEASE HR DOCUMENTS ON A RETIRED EMPLOYEE AND A DMN REPORTER CAN HAVE AN ARTICLE IN THE NEXT MORNING PAPER WITH A FULL ARTICLE BUT THEY CAN NOT RELEASE DOCUMENTS REGARDING UNIVERSAL?
WHAT IS CONFIDENTIAL? WHAT IS THE CITY WITHHOLDING?
TO SUM IT UP – IT IS CLEAR THE CITY IS PLAYING GAMES AND DELAYING THESE DOCUMENTS UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION AND WE WANT TO KNOW WHY? WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?
If you have filed PIR’s are getting the run around from the city we want to hear from you! Email us via our contact us page.
In real estate you will always hear buzz words which are words or phrases often used to impress or persuade the person reading it to act now. Location, location, location is a common mantra used in real estate and the truth is location can be key to the value of some real estate. When I was a kid we lived on the outskirts of the countryside overlooking a scenic vista of hills and vineyards. One evening I saw my dad outside sitting on the deck smoking a cigar and I went outside and asked, “why do you always sit out here?” In his deep Sean Connery voice he said, “Son, one day this will be yours if you want it. You will grow grapes that make wine on this land and that will feed your family. At night after working, you will sit here like I do watching the sunset. As you gaze across this valley and those vineyards you will realize this view is spectacular and that will remind you how damn lucky you are.” My brother still runs those vineyards today and when we get to go visit I enjoy sitting on that deck like my dad did and enjoying the view.
So, what constitutes a view? Well, depending on who you ask that varies and can mean different things. One might like a view of a lake or ocean, mountains, or city skylines. There is no doubt that a view will cost you more to buy but it is for your enjoyment or future investment. If you asked Jerry Jones what he likes about his office at The Star I am pretty sure he will say it is the view of the new training facility and practice fields. If you asked Jerry what he likes about his view from his suite at AT&T stadium we are pretty sure you will get a different answer. What if you found out that your tax dollars were paying for a room with a view?
Before we answer that, let’s discuss The Development Corporation Act of 1979 which gives cities the ability to finance new and expand business enterprises in their local communities through Economic Development Corporations (EDCs). Based on the Texas Comptrollers website, “Type A EDCs are typically created to fund industrial development projects such as business infrastructure, manufacturing, and research and development. The Type B sales tax may be used for any project eligible under Type A rules and several other project types, including quality-of-life improvements like parks, museums, sports facilities, and affordable housing. Type B corporations may pay for land, buildings, equipment, facilities, targeted infrastructure, and improvements. One of the best things EDCs can do is increase tax revenues, add additional jobs to a community and supply opportunities for residents, and promote sustainable growth. The Frisco EDC website says, “Frisco is Innovation Focused” and it says Frisco’s public-private partnerships exemplify why the city excels on every level of economic development and is highly competitive with major markets across the country and around the globe. Its mission is the creation of jobs, increasing economic opportunities, and improving the quality of life for all Frisco residents and their families.
Simply put you must spend tax dollars to make money which brings important things to a city. As a resident, I am okay with the concept to a point, but I was shocked when a reader sent us a link to a CBS 11 news article from 2015 that mentions city leaders were enjoying the lap of luxury in a season-long suite at AT&T stadium. The article asks if city officials are taking advantage of the Cowboy’s relationship for personal enjoyment and how it is a slap in the face to taxpayers. The article quotes Frisco resident Bret Sanders who said, “This is our money that they’re spending, and it doesn’t seem like they have any regard for how they are spending it.” Then Frisco EDC President, Jim Gandy said, “It is our job to promote Frisco,” and “It was used for business prospects and allies that we work with on a regular basis.” The article mentions it was sold as a recruiting tool but how was the suite a recruiting tool for businesses when AT&T Stadium is in Arlington?
What do you think the Frisco EDC would pay for a room with a view? The answer is 160,000.00! The suite benefits per the license agreement states the licensee shall receive 18 admission tickets for the seats in the suite. It also allows them to purchase 8 standing room tickets in the suite and it came with 5 parking passes for a preferred parking lot. The license agreement also states that the licensee will be provided with $1500 “hospitality allowance” towards food and beverage. Yes, “We The Taxpayers” paid $160,000 for a suite for 8 games which means we spent $20,000 a game to wine and dine, I mean recruit business. With the city contributing $130 Million to the construction of the new Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco couldn’t Jerry have thrown in a suite.
So who enjoyed the “Lap of Luxury” on the tax payers dime? Well game 1 against the New York Giants included Dan Bollner and his wife (FEDC Board Member), County Commissioner Hugh Coleman and his wife, Steve Bahl (Gearbox CEO/CFO) and his wife, Jim Gandy (FEDC Staff) and his wife, Dave Quinn (FEDC Staff), Gary Carley (FEDC Staff) and his wife, Tim Nelligan (The Hartford) and his wife and two guests. It shows they enjoyed Texas Barbecue, peach blackberry cobbler, Deja Blue bottled water, soda and Unsweetened Iced Tea.
Game 2 against the Atlanta Falcons included Jim Gandy (FEDC staff) and his wife, John Bonnot (FEDC staff) and his wife, City Councilmen Bob Allen canceled but his guest Geneva attended and brought a plus one, Marla Roe (Visit Frisco) and her husband, Steve Ewing (Edge Realty) and his wife, George Galloway (Next Realty Mid Atlantic) and his wife, Amanda Kronk (SWA) and her husband, and Bennett Bark (Retail Connection) and his wife. There are some special notes that Kevin Case with Thomas Land Development was sent 8 tickets and 2 parking passes for him to share with his clients. While enjoying the game they dined on the Tex Mex Combo and the same drinks as in game 1.
Game 3 against New England Patriots included Bob Allen (City Council) and his wife, Victor Almeida (President Interceramic – Prospect) and a guest, Jesse Pruitt (Somervell Commercial Realty), Chris Grottenthaler (True Health Diag) and his wife, John Harkey (CEO of CRO – Prospect), James Snell (EVP of CRO – Prospect and two guests, Jim Gandy (FEDC staff) and his wife, and David Quinn (FEDC staff) and his wife. They dined on the Gridiron packaged.
Game 4 against the Seattle Seahawks included Jim Gandy & Dave Quinn (both FEDC staff) and their spouses, Bryan Dodson (FEDC staff) and his guest, Ed & Melina Cimler (Adaptive Biotechnologis), Zenobia Adi (WorldLink), Barjis Ghadially (WorldLink) and his wife, Bill and Brenda Sims (UNT), and J. Casey Wehr (CEO – PVP Live) and his wife. The enjoyed the fine Texas BBQ and peach blackberry cobbler and drinks like game 1.
Game 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles included Jim Gandy (FEDC staff) and his wife, Marla Roe (Visit Frisco) and her spouse, Project Turtle had 8 tickets, but no names listed, Rick Fletcher (FEDC staff) and his wife, Jason Young (Visit Frisco Board Member) and his wife, and Councilman Jeff Cheney and his wife. They duplicated the game 2 Tex-Mex package for eats and treats.
Game 6 against the Carolina Panthers included Jim Gandy (FEDC staff) and his wife, Mark Thompson (Foundry Club) and his wife, 10 people from the Japan-American Society, and Taylor McQuestion, Shawn McQuestion, Caden McQuestion, and Quinn McQuestion (all listed with Schneider Optical). They dined on assorted cheeses, veggie crudité, party mix, popcorn, artichoke ranch dip and seven-layer dip, sirloin beef sliders, apple pie, and beverages.
Game 7 included Harry Whalen (FEDC staff) and his guest, Paul Sheldon (FEDC Board) and his guest, Maureen Gutierrez (CVB Sales Manager) and her guest, Anne Keough, MPS and Andre Mathews with the Catholic Diocese, Terry Young (Dir of Mktg with Catalyst Corp Federal CU) and his wife Mike Williams (Pres & CEO Summit Conferences) and a guest, Jim Breitenfeld and Dan Spika (Brokers with Henry S Miller) and a guest, Carlo Morando (Mktg Mgr with Ace Hardware) and two guests. The Texas BBQ and peach blackberry cobbler were up for eats and treats this time.
Game 8 against the Washington Redskins included Jim Gandy (FEDC staff) and a guest, Harry Whalen (FEDC staff) and guest, Jim Riggert (NGKF – Prospect) plus 3 guests, and Moon Management (4 tickets) and Scott Lark (Prospect no company name)
Do you agree with the city spending $160,000 for a room with a view? How much is too much? Based on what Jim Gandy, President of Frisco EDC said in the article this was to recruit prospects or to retain important businesses that are considering leaving our city. It appears we courted a lot of commercial real estate folks and some non-profits. We also wined and dined Chris Grottenthaler the founder of True Health Diagnostics who was later one of the 21 charged in connection with multistate healthcare kickback fraud. I have no issue spending $160,000 a year ($20,000 a game) for a suite on America’s Team if we are recruiting the likes of Amazon, Costco, Cigna, XTO Energy, Home Depot, Target, or any other Fortune 500 company. That is not what happened here, I mean Jim Gandy, President of the Frisco EDC, and his wife enjoyed almost every game. When you’re spending tax dollars and you are “working” as you call it then why are you bringing your spouse? Why are we inviting county commissioners, do they pay sales tax in Frisco? Why are we inviting non-profits and churches when they are exempt from franchise and sales taxes? When it comes to citizens’ tax dollars I question a lot of what this city does when it comes to spending and incentives. These are glaring red flags that citizens should be up and arms about but residents have given in to they have no say in our city. I guess this is Frisco Innovation Focused at work.
Growing up if we saw a fire engine go by my dad would say there goes the fire brigade to save another soul. I remember watching a movie and they said to the new recruits “train as if your life depends on it, because it does.” I thought to myself could I be selfless, courageous, and risk everything? When the bell rings, could I walk through the valley of the shadow of death as Psalms 23:4 says without thinking twice? Truthfully, no I would be one of those to run away as they pass by me to run into what could be the last call of their life.
We ended our last blog with Cheney’s statement, “we have what we need.” If we have what we need then can the Mayor explain why Mr. Sapp who is the President of the Frisco Fighters Association had to speak at citizens input during a council meeting in January 2023 to bring attention of the staffing issue in the fire department.
Sapp’s statement in full from the council meeting is as follows “Mayor and Council, I’m just going to read a statement on behalf of our members. I stand here before you tonight to ask one simple question, this is the third time I’ve asked this question since the public hearing for the FY23 budget in August. Will we as a city add firefighters to this budget year? I’ve asked this question to you, the city manager, and the interim Fire Chief and we have yet to get a clear answer from anyone. I know that the interim Fire Chief has stated he has no plans on asking for staffing they feel we are appropriately staffed. The city manager follows the recommendations of the Fire Chief and we understand that you as a council can’t approve positions that were never asked for. This is not a question of whether we need additional firefighters, simply look around as our skyline is ever changing. There are billions of dollars in property we are tasked to protect. Couple that with the fact that we applied for a safer grant for 15 firefighters this year, which we failed to get. No one can honestly say we don’t need more firefighters. For years now we have raised concerns for what is considered safe staffing standards by the NFPA 1710. I have a recent independent report stating as much. Some will try to devalue the standards set by the NFPA by claiming others around us do not meet that code or because of it being a nonprofit it doesn’t hold weight. Make no mistake this city follows countless NFPA’s for the fire service because they are the national standard by which the United States fire administration sets the bar. Not to mention, we are Frisco, and we provide the best in everything we do. As our City Council, you have created a unique and exceptional environment, we should not only meet the standards but exceed them. Therefore, it’s unfair to compare ourselves to the staffing models of surrounding cities. The FY22 budget states that we would be hiring 9 firefighters a year for the next three years. Although we have a need for increased staffing levels for the current station count, this was said to be in preparation for the future station 10. The majority of this council approved that budget, and this has now been pushed back to the infrastructure regions and therefore, the staffing plan is on hold. This year’s budget for FY23 which was unanimously approved contained 19 police officer positions and added zero firefighters. We understand this was done in anticipation of the safer grant that was applied for, but again, that was denied. Now there’s no plan for this fiscal year. We need action now because it takes over a year to hire firefighters longer for them to get in seats if they had to go to paramedic school. With the progressive growth of this growth of this city this is a huge safety concern. So, I ask again: are we going to add staffing for firefighters this year or are we going to forgo staffing which will negatively impact on our growth as a department and safety of our city for the next half decade. Thank you for your time and your consideration. (Mr. Sapp left the podium)
After the Star Patriot debate the Frisco Fire Fighters Association released a video responding to comments made at the debate by the candidates. The video starts with a message that states they encourage the release of the full Circa Fire report and noted the city has chosen to release selective information regarding the CIRCA Fire and Mayday event, as well as information on former fire chief Mark Piland. Sapp pointed out that it is their job to protect their membership (being the fire fighters) and the residents of Frisco. Sapp then went on to correct several statements made by the mayor:
Mayor Jeff Cheney said we operate with 75 on every shift. Sapp, President of FFA: While at times they may see 75 people employed on an individual shift rarely are they over the minimum staffing number of 62. Regarding staffing, Sapp said the National Fire Protection Association 1710 on staffing is and has been an issue that the FFA raised many times to city management and to the council directly.
Mayor Jeff Cheney said the National Fire Protection Associations Standards (1710) were union supported standards. Sapp said the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) did a study on staffing for firefighting almost 12 years ago and the NFPA is a national benchmark for all things fire related. The City of Frisco follows many NFPA standards for things like the self-contained breathing apparatus or for the sprinklers that are inside the building.
Mayor Jeff Cheney alluded to the idea that sprinklers inside a building can take the place of personnel. Sapp said that is simply not true. Sprinklers are designed to allow people time to escape, not to put a fire out.
About workers compensation, Sapp said the city gave employees a worker’s comp plan several years ago and the FFA raised issue with it not being in writing. Together staff, city management and then Fire Chief and Police Chief put it together and made an ordinance. Sapp was very firm when he said, “make no mistake the mayor should not be sitting her touting that the Frisco’s effort to make sure WC protection is a valuable asset for all employees.” He also pointed out the mayor opposed House Bill 2242 in the 87 th legislative session they are also currently opposing House Bill 471 in this session.
Sapp then addressed the April 4, 2023, Council Meeting and the decision to release documents related to a complaint from the CIRCA fire. He noted this is the first time that they know of where the council voted on a PIR request. Sapp said he has asked for countless documents in the past which are either released to him or they go to the attorney general for a ruling. While he applauded their release of the documents, but he noted this was clearly done as a political tactic against Mark Piland. The reason he says this and believes this is because they did not release all the documents and he pointed out the report consists of over 500 pages. One of the issues in the report given by the Consultants is the staffing level. It states our staffing does not meet the national standard and we fall below cities of our same like and density.
The video ended with Sapp saying they will make sure that the misinformation and disinformation does not continue to lead to more normalization of deviance.
The phrase, “where there is smoke, there is fire,” refers to if people are saying or there are signs that something maybe wrong then there is usually a good reason for what they are saying. Many concerns have been raised about our current council and how things within the city are operating and there is probably a reason to be concerned. The city manager, city council and mayor should ask themselves these questions when they go to bed at night. Are we letting down those who serve us every day by not staffing according to the national standards? Are we letting down those who are willing to die for us every day by not supporting a worker’s compensation bill?
As residents, should we be embarrassed that our firefighters must ask for staff support at a city council meeting? Should we be mortified that our mayor at the same meeting responding to any citizen who questioned Universal but after Mr. Sapp spoke “crickets.” Not one member of our council said a word. The answer is YES to both! We are about to build a large hotel near the PGA, open a theme park, add another few thousand houses at the Fields development so should we be concerned that we don’t meet the national standards of NFPA 1710? According to the current council we should not be concerned. I interpret that as until someone dies we will just look the other way. How does the #1 city in America accidentally send a letter to the legislature? Someone should have been fired for that and we should release the report of why and how that happened. Wait, there probably was not an investigation done and that means there is no report. Cheney said word for word at the debate “we have 75 on for every shift.” As Maury would say, the lie detector’s test determined that was a lie! According to what the FFA published that is clearly false. Cheney said it is the city manager’s job to hire and make sure we are meeting expectations in our departments so who should we hold responsible, George Purefoy or Wes Peirson? Lastly, based on the FFA response why did the city not release the entire report and investigation? Why did 4 council members who openly endorsed the mayor for re-election vote on this item? That is clearly a conflict of interest due to the endorsement and relationship between some of these council members. Residents deserve answers to these questions, and they have the right to question those who choose to serve them.
“Let no man’s ghost return to say his training let him down.” – A Firefighter
Imagine it is your first day of work and you arrive at your new office excited to start the day. You have no idea in minutes life is going to change forever but then you hear it, it sounds like an explosion, like a bomb. You open your eyes to see a fireball just passing right beside you. You look around, realize you are trapped, and you stop and think, “I am going to die here today.” You remember praying, “God, I don’t believe you brought me here to die like this.” Then you hear it, the sound of a fire extinguisher and you realize first responders are making their way into the office building. You can’t breathe but know you have to get help, so you reach out through the smoke when you feel a hand on the other side of the smoke. It grabs you and pulls you through the smoke to safety. You quickly “that hand” rescued three people, but you were the only one to survive. This isn’t a story; it is the reality of Sheila Moody who lived through 9/11 at the Pentagon. She learned a plane traveling 530 mph carrying 7000 gallons of fuel crashed into her office and she was one of three to survive out of 46 people in her office.
Now imagine you are at work and just like the rest of America you are glued to the TV watching what is unfolding in New York and DC. The phone rings and you learn as the East Coast Task Force leader for the Federal Urban Search and Rescue System that you are being deployed to the Pentagon. You pack up and head north for a 3-hour drive to D.C. This is what happened to Former Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland. Now ask yourself, where were you on September 11, 2001? Can you imagine what those first responders saw that day and the days to come? Would you have the guts and emotional stability to do that job? Truthfully I can’t for one moment put myself in the shoes of survivor Sheila Moody or first responders. Men and woman across the country answer the call every day, and in Frisco all they have asked for was more staff and a workers compensation plan with the maximum coverage to protect them. At the last debate, Piland asked a simple question, why would we not want them to have that?
The issue of staffing and workers’ compensation in Frisco goes back many years. At the Star Patriot debate, Piland said the city should support current Texas House Bill 471 which relates to the entitlement to and claims for benefits for certain first responders and other employees related to illness and injury. We thought it was an odd statement because why would the safest city in America, one of the #1 places to live, not have a full coverage workers compensation plan for first responders who answer the call in our city. Also discussed was the NFPA 1710 Safe Staffing Levels for a fire department. Piland said as a city we don’t meet the NFPA 1710 requirement which can potentially put our firefighters and residents in a dangerous position. We are not experts in this field so we had to do a little research to understand the history so we could try to explain it to you. We don’t have a horse in this race, we are not related to anyone who serves as a first responder in Frisco or anywhere else for that matter.
Before we can address the debate issues you need to understand some history. Let’s travel back in time like Marty McFly in our Delorean time machine. Frisco Firefighters have been fighting for years for a full coverage workers comp plan. It appears a written letter dated April 20, 2021, from the city to the state legislators opposed HB 2242 regarding workers compensation for first responders. Mayor Cheney claims the letter was sent by Ben Brezina IN ERROR on May 12 at 11:09 am (even though incorrectly dated earlier) opposing HB 2242 but then a retraction was sent the same day at 11:34 am. The letter had Mayor Jeff Cheney’s electronic signature, yet he claims he never actually saw the letter before it was sent.
That means a letter went to a state agency without first being seen and/or reviewed by several people including the mayor himself. Should we be concerned? Following the unbelievable, absolutely embarrassing so called error the response from the Frisco Fire Fighters Association (FFA) was a letter to Frisco Residents expressing their disappointment that Mayor Cheney, the city and council, attempted to kill house bill 2242 at the State Legislature which would protect first responders across the state. The letter states he did this with no regard for the thousands of police, firefighters and EMS personnel and the families it would protect. It went on to say the mayor has chosen to use his position to help elect a candidate (in reference to Angelia Pelham) that had voluntarily refused to submit a political questionnaire to the FFA. Based on who has endorsed her, and the view expressed toward the FFA they can only assume if elected she would have the same disregard not only for firefighter issues but all First Responders. We also found a letter to one of the fire fighters in the city that had exhausted all their protected leave due to a work-related medical issue. It notified the employees that if their request for accommodation was denied they would have 30-day days to apply for another position in the city or their employment would be terminated.
Question, why would the city ever oppose or stay neutral on a bill for first responders regarding workers compensation? How is a letter sent in error regarding a legislative bill with the mayor’s signature and he does not review that beforehand? Why would we terminate a firefighter for medical leave related to an on-the-job injury/illness, but Ben Brezina can send a letter by ACCIDENT to the State of Texas Legislature and not be fired? Lastly, why was a letter even written in opposition if they never had any intention of taking a position on the bill? The whole think stinks of some Shady Shit and we can understand why Piland took a stance and said the city should endorse the current bill before the State of Texas Legislature it at the debate.
Piland also pointed out that the Frisco Fire Department does not meet the national staffing requirements. He gave an example of mid/high rise building which would national high rise staffing requirement is 43 firefighters, yet Frisco’s response is 25 fire fighters. He also pointed based on a 2000 sq ft home the response should be 17 firefighters and he then asked how many homes in Frisco do you think are under that square footage? Lastly he said most cities have 4-person truck staffing and Frisco only has 3 per truck and typical response times should be 8 min and in some areas of the city we are at 9 minutes.
Cheney said it is the council’s job to hire the city manager and it is the city manager’s job to hire and make sure we are meeting expectations for our departments. Is he saying the reason we are not at full staff is the fault of George Purefoy and Wes Pierson then? He went on to say the city council is aware of what’s going on and that the current interim Chief Glover has done an amazing job. They are in the process of hiring a new fire department chief, but Glover has already raised morale, regained trust and started changing operations. He said it was evident that Glover, Purefoy and Pierson have different philosophies than that of Piland which was evident during his tenure as Fire Chief. Lastly Cheney said the national standards are not specific to any one community. We have had 6 high rise structure fires and the standard calls for 62 firefighters, and we have 75 on for every shift. Lastly Cheney firmly stated “We have what we need.”
In part two we will see, if we have what we need so stay tuned….
If someone were to ask you what happened on June 28, 1997, would you know the answer? Truthfully no, the date would not stick out in most people’s minds. Now what if someone said do you remember that bizarre moment in boxing history when Mike Tyson bit off a portion of Evander Holyfield’s ear? My guess, is you remember that, and it happened on June 28, 1997. At the time, the fight was one of the highest grossing Pay Per View events with 1.99 million buys. It was the first time to break $100 million in revenue. It was round 3 of their much-anticipated rematch when one of the most iconic and grotesque scenes in sports history took place and became the most replayed slow-motion event in sports history. I remember sitting there on the couch with my wife and two boys, our mouths wide open in disbelief, that Iron Mike had just bit a portion of Holyfield’s ear. After a few seconds my wife stands up and says “Well, he must have been hungry. His mamma should have to feed him before the fight!” She gathers the bowls on the coffee table and heads to the kitchen, the night was over.
At the Star Patriots Debate on April 3 both candidates took their gloves off but at least no one lost an ear. The debate was filled with a few jabs, a few uppercuts, and a few hooks. The consensus on who won depends on who you ask. Cheney’s supporters feel he did a strong job and Piland supporters will tell you that he gave Cheney the good ole’ one-two punch and took the title. My wife and I went, and we agreed that I would take notes on Cheney’s comments, and she would take notes on Pilands comments and discuss the next morning over coffee. After a good night’s sleep, the sun rose, and I could smell the coffee brewing and we both took our place at the table with our notes. A quick review in order of some of the comments that stuck out at us.
Growth: Cheney said, it’s a misperception by many people that government controls our growth patterns. He noted that the city cannot tell a developer when they can or cannot develop their land which is in fact true.
FACT: The city can control some of the growth by not selling off all the land it owns “right here, right now.” The City of Frisco owned the 91 acres of land where the Frisco Star now sits, the 2.5 acres behind the Star where Blue Star built a 300,000 square feet office building, and how about the land sold for $37.9 million for Blue Stars Industrial Park? What a lot of residents don’t know or maybe don’t understand is that back in the day the city bought a lot of land betting like a gambler in a high-stake poker match that Frisco would grow and they could sell it down the road. The city also “strip annexed” a narrow strip of land that effectively cordoned off a large area, protecting it from other hungry nearby suburbs. In 1999, the State Legislature would prohibit “strip annexation” from happening in the future.
Workers Compensation For First Responders: was discussed by both candidates but we will review in our next blog.
Golden Goose: Cheney said 30 years ago with the development of the Frisco EDC and CDC that residents of Frisco made the choice about how they wanted to develop our community and he along with every city manager and city official has done what was promised to the residents. He also said that is how Frisco was built and that is the golden goose of Frisco.
FACT: What residents agreed to 30 years ago (there is no formal agreement by the way) versus what residents want along the way can change. Residents have been saying for the last 5 to 7 years to slow down, focus on the infrastructure first which has fallen on deaf ears. The only one who cares about the Golden Goose is the mayor and his friends who benefit from them.
Universal: Piland mentioned the last-minute bait and switch of items in the SUP, the promises from the developer to the Cobb Hill residents should have been codified in the SUP and how this should be a case study in zoning and what city officials should not do. Cheney said what was posted on his Facebook page about the project is exactly what was sent to them but as they got through the discussion’s things change.
Question: When things started to change in the discussions why didn’t you tell residents that on social media as you had everything else at that point? Our guess he knew residents were not going to like the changes in hours, building height, ride height and more.
Cheney said if they had not solved the wall issue with Cobb Hill it wouldn’t have past but then he also said it would be illegal for the city to enter into an agreement between two parties for something like a wall and we cannot interfere with private property rights.
Question: Wait A Hot Minute Mayor!! You voted for it that night instead of postponing it so the residents of Cobb Hill could formalize a private contract with Universal to make sure the “wall issue” is resolved.
Cheney then mentioned that this project had more discussions because they knew how long it took them as a council to “wrap their head around it” so they knew they would need to do this differently and research and have community discussions. NO, NO and NO!
FACT: What happened was they went live on Facebook announced it and planned to vote that night, but they didn’t expect that post to blow up and go viral. It was over a thousand comments in a few hours and based on a review was one of the highest posts in citizens response/comments on the city page in years. Once they saw the instant outcry knowing it was an election year, they had to postpone the vote that night. Cheney wants us to believe they did it for us the residents – that is simply not true!
Citizens Input: Piland pointed out Cheney has publicly said and posted on social media they could not respond to citizen’s input (we found several posts that match Pilands claims). Then he pointed out at the January 17 council meeting, 3 separate citizens spoke regarding Universal and Cheney responded to each one for 3 to 4 minutes. Piland even remarked, Cheney did it under the guise of I really need to help you get your facts straight. Cheney’s response was per the city charter the mayor runs the council meetings and they can respond to citizen’s input.
FACTS: Section 3.13 Rules of Procedure, “The city council shall determine its own rules of order and business. The city council shall provide that the citizens of the city shall have a reasonable opportunity to clearly hear and be heard at public hearings with regard to specific matters under consideration.” At first it appears Cheney could be right but Section 2.125 in reference to meetings states “All meetings and deliberations of the board shall be called, convened, held, and conducted, and notice shall be given to the public, in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, as it currently exists or may be amended.” That means the answer is in the Texas Open Meetings Act which states, limited verbal interchanges between citizens and council members are appropriate, discussions should not be permitted to drag on. When a member of the public makes an inquiry about a subject for which notice has not been given, a council member may respond with a statement of factual information or recite existing policy. Piland is correct that Cheney violated the Texas Open Meetings Act that night and many other nights too speaking during citizen’s input.
Code of Conduct: Piland also referenced the December 18(actually Dec 4) council meeting regarding the PGA where Cheney had to recuse himself due to his relationship with one of the principal members of the project. Before he did he took Mayors Privilege and spoke for nearly 8 minutes regarding the project then stepped off the stage. Piland pointed out the mayor violated Section 3.11 Conflict of Interest in the City Code of Conduct. Cheney’s said his conflict of interest technically had cured at that point because the council felt that his boss Robert Elliott was not the right partner for the project (does Elliott know this) and they needed a bigger partner which is when Omni stepped in and the ownership interest changed and it removed the conflict. Cheney also said he followed the code of conduct, and he takes the code of conduct very seriously at the City of Frisco and so that’s why he makes sure not to involve any of his personal business in things. “As a real estate broker, I’ve never represented the city of Frisco in a transaction, I’ve never represented a party who did business with the City of Frisco and I’ve never had an interest in any project in the city of Frisco.” Lastly he said that he has declined every request for help from clients to get through the zoning process even though it would have been very lucrative for his firm. He closed by saying he is very transparent with everything he does and he is proud of that.”
FACT: Section 3.11 Conflict of Interest it states, “Should any person on the city council have a conflict of interest, pursuant to any state laws and/or city ordinances regulating conflicts of interest of municipal officers, with an agenda item then before the city council, they shall openly declare before discussion proceeds, and he is thereby prohibited from discussing the item or voting on the question, and is not considered as present and voting for the purposes of the tally.” As for Cheney’s claim he cured his conflict of interest Omni’s own press release from December 4, 2018 notes it is a joint venture and the new company was Omni Stillwater Woods. Nowhere does it say Robert Elliott is removed from the project and it was SWC Clay Roby who spoke on behalf of the project at every P&Z and council meeting, not a representative from TRT Holdings which is Omni. Cheney can argue he cured his conflict of interest but that is a logical fallacy which is an error in reasoning that makes your arguments less effective and convincing.
FACT: Cheney’s claim he declined every request for help regarding zoning is also not correct. Cheney may not have helped a client but he did help a campaign donor. In a Dallas Morning News article written by Sharon Grigby (March 2019), he stated “Cheney told me he met Carter sometime after he became mayor in May 2017. The mayor said the developer visited Cheney’s City Hall office about a sign-ordinance provision that caused difficulties for his Preston Road multi-tenant commercial property. “Like most developers, they reach out to the mayor and say, ‘This is unreasonable. Can you help me?’” Cheney told me Tuesday. Although Cheney said he helped resolve the issue, he maintains that the 2018 campaign donations ($15,000) were not tied to that case. There was never a this for that.” Cheney is correct it is lucrative but not to his firm it was his campaign fund!
Campaign Donations: Piland referenced the City of Plano’s campaign finance rule that any person who donates over $1000 that comes before the council, would require the person on the council to recuse themselves. Piland noted you can take as much money as you want but you will have to recuse yourself from all discussion and votes. Cheney responded and said Plano’s ordinance was put in place two years ago after all their developments were done or largely done, and he did speak to one of their elected officials about their policy. He said the Plano official (no name) told him the ordinance is not even enforceable, there is no teeth to it and it was put in place because of a political ideology in their community was having a tough time getting traction for the candidates that they wanted to support and now they have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with other special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections.
Question: Did that communication happen via email and if so would you release the communication so we can see the Plano elected officials’ response?
Purefoy: Cheney commented that developers made a commitment to our city to develop and invest here (sometimes almost a billion dollars) and it scares developers that the commitment made is not going to be honored after his opponent is elected. Cheney said it probably scares somebody that wants to invest a lot of money in this community, and it could make them think otherwise. He said developers are scared by the rhetoric and comments they are hearing in this mayoral cycle because the outcome could change the entire direction of the City of Frisco. Lastly he said it would tarnish the “legacy” of George Purefoy and it would break the promise made to him to continue his work.
Fact: Mark Piland has said he is pro-development and would just like to see more community engagement and discussion around some of those projects. Piland never said he would not follow through on a contract or commitment made to a developer from the city or previous administration and he also never said he was against Public/Private Partnerships. How is hearing from residents a negative thing? From the two debates we heard we have not seen Mr. Piland be anything other than pro-responsible development. So why would developers be scared? Lastly, Purefoy did amazing things for this city in the last 35 years and to say change would tarnish his legacy and the promise made to him is ludacris. Companies and cities pivot all the time, and they are doing just fine! Our concern should not be about a promise made to Purefoy it should be about the promises made to residents in this city every day. Cheney used this a cheap ploy scare tactic in our opinion.
Closings: Cheney said his most valuable experience for this community is being the leader of this community for the last six years. He said mayors elected in this city are not people who have had careers in bureaucratic government. He said the City of Frisco elects entrepreneurs, visionaries, risk-takers, and people who don’t want to do things the same way. That is what Frisco is all about. He then said his superpower is building extraordinary teams and making people believe that they can do more than they ever thought they were capable of. That is his greatest gift and what he will continue to do here in his last term. Mostly he wants his last term to be about testing the absolute limits of what a city is capable of and in the City of Frisco will stress the boundaries of what is possible here over the next 3 years.
FACT: I know this will be hard for some to believe but people have skills they don’t have superpowers! He said Frisco is all about entrepreneurs, visionaries, and risk takers – really, since when is that what Frisco was all about? The scariest thing he said is that he wants to test the absolute limits of what a city is capable of, so it’s not about you, me, or the residents, this is solely about his personal legacy and how he will be remembered. People are telling you to slow down not stress the limits, so you can’t say you represent and listen to the people when you are doing the exact opposite of what people are asking for.
The night lasted longer than anticipated and when it was over it was clear the candidates were tired, the audience was tired, and the campaigning was about to kick into high gear. As we pulled into the driveway of our house my wife said to me, Honey what is your superpower? I looked at her and said I am a bull shit meter! I can sense, smell, fly through and see the bull shit from anyone where around me. She simply said okay I will get that on a t-shirt for you for Christmas. Then she said it felt like one was me, me, me and the other was about team, team team. That pretty much sums up how I felt too!
Ah! Spring! Spring is the most popular of the four seasons for obvious reasons. It means warmer weather, more hours in the day, and more sunshine. The buds are starting to show, early flowers are beginning to bloom, and the birds are singing a new tune. Spring is a sign of new beginnings, it symbolizes life and how good always triumphs over evil, light over darkness, and life over death. Hibernation has ended! It seems that many people in Frisco are starting to open their eyes, and many are expressing their concerns for the first time over what appears to be some questionable negotiations, developments, and deals throughout the years. The spring awakening always seems to be heightened when an election is on the horizon.
One of the most important aspects of Spring is baseball otherwise referred to as America’s National Pastime. Dr. Gerald Early, a Washington University Professor once said, “There are three things that America will be known for 2000 years from now: the Constitution, jazz music, and baseball. They’re the three most beautifully designed things this culture ever produced.” From an immigrant’s perspective, he is right on point. I remember the first game I went to after moving to America. The sound from the crack of the bat, watching a player slide into home, eating a famous hotdog and relish, and trying to catch the foul balls that came our way. Back in the day if you caught one of those balls you could turn them in for a ten-cent snow cone.
In 1958, Damn Yankees hit the widescreen and it is one of the best musical sport romantic comedy films of its time. It was about a frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators who made a pack with the Devil to help the baseball team win the league pennant. One of the most famous quotes from the movie was “One long ball hitter, that’s what we need! Honest to God, I’d sell my soul for one long ball hitter!” Mmh? Something about this story is hitting close to home. Has someone in Frisco soul their soul to the devil?
Frisco has gone through many changes over the years and with each one a little bit of Frisco’s history seems to be erased. The most obvious was in 2020 when the council considered renaming Rockhill Parkway. Established in 1854, Rock Hill was one of the oldest communities in Collin County and earned its name from the white rock escarpment on which it was built. By 1898, it had a thriving community featuring two schools, four churches a grist mill, a cotton gin, a blacksmith, a drugstore and a grocery store. In 1902, St. Louis and San Francisco railroad bypassed the town and within months most of the businesses, townspeople and churches had relocated. By the mid-1930s, only one African American Baptist church remained. In the 1960s the black school closed and in 1973 the general store was razed leaving Rock Hill and its rich history a distant memory to many. One of the last connections to its history was the street named Rockhill Parkway.
On June 23, 2020, a letter was sent to residents informing them of the road name change and they could respond with any input by July 14, 2020. Renaming Rockhill Parkway to PGA Parkway hit a nerve with many locals who felt like the council was erasing what little history was left of the old town. While doing research we came across an article in the Frisco Enterprise that reported in July 2020 that Assistant City Manager Ben Brezina acknowledged the name change had been a topic of conversation for at least 8 to 10 months. John Lettellier of Development Services for Frisco said moving forward with the proposal happened in just the last 6 to 8 weeks. The article also noted The Heritage Association of Frisco learned about the proposed change by way of a community member who received the notice and, they had never been approached by the city for its historical background. Lastly the most interesting thing in the article was a statement posted on the Facebook page by then councilman Tim Nelson that the item was proposed by a member of the council and consensus was to move forward. Hmmm… I wonder who proposed the name change?
Here is where it gets interesting, in our research we found that many who supported the name change were big businesses with big money and investments in Frisco:
Kyle Wilks – President of Wilks Development (who is behind Firefly Park in Frisco)
Edmund Garahan – CEO of Carbon Companies (building Luxury hotel near PGA)
Triad Frisco Partners (developer of 1310 urban living units, 8 retail buildings, 1 convenience store with gas pumps, 5 parking garages on the southwest corner of Dallas Parkway and Rockhill Parkway)
David Fogel – Manager of Rockhill Legacy (Development at Rockhill & Legacy)
Blake Nelson – Managing Partner (7-Eleven located Rockhill Parkway & Preston)
Darrell Crall – COO of PGA (letter specifically notes they feel strongly there is a long-term value to the PGA branded and the roadway would showcase to millions the PGA Frisco partnership and evolution of Frisco)
Michael Smith – TRT Holdings, Inc. (Part of Omni Stillwater Woods Golf Resort)
Fehmi Karahan – Fields Development (July 17, 2020 letter writes that the city has made an extraordinary financial commitment to the new PGA project and should use all available means to support the success of that project. We strongly urge you and the city council to support the full renaming of Rockhill from Teel to Coit)
Clay Roby – PGA Frisco / Stillwater Capital / The Link (the renaming will further establish Frisco as Sports City USA and appropriately showcase the HQ of the PGA of America)
On Aug 4, 2020, citizens made their way to the podium for Citizens Input to against the change. If you watch the meeting, the mayor remarked that the city of Frisco has always made it a commitment to preserving our history and they even invested 3 to 5 million into the Heritage Museum. He was on city council in 2009 when the road was changed to Rockhill Parkway but he doesn’t remember it and until a few months ago he does not believe many people even knew the story of why it was named Rockhill. He believes Prosper ISD naming the their new high school in Frisco city limits Rock Hill Highschool is a great way to remember the community of Rock Hill. Sadly, he seems to criticize the volunteers at the Heritage Museum for not being accurate on the history and calling the exhibits dated and we need to do better there telling our story. He noted that the PGA and Fields wants to write their own story and they have been good partners to the community. Councilman Woodard suggests renaming Northeast Park to Rock Hill Park he is willing to help get that done.
Today the only reminder that Rock Hill once existed is a historical marker located on the northeast corner of PGA Parkway and Preston Street. The name change passed to PGA Parkway but the question is did it ever have a chance to be kept Rock Hill Parkway? Almost every developer who wrote in support of the name change donated to the campaigns of several sitting on our council. When Fehmi Karahan the King of Fields writes that the city should use all available means to support the success of that project and that he urges the city council to support the full renaming of Rockhill from Teel to Coit the city is going to do just that. Cheney accepted over $30k in January 2020 from the big names on these letterheads and he needs that money to pay back his $99,000 personal loan that he took out for campaigning because as he said at the recent debate he is not an independently wealthy man. Has Bill Woodard followed through on working on the renaming of Northeast Park? Not from what we can see. When Universal was recently in front of the council we heard each of them say that they listen to the residents and this is just another example where big money, big investments, and big companies take priority over residents. Words can come from one’s mouth but actions are what matter. That night a man said the citizens of Frisco are being exploited for money and by its actions that is the way it looks. It’s time to bring change to Frisco in this upcoming election and the others in the future. Maybe those sitting on the lofty hill have become too comfortable. I ask you, has someone perhaps sold his soul? I am reminded of the song “Whatever Lola Wants.” I would have to change the words up a bit and sing,
Verse 1
Whatever Fehmi wants, Fehmi get
Whatever the PGA Frisco wants, the PGA Frisco gets
(Bridge)
I always get what I aim for
And your heart and soul is what I came for
Verse 2
Whatever Cheney wants, Cheney gets
Whatever the developers who come here want, the developers gets
When you run for any office at the local, state or federal level you have to know that you can and will be questioned by the public you serve. It comes with the job that you choose to do! As the election is getting closer we choose to look at the candidates supporting people for Mayor. Jonathan David Spencer had no endorsements for us to review. Mark Pilands endorsements to this point have been from PAC’s who interviewed all the candidates who came in for the process. Mr. Cheney is the only one who has individual citizen endorsements for us to look at. We did not target one candidate and only one candidate!
An endorsement is a public declaration or the act of giving one’s public approval or support to a candidate running for elected office. When you choose to put your name out there, then you choose to open yourself up to being discussed. Let me be very clear, we did not attack or threaten any person or business, we do not condone anyone attacking or threatening any person or business and we don’t condone phone calls to candidates or their families making attacks or threating anyone.
We sent an email to each person asking the following:
Did you talk to all the candidates regarding their views or beliefs before choosing to endorse one?
If yes, can you tell us the top 3 reasons for your endorsement of Mayor Cheney?
If no, do you think your endorsement was transparent or should be transparent that you did not met with all the candidates?
If they owned a business who has done business with the city we asked if they think that business could affect their decision on who to endorse?
In our blog, we only listed the businesses since they were on the individual’s original endorsement posted on Mayor Cheney’s Facebook page. We pointed out how one of his supporters has some of the best BBQ in town and we have visited downtown Frisco many times enjoying several of the business mentioned and have nothing bad to say about any of them. We simply asked if they are doing business with the city or the Mayor personally that could affect their endorsement because the public has the right to know that. Noting a check for $1.5 Million is not a bad thing, it is a payment for an economic incentive agreement that was written up between the city, developer, and Frisco EDC and that is public record we believe people have the right to know for the purposes of transparency. Also we made no negative mention of Adams or her businesses, we simply asked a question of her role as a precinct chair (which she brought up in her video) and did her endorsement conflict with the platform she took an oath to uphold. Noting that several are on boards and commissions within the city is public record and people have the right to know.
As for Mr. Young, he specifically asked us to mention the following: “Please make sure to include the list of the elected officials I have hosted (list of all the names) at Verona Villa. So we did! If those mentioned did not like their name in our blog then they can talk to Mr. Young who asked us to mention them by name. If anyone has any doubts that he asked us to post certain names then please email us and we will send you Jason’s email so you can see where he asked us to make mention. We did not attack his business in the blog in any way we just noted that one time they had previously done business with the city. I don’t see that as a big deal and I would guess most reading out blog don’t see that as an alarmingly big deal so why is Mr. Young taking to his Facebook page making it a big deal?
Lastly, lets clear up any confusion!We are not associated with any campaign! We have no association to the Cheney, Piland, or Spencer campaign. We also emailed the school board candidates and we are not associated with any of those campaigns either or any sitting ISD board members. As for the businesses mentioned they have done nothing wrong nor have the business owners. Myself and my wife, nor anyone we know, has made any threating calls or sent any threatening emails to anyone, ever at anytime. I take that accusation very seriously! Libel and slander are very tough works to be thrown around loosely and I can say with confidence we have not posted anything that is not factual and we can back up everything we have posted with documentation.
A couple of times a year my wife and I make the drive down the tollway to attend church at The Potters House led by bishop TD Jakes and when you leave there you have a feeling of a tingle from your fingers to your toes and you know Jesus is in your soul. One of his sermons was about the three C’s. The three C’s is how you can categorize your friendships: Confidants, Constituents, and Comrades.
The confidant is a special relationship. They love you unconditionally, they are intimately intertwined in your life and stick around for better or worse. They are lifetime relationships, and they are they to make sure you reach your destiny. They can call you out when you are wrong and praise you when you are right and everything they say has merit and value that ultimately you take into consideration when making lifetime momentous decisions. TD Jakes said if you have 3 to 5 of these confidants in a lifetime you are a blessed person because the truth is you will have very few of these in your lifetime. The constituent is not into you they are into what you are for. As long as you are for what they are for they will walk with you and work with you and labor with you. Be careful, don’t fall into the trap where you think that they are there for you, because if they meet someone else who can further their agenda they will leave you and hook up with them because they were never for you! Often we mistake a constituent for a confident and they end up breaking our hearts or hurting us deeply. The comrade is not there for you nor are they for what you are for (like the constituent). The comrade is against what you are against, and they will come alongside you to fight a mutual enemy but that doesn’t mean you are for the same things. They are in your life to fulfill a purpose or until victory is accomplished and once completed you both move on. Jakes compared it to scaffolding which you use to paint a building, then when you are done painting the scaffolding is removed and goes away. When you share your dream and your comrade does not react the way you expected remember they were never really with you in the first place.
The May 2023 General Election is just around the corner, and many were under the assumption our current Mayor was so popular that no one would run against him, and he would walk into this election unopposed just like he did in 2020. Truthfully most of us were shocked to learn on Friday, February 17 a worthy opponent walked into city hall, took the elevator to the fifth floor, and dropped of his packet to officially be a candidate for the Mayoral race. Word spread like wildfire across the busy intersections of Frisco and Cheney quickly realized he was going to have to work and campaign. Soon after the mayor began asking for endorsements both on his website and Facebook page and it was not hard to notice video after video of those “endorsements” full of praise popping up for the mayor. As always curiosity kicked in and we wanted to know more about those giving the endorsements. Albert Einstein once said “the important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has a reason for existing.” We decided to start by creating an email asking the following questions: did they meet with all three candidates personally, and did they understand their positions, views, and issues before making an endorsement? Then we emailed individuals and shockingly very few responded to us (please note our sarcasm). We also did some of our own research to see if they had any business connections with the candidates that could influence their decision. We highlighted a few below: Cheney’s first video was from Earnest B. Morgan, and we can tell you the man serves up some amazing BBQ. Mr. Morgan is a small business owner and local pastor, and active in the local area. Mr. Morgan did respond, and we want to say THANK YOU for doing so sir! Morgan said he never reached out to any other candidate before endorsing Cheney because he and his family have supported Cheney for many years, and they believe in what he has accomplished so far. At shady shit we do believe friendship and loyalty matter, so we completely understand and respect the Morgan’s point of view. Our only question is does Morgan have business with the city or Cheney? We found a check from The City of Frisco on 2/4/21 to Earnest B. Morgan for food and provisions for a total of $216.00. We also know he has catered events for many different candidates in the past. Nothing glaring or alarming was uncovered.
The next one to respond was Jason Young. He offered to meet us in person to discuss our questions and of course we declined his invitation and said we would put him down as a no comment to which he replied that is not what he said, he would discuss it in person. A Frisco Enterprise article, quotes Jason as saying he has a host of businesses focused on providing excellent service experiences including Verona Villa, operates Eventi Venue at The Patios at the Rail and runs programming at Nack Theater in the Rail District, owns an Allstate agency. He also has served on the board of Visit Frisco since 2011 and is the newly elected board chair of Frisco Arts Foundation. In his response to our email, he wanted us to note that Verona Villa (where Cheney had his Kick-off party) has also hosted Governor Abbott, Jared Patterson, Matt Shaheen, Frederick Frazier, Van Taylor, Susan Fletcher, Brian Livingston, John Keating, Collin County Republicans and Friends of the NRA. We wanted to know has he done business directly with the city or Cheney? Yes, we found a check The City of Frisco cut on 1/30/18 to Verona Villa for food and provisions for $4235.00. He also hosted Cheney’s recent kick-off event, but we don’t know if Cheney paid for that or if he donated the space and food.
Another interesting endorsement was Donny Churchmana developer whose primary focus is redeveloping downtown. I would argue he is biased by on the fact that he does business with the city and receives economic incentives from the city. For example, on 10/29/20 the city cut Nack Patios LLC an economic incentive check for 1.5 million and another one for 101,250.00 which is labeled accrued accounts payable.
The other two we found interesting were the conservative / GOP endorsements. The first was from Judy Adams who is the owner of American Coffee & Tea , owner of Posh Peepers, and a realtor with Century 21 Judge Fite. She did not respond to our email, but from what we can tell she has not done any business directly with the city and we didn’t find business linking her to the mayor. Adams stated in her video she was Denton County GOP Precinct Chair which caught our attention because the Collin County GOP did not endorse Cheney and we don’t believe the Denton County GOP announced any official endorsements. This left us curious why one individual PC would step out of rank and do an individual endorsement. What does the GOP party think about one of their own endorsing a candidate that has openly supported and endorsed democratic candidates? From what we read on the GOP website that would go against her oath to promote the republican platform as a PC. In the past, the municipal levels of government have mostly been bipartisan but as America has splintered in half the calls for unity in parties even at the local level are in high gear. Then we saw the endorsement from Ted and Bobbie Hart. Ted is the founder and president of Frisco Lakes Conservative Coalition. The endorsement says they support him but it does not say the coalition itself endorses him. It’s a little confusing, to say the least, because we found some members of the coalition who say they don’t support the endorsement for Cheney. Again, is it a personal endorsement or did the coalition actually endorse him?
Endorsements can matter but only under the right circumstances. Do they really have power of persuasion on voters? There is no concrete research showing standard endorsements can change a voter’s mind unless it comes from a big-time celebrity. Overall, what we found interesting in our research was that many of his endorsements previously or currently hold positions on Frisco Boards and Committees, some have done business with the Cheney or the city and others are just basic endorsements by good people like Earnest Morgans. What does matter in this world is relationships and where those relationships/friendships can take you as TD Jakes said. Ask you self when looking at any endorsement do you think they are there for the candidate or for what the candidate can do for them.
Michelle Obama said in her book Becoming, “The more popular you become the more haters you acquire.” There is some truth to that statement. Growing up I never cared about being the center of attention, being liked, or being popular. My wife on the other hand was and still is the complete opposite. She is a social butterfly, the talker, and the one everyone likes which is good for me because I can just hide in the distance behind her. I remember seeing her across the gym when we were kids and I said I am going to marry that girl. My best friend Charlie said that would require you to talk to her and you don’t talk to anyone to which I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. He had a point! You’re not that interesting when your passions are reading, writing, and movies. As a teenager, I worked at the local library so it’s no surprise that as I became a young man I picked career paths that were secular or isolated. I was a braille proofreader for many years, then went to school to become a mortician. A what? In English, I was a funeral director, and it was great because none of my clients talked back to me since my primary job was to preserve bodies, plan funerals, embalm and cremate dead people. I went back to school during that time to become a coroner because performing autopsies on dead people seemed interesting and my audience was still dead. My wife then introduced me to a man she met through a random chance encounter and he offered me a job as a fortune cookie writer for $42,000 USD a year I thought this could be fun. It was the best move because it led me to my long-time career of being a movie critic and ghostwriter.
What is the point of me telling you about my crazy past, well, simply, I never aimed to be popular, so I have very few haters. It was Dustin Hoffman or Warren Beaty who once said in a movie, “Telling the truth can be a dangerous business. Honest and popular don’t go hand in hand. If you admit that you play the accordion no one will hire you for a rock ‘n’ roll band.” Dustin and Warren were right and we know from personal experience anytime you are dealing with shit, it is a dangerous business. My dad told me once as we drove in his truck that honesty is like a slap in the face and the receiver will only take kindly to getting slapped once, beyond that you better be ready to run or not be invited to their party. You are reading this and probably thinking to yourself, how does it relate to Frisco? Frisco Chronicles is not very popular, and we are guessing we are not very well-liked, shocking right? How do we know this or how did we come to this assumption? We sent the incumbent Mayor Cheney and his opponent Mark Piland an email on March 24 with the same questions and to our surprise, neither of them wrote us back! We thought we had at least a .001% chance of hearing back from at least one of the candidates, but our hopes may have been set too high. It appears that they have a lack of appreciation for what we do and we can’t figure out why. As we sit here drinking our second bottle of vino feeling despair and being heartbroken, we at least have hope that “YOU” our readers appreciate us exposing the shady shit of Frisco. Side Note: In all transparency we did not send an email to the third candidate who is most known for tempting women with his half naked 6 pack abs towel wearing, gun-toting, bible quoting, software selling, food sharing, book writing, bible study hosting, reincarnated Jesus ideology here to baptize his flock in his apartment rooftop pool. We figured he might be too busy with his kingdom of followers or a psychiatrist. Mental health is no joke and we strongly encourage anyone suffering from mental health issues to reach out to experts who can help!
Back to the point, we know you are thinking what in the bloody hell was written in the email sent to the candidates. Hold your horses, we are getting to it!
Good Day Mr. XXXX
We are the Frisco Chronicles and are putting together a write-up on each candidate running for the city council. We wanted to reach out to ask you a few questions and we hope you choose to respond. We will be emailing your opponent and plan to ask him the same questions.
What do you think are 3 of the most important skills needed to be a good mayor?
What are the top 3 most pressing issues facing the city today?
Do you have any personal rules when it comes to campaign donations?
What’s more important for our city right now: Building new homes and commercial space, rehabbing/expanding, and better utilizing our existing homes and storefronts?
If you could change one thing in our zoning code, what would it be?
How do you plan to involve the residents in the decision-making process in our town?
Describe an ethical dilemma you’ve faced and how did you resolve it?
How many hours a night do you sleep?
If you had to pick one and only one – what would be your go-to restaurant in Frisco?
We have so many great areas and neighborhoods in Frisco. In recent years both candidates have built and moved into new homes. How did you choose the area in which you wanted to live and what made you fall in love with your home? Behind every man is great rockstar woman!
How long have you been married?
What is the best piece of advice you spouse ever given you?
Who can tell a better joke, you, or your spouse? Two Fun Questions
What is your favorite color?
What would be your dream vacation spot? Thanks for your time and we truly do hope to hear back from you! Sincerely Frisco Whistle Blower Frisco Chronicles Team
From our perspective, we thought that it was professional and courteous as well as fair since the candidates received the same questions. Robin Sharma once said, “leadership is not a popularity contest; it’s about leaving your ego at the door. The name of the game is to lead without a title.” We agree with that statement wholeheartedly and popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. As Orson Welles said, if elections depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in the Senate. The reality is that elected officials at the municipal, state, and federal levels are very focused on their pet projects, running a campaign or getting re-elected, and being the winner of the popularity contest. What is next up on the Shady Shit blog? Well since they did not respond we will just have to continue with our curiosity which leads us to ask is Cheney popular or a one or two-trick pony?
If you drive around Frisco on any given Saturday you will see youth sports teams playing on the soccer and baseball fields throughout the city. Parents along with grandparents cheer on the kids while enjoying the nice weather and having fun family time. Would it surprise you if I said there were more people on those fields, sidelines, and sitting in the stands than there are voters who show up to have their voices heard in city elections? As of August 25, 2022, in Collin County, we have 72,427 registered Frisco voters and inDenton County, we have 55,106 registered Frisco voters. You should be shocked that in a city with an estimated population of 218,314 people, across both Denton and Collin County, we only have a total of 127,543 registered Frisco voters. This should SCARE THE HELL OUT OF FOLKS who call this city home.
If you are a resident of Frisco who is registered to vote and you do not take the time or put in the effort to vote in local municipal elections, then you should be appalled and ashamed of yourself. Coming from another country I can tell you that the most important right you have as an American citizen is the right to vote. Originally under the Constitution, only white males over the age of 21 were eligible to vote. In the 1920s women won the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Then in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which allowed African Americans the right to vote. Interesting side note, it was President Lyndon Johnson a white Texas Democrat who signed the Voting Rights Act into law. In 1971, the minimum voting age changed from 21 to 18 years old because of student activism and the war in Vietnam. Generations before you fought and some died so you would have the right to vote, so why don’t you vote?
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” If Lincoln were alive, he would be shocked and probably disappointed to learn how many Frisconians turn their back on the fire and sit on their own blisters. My favorite segment on some news and talk shows is the one where they send a reporter out to the streets to stop people and ask them a simple question, that 99% of Americans should know. After hearing the question many looked lost, puzzled, and dumb founded before they throw out their answer. The whole point of the tv segment is to show we have truly become dumb and chances are we are not smarter than a fifth grader. In the spirit of fun let’s pretend I am the news host, and you are the street walker, ready to play?
In the Frisco General Election of May 2021, out of 127,543 total registered voters, how many turned out to vote at the polls? A) 24,319 B) 850 C) 10,431 or D) 18,720
Which county turns our more voters in Frisco municipal elections? A) Denton or B) Collin County
Alright, do you have your answers ready? No cheating! In May 2021 we had (C) 10,431 votes cast, the breakdown by county was Collin with 5,106 votes and Denton County with 5,325 votes. That equates to a voter turnout of about 8.91%. Now, in a general run-off election, (B) Collin County has had more voters in the last five out six elections. However, the script is flipped in a runoff / special election when (A) Denton County turns out more voters five out of five times.
What if we told you that in March 2022 that out of 127,543 registered Frisco voters that a total of 4,912 votes were cast and that is about a 3.96% voter turnout. It is the lowest voter turnout the City of Frisco has had since May 2016. In fact, since May 2016 we have only had 4 elections with double-digit voter turnout percentages, the highest being 15.87%. Which leaves 7 elections with single-digit voter turnout percentages, the highest being 9.14%. Out of the four elections with a double digit % voter turnout, one was the November 2020 Trump vs. Biden national presidential election with a 78.15% voter turnout.
Is your interest peaked? Do you want to know more? Take a minute and just look at the voter participation on the Frisco city webpage. Voter apathy is a lack of interest among voters in elections and is one of the mail reasons for low voter turnout. Residents have lost the fire to fight because they don’t believe their voice matters and they believe they have no power to change the situation around us, but they do. It is time to Vote for Pedro! The phrase Vote for Pedro is sometimes used in political protest as a way to express dissatisfaction with the candidates or the two-party system. Pedro is a classic Spanish name derived from the Hebrew Peter meaning “stone” or “rock.” There is a ground swell in Frisco right now and residents are starting to chant over and over and louder and louder each time,VOTE FOR PEDRO! What they really mean is Dear God, let there be an alternative to what has been the corrupt norm of Frisco politics. Ready for a shocking comparison?
If you paid any attention the last two months to the Universal controversy, you probably remember hearing about the “traffic study” paid for by Universal. The famous phrase everyone latched on to was “Universal will have less traffic than the new H-E-B grocery store.” It said the park would only add 7500 cars/trips a day during the week and up to 14 to 20,000 cars / trips on weekend days. That means more people will come to Universal in one day versus the total number that have shown up to vote in a single election since May 2016. Don’t believe me, well in general election of May 2018 we had a total of 7,144 TOTAL votes cast. If you look at both the general and runoff elections together the highest voter turnout between both (minus the Nov 2020 election) was May 2017 when we had 14,186 total votes cast which is less than one weekend day of traffic to Universal if the traffic report is right. Let that sink in!
One of my favorite movies was Coming to America in 1998 with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. In one scene Eddie’s character (who is a prince) jumps out onto the balcony with Arsenio looking out the window at him. He is excited to be in America to find a wife to be his queen. From the balcony with his arms spread wide open, face filled with glee he yells Good Morning My Neighbors and in the background, you hear a voice awe F*#$ you, and Eddie’s character not knowing what it means yells back with a smile on his face and arms wide open, “Yes, Yes, F*%$ you too!” Better yet the scene where he is walking home after dancing with the future queen, he starts to sing “To Be Loved” and jumps up on a light pole swings around, and continues to sing until he reaches the steps of his apartment. We all need to find our inner Eddie Murphy!
It is time for us to take to the streets and start a revolution and chant VOTE FOR PEDRO! Residents who have lost that fire to fight need to dig deep and find the furry again, then help get the word out that early voting starts in 40 days (give or take) and its time we use the powerful voice we have and cast a vote! I hear it all the time from my generation, the youth today are screwed up, they have no concept of the real world, they want everything for free and finally they don’t know what a true day’s work is! The harsh reality is that generation is the one who needs a good slap in the face because what example do we set for them when we don’t vote! Truthfully we should be horrified and terrified regarding the rampant level of voter apathy in Frisco elections.
In 2023, it is clear residents are dissatisfied with representatives on both our city council and school board. With elections right around the corner, we need to be spreading the word to friends and neighbors that is time to vote!
Lastly there is no time like the present, to look at the campaigns and candidates so we will start with the Mayoral Race and the incumbent, Jeff Cheney in our next blog.
There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land. – Aldo Leopold
Remember that the land value of a piece of property includes both the value of the land itself as well as any improvements that have been made to it or around it, one could assume land around The Star would dramatically increase in value as the development came together and was completed. Ready for the kicker, would it surprise you that the city sold the piece of land in question which is estimated to be worth $2.7 million to Blue Star Land Phase III for the sale price of$597,912.00 plus the city’s carrying cost of interest over the years? At the time of the sale in 2019 it was all over the news, but did Frisco residents really pay attention? Probably not and truthfully I had no clue until my curious nature got the best of me and I started looking into things last year. Reading this, do you think it sounds like a win? In theory yes, Frisco sold the land which will yield a substantial potential tax revenue.
Stop the time clock, it is time for a replay so you can understand why Frisco residents should care. First, if the city decided to sell that land no matter who bought it and developed it into an office building the city would be taking an asset generating no revenue and turning it into a cash-generating tax site. We would not have lost an opportunity for the potential $190,000,000 in tax revenue.
Second, the city purchased all this land along the tollway years ago with taxpayer money as a future investment. Selling it for the price we paid plus carrying costs seems to dilute the point of the purchase. The Dallas Morning News reported the market value was an estimated $2.7 million and we sold it for $600,000 which means we gave away $2.1 million dollars of taxpayer money. Anyone looking at this with basic common sense would see the land sale plus the potential tax revenue as a blockbuster achievement. Sherlock Holmes might say, “Elementary, my dear Watson that is a win-win for the city and residents.”
On the flip side, if you’re a DFW local then you know Jerry Jones, and his reputation for being a little pompous, arrogant, vain, egocentric, and self-centered. He is not afraid to say what he thinks, show off or even be offensive at times. It is “Jerry’s World”, and we are lucky to be in it and it has been that way for years. He has worked hard, built an empire, and achieved the American Dream and he has every right to act or celebrate that the way he wants. Keeping in mind Jones’s famous ego if the city did a public sale of the 2.4933 acres of land with direct views of Jerry’s empire including the player’s practice fields, do you think Jones would ever let anyone else buy it or develop it? He would do whatever he had to do to protect his STAR! That makes those 2.4933 acres a rare invaluable treasure that is irreplaceable to Jones. Other developers would also see the value of that land and they would come out of the woodwork, and it could potentially create a bidding war for the holy grail tract of land. Can you imagine what it potentially could have sold for?
We are left with so many questions, the first being who the real winner in this deal was. Clearly, it is Blue Star Land. The city is going to say the potential tax revenue outweighs the loss of profit on the land sale but as a taxpayer, I disagree. I see the Superbowl moment for Frisco residents being the profit of the land sale and still achieving the potential tax revenue.
Mayor Jeff Cheney has said multiple times over the years that the Dallas Cowboys moving to Frisco would create a “halo effect” for our local economy. That means it would form a positive cognitive bias that would increase the city’s presence, brand, and attributes making it attractive to other developers and Fortune 500 businesses, so they would want to be and call Frisco home. That leads to my next question, which is logically thinking if we had to recruit businesses by offering oversized incentives before, then what does the “halo effect” do for us now? Does it mean we will not have to dole out large incentives or deals as we had in the past?
Then I thought of marketing, the Dallas Cowboys logo, and the brand is one of the most famous in the world, and companies pay big bucks to do partnership deals with America’s Team. In 1995 Jones had deals with Nike, Pepsi, American Express, and AT&T that were worth more than $60 million. In 2013, AT&T bought the naming rights to the Cowboys Stadium for up to $20 million a year. In 2022, it was reported that the Cowboys grossed $220 million in stadium ads and sponsorship revenue. They also have million-dollar deals with WinStar World Casino, Lincoln Motor Company, Ford, Omni Hotels and Resorts and we could go on and on. So surely in all these deals or incentive packages the city worked out something where we could put the Cowboy’s famous Blue Star on The City of Frisco webpage with a tagline “Home To The Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters” or when you open the Frisco EDC webpage to show off and increase the so-called “halo effect” to future companies looking to relocate to our great city. A quick surf of our sites there are pictures of The Star but none of the famous and iconic Cowboys branding. Nope, nothing, zilch!
What I did find interesting is a 2021 Dallas Morning News article talking about Monument Realty and how they were named the Official Real Estate Company of the Texas Rangers and you guessed it, the Dallas Cowboys. Dak Prescott is listed as its “chief quarterback officer” and The Cheney Group hangs its hat there. We are awe-struck really because we know that had to cost them a pretty penny to obtain those deals. I mean one would assume that based on the millions of dollars other companies have to pay for partnership deals with these sports teams.
When we created Frisco Chronicles the goal was to get some simple questions addressed and expose some shady shit. What is our local governments purpose? Why do citizens have a lack of trust in our local city government? Why is our city so afraid of a transparent government? Why is our city afraid of ethics enforcement? Do we have an open budget process and our residents tax dollars being spent wisely? Why do residents have a fear of speaking up or calling out our leaders for what they believe is toxic or negative behavior? Is the business we are doing in public-private partnerships with reputable developers and companies? Why does our city charge and “arm and leg” for a Public Information Request and why are the prices differ depending on who files it? Why is everything from our leadership a sales pitch versus a fact finding to hear what residents want? We could go on … and on … an on but we won’t put you through that.
Corruption is widely defined as a breach of the public’s trust by government officials who use their public office to obtain personal gain. It is dishonest or sometimes illegal behavior by those in power which can affect the performance of local government and it erodes trust and weakens democracy.
Transparent governance means that government officials act openly, with citizens knowledge of the decision the officials are making. Important components include the availability of information on government policies and actions, a clear sense of organizational responsibility, and an assurance that governments are efficiently administered and free of systemic corruption. Transparent governance is important to local governments and the communities they serve because corruption threatens good governance, leads to the misallocation of resources, harms public and private sector development, and distorts public policy.
Frisco Chronicles would love to hear from you! Do you have a blog idea or evidence of something shitty and/or shady going on? Confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us no matter who submits it (even if we are not too fond of you)! At Frisco’s Shady Shit, your secrets are safe with us! Please reach out to us by leaving a comment on a blog, send a direct message via our contact us page, or email us at FriscoWhistleBlower@protonmail.com
Now back to regular programming of The Promised Land (Part Two)
Margaret Mitchell, the Author of Gone With The Wind said “Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for it’s the only thing in the world that lasts. It’s the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for..” Mitchell was right which is why for anyone who resides here or immigrates here, it is considered the American Dream to own just a slice of the pie.
Now imagine it is 1987, your name is Dan Lansing and you are living on a farmstead that your grandfather and his descendants owned since 1906. You spent the day on the tractor like many other days and now you are relaxing when you hear a knock at the door of your farmhouse. Is your first instinct to think this knock could change my life forever? Probably not, but for Joe Lansing, the knock would change his life forever. Standing before him was a woman who worked for the local film office, and she had been deployed to drive the dusty gravel roads in search of just the right eye candy when she spotted what she later would tell the film studios was the “holy grail!” A white clapboard, two-story farmhouse nestled against a hillside with the iconic red barn nearby and plenty of cornfields. Sue Riedel introduced herself and said she was a scout for Universal Studios and that they might want to come here and film a movie, would that be OK? Lansing responded, “Are you crazy?” That day changed everything for the Lansing farm located at 28995 Lansing Road.
What would happen next is the Field of Dreams. Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can’t ignore as he walks through the corn fields doing a regular inspection. “If you build it, he will come.” Kinsella plows his field and builds a ballpark which will later save his family farm. The final iconic shot of the film showed the ghost players emerging from the corn fields for a ballgame. Dan and his wife Becky later sold the land for a rumored $5.4 million to Ballpark Heaven who wanted to turn it into a $74 million baseball and softball complex to draw tournaments from all over the country. Even today, the mythical Field of Dreams has spawned thousands of people to visit Dyersville, Iowa every year and it is one of the top 10 attractions in the state. The movie Field of Dreams changed life for the Lansing family forever and residents of Frisco would be surprised to learn that Dan and Becky lived in Frisco for a period after selling the Iowa property.
Land in Texas is undergoing a fundamental change, one that has implications for rural economics, food security, and the conservation of water and other natural resources. Texas Land Trends reports that from 1997 to 2017 the Texas population increased by 48% which means we continue to see land loss as urban development takes over. The land value of a piece of property includes both the value of the land itself as well as any improvements that have been made to it. So many different factors can affect land value such as an increase in demand that exceeds the supply of land, if a movie is filmed on it, oil can be found under the soil, or because of nearby developments.
Remember in our blog, Frisco, Are You Ready For Some Football we said to make a mental note of a land deal that took place in February 2019. Remember the timeline, The Star was approved in August 2013, and the Dallas Cowboys moved into the new corporate headquarters and training facility with a 12,000-seat stadium in August 2016. The following year in May of 2017, the city council approved 12 Cowboys Way, The Stars luxury high-rise community. The Entertainment District at The Star held its grand opening weekend-long event in March 2018.
In February 2019, the council had two agenda items before them relating to Jerry Jones and his Blue Star companies which included,
Consider and act upon a contract of sale by and between Blue Star Land Phase III, LLC and the City of Frisco for the purchase of a 2.4933-acre tract of land.
Consider and act upon a Chapter 380 Agreement by and between Blue Star Land Phase III, LLC and the City of Frisco related to the purchase of a 2.4933-acre tract of land.
First question, where is the 2.4933-acre tract of land? If you drive up The Star Boulevard you look directly at the Tostitos Championship Plaza which replicates a football field and directly behind it you see The Ford Center a 12,000-seat stadium. To the left of The Ford Center are the two practice fields that sit directly behind the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters. Directly behind those fields is a 2.4933-acre tract of land (along Hall of Fame Lane) that the city owns and is allowing the Cowboys to use as a player’s parking lot only.
Second question, what is the benefit to taxpayers? According to Ron Patterson, President of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., the estimated value of the proposed future office building will be approximately $190,000,000. Blue Star Land committed to having the project done and ready to move into as early as 2021.
Doesn’t sound like a bad deal right? Well, you have not heard the kicker yet which will talk about in our next blog after the Halftime Show. Stay Tuned!
Click Bait is an eye-catching headline designed to entice a reader’s interest, so they click on a hyperlink that redirects them to some interesting or exciting content. It can be innocent or sinister depending on how it is used. For example, you would likely click on a headline that read World Naked Gardening Day vs a headline like Weekend Gardner. The headline is meant to drive traffic, therefore increasing readership or potential revenue from advertising. So what did you think when you read the headline, “Frisco, are you ready for some football?” Surely after reading some of our blogs, you probably thought we might be about to drop some shady shit on the King Pins of Football, and you could be right. As Jimmy Johnson would say, “how bout dem cowboys!”
Enigma is a person that is mysterious, difficult to understand, or hard to explain. For years at local watering holes (bars) in the DFW area, the Enigma of J.R. Ewing and Jerry Jones has often been talked about. While we know J.R. is only a character in the hit show Dallas, the rise of Jerry Jones and his empire is very real! Most know Jones for his ownership of America’s Team the Dallas Cowboys but there is much more to the billionaire businessman. It has been reported that in the 1970s Jones made his first millions in oil. In 2018, Jones became the controlling shareholder in Comstock Resources which is a publicly traded Texas oil and gas company. In 2013, local TV news station WFAA reported Blue Star Land owned by Jones had at least 1200 acres across Frisco, Prosper, and Celina. According to its website Blue Star Land and Development is a full-service real estate brokerage. Rex Real Estate brought the Jones family to Frisco in 1994 when they purchased the land for the master-planned community Starwood. They have since developed two other communities with Star Creek in Allen, and Star Trail in Prosper. Blue Star is also the developer behind The Gates of Prosper a major regional shopping area. On the industrial / commercial side Blue Star Land purchased Star Business Park off Rockhill and Preston in Frisco which is home to a new merchandise distribution center for the Dallas Cowboys along with The Star in Frisco. In 2015, Jones opened Blue Star Payment Solutions with the goal of offering first-class merchant services. Lastly, it is rumored that Jones is an avid art collector and his rare collection includes a few Picassos, Renoir, Matisse, and Norman Rockwall’s “Coin Toss.” At 80 years old Forbes estimates his net worth to be around $13 Billion. Not bad for a kid who grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and played football in college for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
In 1989, Hank Williams reworked his country-rock song to include the catchphrase “are you ready for some football!” The catchy phrase soon became an NFL viewing tradition at the opening of Monday Night Football. Well Sports City USA was ready for some football! Frisco was ready for a seat at the table in 2013, when Stephen Jones, CEO of the Dallas Cowboys realized it was time to move because the team had outgrown the Valley Ranch facility they had called home since 1985. So, how did the Cowboys end up coming to Frisco?
There are several variations to the story depending on whom you ask. What we have heard is two men, Rex Glendenning and Matthew Kiran of Rex Real Estate had a longtime relationship with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. It is believed Rex Real Estate helped Jerry Jones’ companies like Blue Star Land buy up land in Denton and Colin County for years. A Dallas Morning News article in February of 2023 called Rex Glendenning the “king of land sales” in North Texas’ fastest-growing communities. Rex Glendenning and Matthew Kiran attended a meeting at Valley Ranch and learned the Cowboys were quietly looking for a new home. On a drive back from Valley Ranch The Rex Real Estate duo had an epiphany as they crossed 121 and looked at each other and said this is where the future “Gridiron” Cowboys project needs to be. Made sense the City of Frisco owned 91 acres just off the Tollway and they knew the city had no plans after the negotiations fell apart in the “Red Zone” with Nebraska Furniture Mart. It was time for the Wildcat play which is where the quarterback lines up as the wide receiver and the running back take the snap from the center. The Rex Real Estate team made their pitch to Jim Gandy, President of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation. The Super Bowl moment came late in 2013 when the parties reached an agreement and America’s Team officially announced Frisco’s Sports City USA would be their new home.
The 91-acre mixed-use project included 66 acres of retail, a 5-acre headquarters, a 20-acre multi-use event center, and a hotel. In the deal, the city pledged $60 million and would retain ownership of the indoor stadium and Frisco ISD contributed $30 million. The final price tag for the total Ford Center was more than $263 million. Talk about a “win-win” for Frisco, Texas when five years later The Star celebrated its grand opening with the pomp and circumstance befitting of the one and only Jerry Jones.
As usual, we were curious about the play clock (aka timeline) of the project compared to any campaign contributions received by those on the council. We reviewed the campaign finance reports which are public records on the City of Frisco’s website.
August 12, 2013: Frisco CDC, City Council, and Frisco EDC approve The Star
2016: Ford Center @ The Star has Grand Opening
May 11, 2017: Cheney receives a $10,000 campaign contribution from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate)
August 22, 2017: P&Z Approves 12 Cowboys Way
What is 12 Cowboys Way? It is a joint venture between Jerry Jones and Dallas developer Columbus Realty which is owned by former players Roger Staubach and Robert Shaw. The stunning architecture of the 17-story luxury residential tower, the first of its kind in Frisco, will have 160 urban units where rent begins at $2700 per month. Amenities include 24-hour concierge service, covered parking, dog park and dog wash, valet parking, grocery delivery service, and dry-cleaning service. Not to mention discounts at restaurants at The Star and a Cowboys Club membership.
September 9, 2017: City Council Approves 12 Cowboys Way
January 25, 2018: Mayor Cheney receives a $1000 campaign contribution from Matthew Kiran and $2500 from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate Team)
March 5, 2018: Mayor Cheney receives a $500 campaign contribution from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate)
March 5, 2018: Councilman John Keating receives a $500 campaign contribution from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate)
April 6, 2018: Councilman Keating receives $2500 from Jim Williams (LandPlan – Founder)
Who is Jim Williams? Williams played football with Jerry and Jimmy at Walton College. His partner Bruce Smith was Vice President & General Manager of Blue Star Land (Jerry Jones company).
May 6, 2018: Councilman Keating receives (2) two $1000 donations from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate)
August 2018: City Council Approves Cowboys 400,000 Sq Ft. Dallas Cowboys Merchandising Distribution Center
**The city approved a 50 percent ad valorem tax grant and a 50 percent sales tax grant for a 10-year period.
February 19, 2019: City Council Approves Cowboys Land Deal – Office Building
**Make a mental note of this one because it will be important later.
March 7, 2019: Councilman Keating receives a $2500 campaign contribution from Jim Williams (LandPlan – Founder)
March 19, 2019: Mayor Cheney receives two campaign contributions, one for $2500, the second for $100 from Jim Williams (LandPlan – Founder)
October 17, 2019: Mayor Cheney receives a $1000 campaign contribution from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate)
January 30, 2020: Mayor Cheney receives a $2500 campaign contribution from Robert Shaw and $1000 from Richard Reupke
Who is Robert Shaw and Richard Reupke? Shaw is also a Managing Partner of Columbus Realty Partners and he was a first-round draft pick for the Dallas Cowboys in 1979 where he played for three years. Reupke is a partner and Chief Financial Officer at Columbus Realty Partners. Both are advisors for Staubach Capital (12 Cowboys Way).
2020: Robert Cox then Planning & Zoning Commissioner running for Council received $350 from Kiran and $1000 from Hickman
January 25, 2021: Angelia Pelham received a $3000 campaign contribution from Jim Williams (LandPlan – Founder)
In the movie Jerry Maguire, Rod Tidwell played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., is not thrilled with his agent’s performance so he wants his agent Jerry to convince him to stay on as a client. Jerry asks what he can do to convince him, and Rod said, “Show me the money.” He then made Jerry repeat it over and over, louder, and louder until everyone in the office had thought Jerry lost his mind. If only it were as simple as it appears in the movies. The investigative process is a progression of activities or steps moving from evidence-gathering tasks to information analysis, to theory development and validation. The goal is to form a reasonable belief based on the evidence in front of you. The truth is we are not professionals, so we lack the expertise of real investigators but as we said before we are smart enough to follow the yellow brick road.
First, we looked for donations that occurred within a few months of a vote. For example, Cheney received $10,000 dollars from Rex Glendenning (Rex Real Estate) roughly 3 months before the P&Z vote in August 2017 and 4 months before the City Council approved the 12 Cowboys Way project in September 2017. Then about 3 ½ months after the vote, he received another $2500 from Glendenning and $1000 from his partner Kiran. Depending on the lens someone is looking through the timing could look fine, or it could look like a pay-2-play situation. Cheney just won the election, so he is not campaigning anymore. Why when there is a project coming before the council did they decide to donate? Glendenning also donated $1000 in October 2019 but that was not in close proximity to a vote.
In February 2019, the council voted to approve the land deal with Blue Star. Then exactly one month later Williams who has a clear connection to Jones made two donations on the same day to Cheney’s campaign. The first was for $2500 and the second for $1000. To those with basic common sense, again the timing of one month looks bad and now we are seeing similar things between different developments.
Keating also received donations from players in these projects. In March 2018, Glendenning donated $500, and then in May 2018, he made two donations each for $1000 on the same day. In April 2018, Williams also donated $2500 to Keating’s campaign. The vote for the Blue Star distribution center was not until August 2018 so one could argue there is enough time between the last donation and the actual vote. However, with a total of $5000 in donations three months before the vote we would argue something doesn’t smell right in Frisco.
Angelia Pelham one of the newest members of the council also received a $3000 donation from Jim Williams in January 2021. This donation occurred during her campaign and looks completely justifiable as she was not able to vote at the time for any projects. From our perspective, Cheney needed Pelham on the council because she would vote on future projects with Cheney whereas the other candidate would not have been so easy to win over. It is also interesting that Pelham who was sworn in on June 15, 2021, became Deputy Mayor Pro Tem so quickly when other council members like Livingston, Woodard, or Keating have years of experience on the council. In that position, it is her job to stand in for the mayor when they are unable to chair a council meeting or attend an event. A few more years of experience under her belt on council would make more sense but we can only assume Cheney needed her as his right hand.
What we found interesting is that going back through both Cheney and Keating campaign reports to 2013 we could not find any other previous contributions from these donors, so why now? Patterns are predictable repetitions that repeat at least once or twice or occur repeatedly at regular intervals. The legal definition for the pattern of behavior means behavior by one party in a relationship that is used to establish power and control over another person. One could argue that when you are the mayor you have a lot of power and control to get things done. We are not accusing anyone of doing something illegal but, it is our opinion that there is at least a reoccurring appearance of improprieties and if perception can be the reality then that would not bode well for either of men.
Imagine yourself in a period of time that was in filled with generational conflict, the Vietnam War, and Nixon was president. Four teenagers, Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy are driving around in a van with a Great Dane dog looking to solve mysteries. Little did anyone know that a cartoon called Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? would become a cult classic and last for generations. Who wouldn’t want to be in a crime-fighting gang with a dog that says “Ruh-roh-Raggy” and has a decked-out van called The Mystery Machine?
I remember sitting on the couch in the basement watching my favorite cartoon Scooby Doo when my older brother and his two friends came down to join me. They wanted to hide out so they could smoke some dope aka marijuana. The episode had Shaggy and Scooby in the mystery machine with smoke pouring out the top. Inside they were grilling some munchies and the two started to freak out when detectives start banging on the van door. My brother and his friends were laughing hysterically at the television and I could not help but laugh hysterically at them because I thought they were idiots. There is no point in me telling you this other than I just loved watching the cartoon gang solve a new mystery in every episode and it had me hooked.
Reading this you are probably wondering what does this have to do with Frisco? Well on January 11th the City of Frisco and NBC Universal Parks and Resorts made a colossal announcement that a new park was coming to Frisco. To be honest, since my kids are grown I have not paid much attention to it because I am not visiting a park of that nature anytime soon. But in the last week I have received several notes through the site asking our opinion about Universal, some dropped tidbits on Universal to us, and then today, my wife comes running into my office saying I must read what is on the tweets about Universal. Tweets are her universal language for social media like Facebook. I read several different posts talking about the crucial meeting tonight and it was paramount that people show up to have their voices heard. Curious to know more, I spent several hours this morning doing some research looking at old posts, visiting the city’s website, and reading the agenda and documents for tonight’s meeting.
The January 11, 2023 announcement came across as this was a “done deal” which means a plan or project that has been completed or arranged and that cannot be changed. Truth is the project at that time had not been put before planning & zoning or the city council. It was truly misleading to the residents and the public far and wide in Texas. The result was a very mixed reaction, some being happy and some being downright angry. The city is offering $12.7 million incentive package which is generally normal but based on the split of how residents feel regarding this project I don’t think we should be offering an incentive package.
Representatives of the city on social media sold Universal to the public one way but when reading the Development Agreement attached to tonight’s agenda, they have not been transparent, and the truth is far from what they have sold to the public. Let me give you some examples of what I read on social media from city council members versus what is in the actual agreement being laid out this evening.
The city said the park was aimed at children 3 to 9 years old but the agreement says it was developed for young children 3 to 11 years old.
The city has said the park hours would be from 10 am to 6 pm and would not have late hours. The agreement states the “developer’s intent” is to primarily operate the majority of the weekdays with the posted hours of operation for ticketed users between the hours of 10:00 am and 6:00 pm local time. Residents read it again carefully as the highlighted words are key in this.
However the “actual hours will vary” throughout the year based on demand, seasonality, holidays, peak periods, and weekdays/weekends, but in no event shall the theme park opening time be earlier than 9:00 am (except for hotel guests and annual passholders) which the opening time may be as early as 8:00 am local time. The theme park closing time will not be later than 9:00 pm local time (except for up to twenty (20) days) during the calendar year when they are permitted to close no later than 10:00 pm local time. What this means is they can say “summertime” is a peak period and now they can stay open until 9 pm. They can use July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas as peak periods to stay open until 9 pm. They can stay open late on a holiday (defined as a Frisco ISD school holiday). Truthfully with the way it is written, they can be open all year until 9 pm if they just claim it to be based on demand, seasonality, holidays, and peak periods.
The city has said no dark rides, no big buildings, and no tall roller coaster rides (40 – 50 feet maximum). The agreement states all amusement rides, entertainment experiences and all portions of structures designed to be occupied by humans in Theme Park Area A shall not exceed a height of 80 feet. Structures designed not to be occupied by humans shall not exceed 100 feet. Just based on a simple google search I learned that 80 feet is equal to a 7-story building. I am guessing that is not what neighbors were expecting.
The agreement states all amusement rides, entertainment experiences and all portions of structures in Theme Park Area B shall not exceed a height of 100 feet.
The city has said no parades, no fireworks, an inward environment (not outside), and that noise level to the outside would be almost non-existent because the sound would be isolated even within the park. The city agreement states that permitted uses include parades, outdoor concerts, and shows, amusement rides, and permanent or temporary exhibits. It also says about the noise they must comply with the City Noise Ordinance (who knows what that is). I am old but I am pretty sure parades and outdoor concerts are not what nearby neighbors want near their homes.
After doing the research I told my wife I agree with most online users (which is rare) that this is a bait-and-switch to what most folks have been told. I also saw some other areas of concern that some may overlook such as asphalt parking. It says they must follow the zoning ordinance which requires parking to be concrete but temporary parking may be of an alternate material when approved by the Director of Engineering Services. My other area of concern is the delivery hours as we learned the hard way living in Grayhawk near a Walmart. You can hear the delivery trucks all night long. The agreement states the city cannot restrict public roadways or delivery hours and if residents have a problem with the noise they can call the police department. It also states Universal will work to reduce the impact on nearby residents.
One thing is clear, we are still having transparency issues, and it appears the public has been misled about what this project entails. There are many loopholes and all of them help the city and Universal. The city is hoping residents are too stupid to read the paperwork. Just one old man’s opinion, the residents are being bamboozled and should be extremely angry, especially those living nearby.
UPDATE: We watched tonight’s Special Joint City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting on FTVN. I am not sure if I would call it a train wreck, shipwreck, or victory. The meeting lasted several hours. Two residents spoke in favor of passing it but the remaining were all opposed. It was quickly apparent that many residents had many of the same concerns that we did and there was a lot of hostility toward the Mayor. Planning and Zoning passed it 5-0 and then the City Council passed it 4-1-1 meaning 4 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstained.
We were surprised only one resident mentioned the city’s right to free use of the theme park for an employee event on an agreed-upon date. Section 36.02 of the Texas Penal Code makes it a crime of bribery for a person to offer, confer, or agree to confer, or for a public official or employee to accept, agree to accept, or solicit, any benefit as consideration for a decision, opinion, recommendation, vote or another exercise of discretion. Ruh-roh-RAGGY! Clearly, the agreement states the city’s right to free use which could be seen as an offer or benefit for consideration for a decision. Hopefully, a resident will file a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission.
John Pavle, one of the opposed speakers spoke with passion, vigor and true concern. He pointed out how this was shoved down residents throats, and that the people of Frisco are being exploited for money. He went on to say the evening was a dog and pony show, and for Cheney and the council to stop telling residents what they want and instead listen to the residents who are telling them what they want. The best part was when he actually looked directly at the entire council and told them he would hold each of them accountable when election time came and he promised the Mayor if he voted yes that he would not be sitting in that seat much longer. Mr. Pavle thank you for speaking your truth and for those of us at Frisco Chronicles we agree with you. It is time for residents to make their voices heard at the ballot box.
Jon Kendall Chair of P&Z said this is a destination city and your right it is sir, but it is also our home and that is what you are forgetting. Jake Petras another commissioner spoke and said he spent quite a bit of time reviewing everything for this project and gave it proper due diligence to ensure he understands everything. Well, tonight FC was sent a Facebook post that clearly shows Mr. Petras had made up his mind about 5 days after the Jan 11 announcement which we find interesting since no one knew what the hell was being proposed yet. If that is due diligence we are screwed. Steve Cone another commissioner who is also a resident of one of the nearby neighborhoods spoke and had the most valid pros and cons of the evening. Hopefully, he has a friend named Wilson since he is about to be Cast Away by his neighbors.
The last portion was the council’s input and the one thing repeated over and over was how they all appreciated the neighbor’s professionalism and courtesy in which they approached the situation. It was a little condescending, to be honest, did you think they were going to behave like a group of wild monkeys in the Amazon forest? Cheney said if they had to do it all over again they probably would have rolled it out differently and would have asked for more liberty on what they could share. Really Sherlock? You don’t need to share more but what you do share needs to be accurate. Looking at your very detailed Facebook Post from Jan 20 we see 10 am to 6 pm & no late night hours (actually it is 8 am to 9 pm), 300 room hotel (which can now be up to 600 with a second phase), target audience 3 – 9 (actually 3 – 11), no tall roller coasters max will be 40 – 50 feet (actually 80 feet big difference) and several of these things you mention more than once in that post. Here is an idea, how about you stop grandstanding and trying to oversell a project and just get the accurate information to share? Now you want people to trust your traffic report, trust that the council is doing what is best for residents, and trust city leaders – why should they? It is very clear since Jan 11 that this has been a shit show of false information.
Pelham said we could have done this differently and did we give the impression this was a done deal when it was announced, “Perhaps, Lesson Learned.” She had no empathy in her voice or facial expression like it was not a big deal because they tried to course-correct the situation. With all due respect, not a good enough answer because that announcement traveled around the world far beyond the borders of Frisco. Then you have the audacity to speak to John from Universal about how he gave his word on some concessions to the residents that are not written in the SUP and you hope he keeps his word because you will remember if he doesn’t the next time he appears before the council. Residents remember too Ms. Pelham, they will remember being lied to and misled the next time you stand in front of them and ask for their vote. Telling him his integrity is on the line and that he should honor and respect our home, all the while you are not respecting or honoring the residents before you who are asking you to protect their home and qualify of life is very hypocritical.
Livingston said he liked the project but he could not support the location near Cobb Hill and therefore he would be voting NO! Rummel wanted to table it although we are not sure what that would have done. Keating cried and said how emotionally impacted he was by Commission Cone’s words that evening, wait what? Where was his emotion for the residents who have stood before him pleading to save their neighborhood, and maintain their quality of life? Oh yeah, he went to the beach on vacation and never meet with the residents. Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya, Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama, Key Largo, Montego Baby, why don’t we go anywhere other than Cobb Hill?
The conclusion, everything came back to the economic value the project will bring our city. Yet our city is flush today and will continue to be off the many businesses here so saying no to one business, is not going to destroy our city economically. Money is the best motivator and that is some shady shit!
Growing up my dad and his buddies would always have poker night in the basement that included cards, cigars, and liquor concoctions. I used to sneak down the stairs to spy on them and was always intrigued by the deck of playing cards. One night my dad told his buddies that a deck of cards is based on a calendar. Fifty-two (52) cards represent fifty-two (52) weeks in a year and the card colors red and black symbolize night and day. The four (4) suits represent the four (4) seasons. There are thirteen (13) cards in a suit to match the number of lunar cycles and twelve (12) court cards that represent the 12 months of the year. A standard deck of cards has four suits: hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds and the original card suits were based on classes and can be traced back to France in the 1400s. Suits include spades ♠ (royalty), clubs ♣ (peasants), hearts ♥ (clergy), and diamonds ♦ (merchants).
Once the night was over I would gather up all the cards and the next day I loved to try and build a house out of the cards. Then my brother would come by like a gust of wind and knock it over which always upset me, but I started over each time. House of cards is a metaphor for the instability of the inner workings of what appears to be the perfect partnership, structure, plan, institution, or organization. In a house of cards, the inner workings are always weak, fragile and in constant danger of failure or collapse. Watching Frisco grow, I have wondered are some of these developments too good to be true. Underneath the pomp and circumstance are they just another house of cards?
In August 2014 a crowd gathered including Frisco leaders and officials from Thomas Land & Development for the groundbreaking of the $1.6 Billion, 175-acre Wade Park mixed-use development. Excitement rumbled among residents when they learned the initial phase would be anchored by a Whole Foods store. Jim Newman, of Newman Real Estate, brokered the land deal for the project and he told the Frisco Enterprise that “having sold and developed land in this city for over 30 years, nothing in North Texas comes close to the future development.” He went on to say it was difficult getting the Wade Family to sell the land but when they found a partner they could trust like Thomas Land Development they couldn’t be happier.
In January 2015, the Frisco City Council, Frisco EDC, and Frisco CDC approved $122.75 million in incentives for infrastructure improvements which would be paid from revenue generated by the proposed development as the city collects taxes. In return, Wade Park agreed to deliver a portion of the development by the end of December 2017. It wouldn’t be long before all that excitement started to dwindle when Frisco learned Thomas Land Development ran out of money and failed to secure additional financing. Construction froze as contractors began placing liens against the development for unpaid bills and by early 2018 the future of Wade Park was up in the air and Frisco was left with a hole in the ground that locals nicknamed Lake Lebanon.
Were any alarm bells that the city should have been concerned about so we could have possibly avoided the headache of Wade Park? A simple google search into Stan Thomas, CEO of Atlanta-based Thomas Land Development is alarming. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported back in 2009 that Stan Thomas had three major projects in bankruptcy protection, and he narrowly averted foreclosure on The Forum Peachtree Parkway development in Atlanta. He also had projects in London and Orlando that were virtually dead until he could find financing. He had been sued by former partners and vendors for nonpayment and dozens of liens against him. His company had gone from 750 employees down to just 50 employees. Thomas had two other projects in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection which included The Rim in San Antonio, Texas, and Prospect Park in Alpharetta, Georgia. In 2019 a CBS news story pointed out that while Frisco city officials publicly expressed optimism for the project the I-Team had learned behind the scenes there were concerns early on. They reported the developer Stan Thomas had a reputation for taking on massive debt to develop massive projects. The report also talked about how Thomas had plans to turn a development in Sacramento into a multi-billion dollar development but it fell through when he could not pay his loans on the project.
Again, we ask the question was the writing on the wall the whole time? Could we have avoided the headache of Wade Park with a little more due diligence? Was Lake Lebanon avoidable? How do we avoid doing business with companies that are really House of Cards? How many other projects are just another house of cards?
Funny Side Note: While it has nothing to do with our story we wanted to share that in 2015, Universal Orlando acquired 475 acres of land for $27.5 million for a future Universal theme park. But the previous landowner Stan Thomas (mentioned above) sued Universal claiming he still owned rights to enforce private deed restrictions. The parties settled in April 2018 but it just shows it is a small world after all since now Universal is looking at Frisco.
Back to the point of our blog, we decided to investigate some other local developments and what we found should have Frisco residents concerned. In 2012 Forest Park Medical Center at Frisco Square opened. The developer was Neal Richards Group which at the time had developed half a billion dollars of healthcare real estate. At some point, the company kicked off its first physician-owned project called Forest Park Medical brand. NRG became collateral damage in a fraud scandal involving two of its co-founders who were among 21 people indicted in a $40 million kickback scheme that ran from 2009 to approximately 2013 and generated an estimated $200 million in revenue for Forest Park. It is complicated to understand but to put it in layman’s terms, the hospitals were set up as out-of-network facilities which allowed them to set their own prices then shell companies were opened to funnel millions in bribes and kickback payments in exchange for patient referrals. Make sense?
In 2018, Philip Carter, the principal of Texas Cash Cow Investments and North Forty Development LLC who had developed Preston at Wade Crossing was arrested. In November 2018 Carter was facing state fraud charges in connection with defrauding nearly 100 Texas investors out of $17.5 million and in May 2022 he was sentenced to 45 years in state prison.
Then in September 2022, Tim Barton of JMJ Developments was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine felony counts, including securities fraud and wire fraud. He is accused of defrauding Chinese investors out of $26 million and if convicted could face up to 60 years in prison. JMJ Developments purchased 4.5 acres of land in 2020 from Invest Group Overseas (IGO), the master developer of The Gate in Frisco’s North Platinum Corridor. At the time JMJ officials boasted how it would be “the tallest building in Frisco” and was set to open in 2024. Barton sold the property in The Gate to Petra Development LLC in December 2022 for an estimated $9 million.
We could make our own movie and instead of calling it The Wolf of Wall Street, we should name it The Wolves of the Frisco or The Wolves of the Dallas North Tollway. Are we the only ones who are curious why so many of the developments in Frisco are somehow connected to shady businessmen or developers? Maybe we need to hold our city management and the developers they choose to do business with to higher standards so shady shit stops happening.
Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher who made pioneering contributions to all fields of philosophy and science. In his ethical masterpiece The Nicomachean Ethics he said there are three kinds of friendship: friendships of pleasure, utility, and of virtue. Friendship of utility is based on what two people can do for each other and it ends rapidly when the need is gone for the other person. The second is the friendship of pleasure, and it is based on the enjoyment of shared activities and is often short-tenured. In both utility and pleasure, the other person is not valued and is a means to an end. The friendship of virtue is stable because it is true, real, and good. This is the friend you like for who they are and often they push you to be a better person. To understand these friendships we must look at their anatomy. Anatomy is a branch of biology, and it is concerned with the study of the structure or internal workings of something. Through dissection or the separation of parts, much can be revealed.
July 2016: Robert Elliott formed The Associates, a full-service residential real estate brokerage.
So, who is Robert Elliott? Well, he is the Principal of Robert Elliott Custom Homes which has developed many projects throughout University Park, Highland Park, and the Preston Hollow area. Elliott also formed The Associates in 2016, mostly known in Dallas for its high-end luxury personal service and sold over 200 million in real estate in the Dallas area. Lastly, he is also a Partner in Stillwater Capital which was a fully integrated, private real estate company that has experience in design, construction, and operations of mixed-use developments, urban living communities, and custom projects. Stillwater is a key player in the PGA Frisco. They helped with the recruitment of bringing The PGA to Frisco, and is the developer behind The Link which neighbors the PGA Frisco.
May 2017: Jeff Cheney is elected Mayor for The City of Frisco
August 2017: Mayor Cheney and Councilman Will Sowell travel to Charlotte, NC for the 99 th PGA Championship. It was there they meet with PGA leadership and Robert Elliott and his fellow representatives of Stillwater Capital.
November 2017: The Associates, a brokerage owned by Robert Elliott announced its expansion to The Star in Frisco, and that The Cheney Group would be joining his brokerage.
In 2017, The Cheney Group was considered a powerhouse and recognized as one of the #1 Home-Selling Teams in the Frisco market with over $900 million in sales. There was no better place to set roots than the prominent location of The Star. At the end of 2017, Stillwater Capital, The Associates, and The Cheney group office together at The Star.
December 5, 2017: Cheney filed an affidavit recusing himself from an item on the agenda during the executive session. The reason listed is that he was a “partner with Stillwater Capital, Robert Elliott is also the broker for The Associates, my employer.”
Throughout 2018 talks and planning continued for both Stillwater Capital projects, the PGA Frisco and The Link in the same office where The Cheney Group presided. It is fair for one to assume he had plenty of access to all things PGA Frisco as the development was coming together.
December 2018: A notice was posted by The City of Frisco for a special meeting of the City Council on 12/4/2018 at 4:30 pm to authorize and execute the proposed Master Development Agreement for the PGA Frisco. Cheney announced he was turning the meeting over to Mayor Pro Tem Shona Huffman but first wanted to make a few statements. He said he would be recusing because of the conflict between his private business, his broker being Robert Elliott and Elliott’s partnership in Stillwater Capital which is involved in the project before the council that evening. He then laughed and said he thought it was a little of a loose association but after speaking with the city attorney it was best out of an abundance of caution to recuse himself. He said the last thing he would want to do is put any doubt into a project of this magnitude and how excited and proud he is to be a part of a special team in the City of Frisco. He then announced he was going to take “mayor’s privilege” to make a few comments. He talked about the PGA Frisco dream of Mr. Ovard and his family, his trip to The PGA championship, and how the council members deserve credit for taking an active leadership role to bring The PGA to Frisco since he had to recuse himself from most of the project. He made mention of how much hard work was put in by the City Manager George Purefoy and city staff. Lastly, he thanked The PGA for trusting Frisco and choosing Frisco as their new home. As everyone clapped he left the stage.
Wait, what? A little loose of an association?There is nothing loose about the association between The Cheney Group, The Associates, and Stillwater Capital. At this point, we have established the connection between the three groups and to anyone who is not blind, there is a clear relationship that creates a conflict of interest for Cheney. In our opinion, he should have removed himself from any conversation relating to these projects, from providing input on the projects, from talking to developers and other parties of the project.
Mayors Privilege?We tried to find the mayor’s privilege in the rules of the Texas Meeting Laws, but we couldn’t.Overall, he spoke for over 6 minutes and 45 seconds before the vote. We can all agree at this point the decision is made and the meeting is really about pomp and circumstance, but he should have reserved his comments until after the vote.
October 15, 2019: In a closed session, the council received legal advice regarding amendments to the Master Development Agreement executed by the City of Frisco with the players of the PGA Frisco development. Did Cheney participate in these conversations or recuse himself? We don’t know and doubt anyone will tell us.
November 19, 2019 Email: Mike Smith with TRT Holdings, who represents the Omni Hotel portion of the PGA Frisco deal sends out an email to several folks involved in the deal. Just a few are Fehmi Karahan (Fields) and his team, Robert Elliott (Stillwater) and his team, Chris Kleinert (Hunt) and his team, plus he included Jeff Cheney, George Purefoy, Ben Brezina, and Ron Patterson. He wants to host a lunch at his office to update everyone on the PGA Frisco project and catch up on what is happening on the surrounding land and discuss any issues that should be coordinated between each of the respective developments. A second email from Stephanie New the Executive Assistant at TRT Holdings for Mike Smith goes out asking if December 9, 2019, would work for everyone.
Two days later, Julie Venture with Frisco EDC responds Ron Patterson is available and Jeff Cheney responds he is available as well. That is where the email chain stops so we were curious why our PIR didn’t include the rest of the conversation which seemed odd. To say we are perplexed is an understatement. Why is Mayor Cheney the only one on the council invited, why not invite all the council members? Did Cheney or city staff update the rest of the council after this meeting what transpired at lunch. Remember, at this time Mayor Cheney’s personal business is under Robert Elliott so it is obvious he was involved in conversations regarding the development. Is his involvement a conflict of interest? Yes!
June 16, 2020: Did he oversee the consent agenda vote where two items pertaining to Omni Stillwater Woods Golf Resort was involved? Yes he did!
June 29, 2020 Email: Clay Roby (Stillwater) sends Jeff Cheney an email to his personal business account, not the city email. He states he and Robert are compiling information on The Link with the goal of creating a discussion piece for the joint Council and Planning and Zoning work session coming up. He would appreciate Cheney’s perspective on the development and what they can do to find “win-win” solutions to the outstanding items in the PD. Then he asks when Cheney has time to connect. Does Cheney give feedback to all developers on future presentations going before the council and Planning and Zoning? Does Cheney help every developer find “win-win” solutions to outstanding issues in the PD? Should the Mayor be involved in these discussion on the sideline without brining in other council members? Should this be considered a conflict of interest? Yes!
July 14, 2020 Email: Clay Roby (Stillwater) sends an email to Cheney letting him know that he and Robert have been working on a presentation for the joint work session coming up on Aug 3rd and would appreciate his feedback before they submit the final version to the city. He asks if Cheney has any time the next day to connect. Cheney responds from his personal email (cheneygroup.com) that the next day from 2-4 would work. Robert Elliott responds that the time works for him and the appointment is set. The next day before they are set for the 2pm call Clay Roby sends to Jeff Cheney a draft of the presentation again to his personal work email, not his official City of Frisco email. Again Cheney is giving feedback to a developer he wants us to believe he has no conflict with for a presentation that will be presented at a city work session. Did Cheney disclose to his fellow council members his involvement? We think it is a valid question.
Nov 02, 2020: Council received legal advice from the city attorney regarding the 3rd Amendment to the Master Development Agreement for the project. Did Cheney participate in the closed-session discussion since it involved Omni Stillwater Woods Golf Resort? We don’t know.
In 2021, The Link was coming up before the council. On March 12, P&Z approved the project, and it was listed on the council’s agenda for a vote on April 6, 2021. One would think Cheney should recuse himself from The Link (the other half) of the Frisco PGA project that Stillwater Capital was involved in. But, no!
March 22, 2021: Monument Realty founded by Eddie and Tiffany Burns acquired The Associates owned by Robert Elliott and The Cheney Group with Jeff Cheney. The two groups moved separately the same day to a new brokerage to break up the connection or so-called conflict of interest. Cheney has said his move to Monument cleared any conflict he had with the projects. Really, we would argue that regardless of his move to Monument it does not erase or expel his interwoven relationship to the project or the players in the project.
Fast forward the VHS tape (I would say Betamax but no one remembers that) to June of 2021, Cheney said in his response to an ethics complaint filed, the investment group handling the PGA is Omni Stillwater Woods per the city’s agreement. He also said there is no conflict of interest because there are no contractual agreements with The Associates, Stillwater Capital, or Monument Realty. Part of his rebuttal was the complaint’s information was inaccurate.
April 6, 2021: Now rewind the VHS tape to the City Council meeting where The Link was before the council. Two of the speakers “in favor or for” the project were Clay Roby and Cole Henley and the minutes state they are there on behalf of Stillwater Capital Investments (not Omni Stillwater Woods). When Mr. Roby approached the podium he stated, “he was there to speak on behalf of The Link application, as the Managing Director with Stillwater Capital one of the investors of The Link property before you tonight.” Well, well, well if Cheney wants to argue semantics at his ethics complaint then we would like to argue the same back. See the semantics of the language used by Mr. Roby does not state he is with Omni Stillwater Woods so that means Cheney’s argument given during his ethics rebuttal is null and void and there is a conflict of interest.
The meeting continued and a few of the council members raised concerns. Mayor Cheney’s response was swift and immediate and you could tell he appeared aggravated when he respond to the council’s concerns saying this is a new asset class to Frisco. He continued and said “when it comes to density it’s a political dog whistle and good for political campaign mailers. When you speak to people and actually educate them (because he thinks we are stupid) on how multi-family works, how it actually reduces traffic and builds our commercial basis they are okay with it. It’s ironic to him that people who consider themselves conservatives don’t look at the economics behind the developments and how it’s driving our tax bills down and it’s the model for how we build Frisco.” He then went on to talk about the challenges of the property and the topography of the area. It would be one of this council’s greatest failures if we do not allow the only piece of property with unobstructed views of the golf course to be developed into anything less than spectacular. To do that we must have blend-use projects. Mayor Cheney continued with his selling and pushing of the development and ended up talking for a little over 5 minutes.
Then Mr. Roby said at the podium he understands what it is like to knock on doors because at Stillwater we have a residential development arm called Robert Elliott Custom Homes … Stop the presses! Again, Roby calls the company behind The Link Stillwater Capital Investments and acknowledges Mr. Elliott’s residential arm as part of the company. Closing the meeting Cheney said they should table the issue, then said he thought they were all under the same understanding based on all the work sessions and meetings and it was clear he was annoyed at the council’s concerns and with the delay.
April 16, 2021, Email: Clay Roby (Stillwater) sends Cheney an email with a presentation and notes page 15 is a new slide that shows the PD adjustments they are contemplating to propose based on the meetings with the council members they had the last few weeks and he would like Cheney’s feedback. The next day Cheney responds he likes the presentation and asked what the feedback has been from the council. Clay responds the same day Bill Woodard appreciated the commitment to the trial and said SWC has his support. Brian Livingston and Dan Stricklin like the reduction in the residential units but would not commit support. They plan to meet with Shona on Thursday. They have not been able to meet with Will Sowell but anticipate he will support the project.
April 30, 2021, Email: Clay Roby (Stillwater) sends Cheney via his personal email a copy of the presentation he plans to present at the council meeting next week. He mentions they have been meeting and talking with several on the council to answer any questions from the April 6 council meeting. He mentions good feedback from most on the council, but Dan and Brian might still be on the fence. Then Clay asks Cheney if he has had a chance to discuss with anyone on the council and to let him know if they need to connect prior to the upcoming Tuesday council meeting. The funny thing is there is no response in the emails from the PIR. Why was the response back to Clay not provided? Where is it?
May 1, 2021, Email: Roby (Stillwater) sends an email to Cheney that they are working on the press release in anticipation of next week’s approval. He wanted to see if Cheney would be willing or able to provide a quote for the release. On May 3 Cheney responded absolutely he would like to help and asks if their marketing people want to write something up that he can approve so it is on message. Then he also offers something along the lines of: “The Link delivers to promise of capitalizing on the PGA and Omni Resort and Convention Center. The links delivers quality office with unobstructed views of the golf course as well as a mix of entertainment and destination dining. The large open space and trail connectivity will make the residential components highly livable. The Link is a world-class project that will maximize the energy of the PGA Frisco brand.” Should the mayor allow a third party marketing like Stillwater to write the copy for him to approve for their own marketing materials? Probably because his statement makes no sense but seriously no the Mayor should be using the city’s internal communication department. Again it is an appearance that some would consider to be a clear conflict of interest.
May 4, 2021: City Council tables The Link to May 18, 2021. During the public hearing, Clay Roby once again said he was there to speak on behalf of the project applicant and that he is the Managing Director at Stillwater Capital and is responsible for SWC mixed-use projects. Once the public hearing closed Mayor Cheney points out there a few more questions to be answered so they are tabling until the May 18 meeting.
May 18, 2021: Council Approves The Link
Roby spoke again on behalf of the applicant and the minutes produced by the city again list his company as Stillwater Capital Investments (not Stillwater Capital Woods). Mayor Cheney points out they have been talking about the project for a long time and it has been tabled a couple of times. He points out the odd shape of the land, the topography, and how this land before the PGA Frisco would have been developed into boring office space. Today we sit here discussing a billion-dollar development because of the halo effect of the PGA Frisco. This odd, shaped property is probably one of the most important zoning cases the city has ever had, and it had to be looked at in the totality of the whole region. Because of how important this project is the city has never been more demanding, more difficult to work with, and more challenging with any developer. In closing, Cheney says this is a project we should be celebrating, and he feels like we must justify making a world-class decision that will impact generations in their community. He told the developer they are excited about their project and proud to move forward with them as partners, and that we’re grateful they see Frisco as the city to invest a billion dollars in over the next 10 to 15 years. Now here is our question, does Cheney really feel citizens need him to justify the project or does Cheney feel the need to justify it because he knows the scrutiny his involvement could possibly play?
If you remember at the end of my blog, The Silicon Valley of Golf I was left pondering a few questions. Did Cheney have behind-the-scenes access to the inner workings of these 3 world-class developments since officed with Stillwater Capital and worked with The Associates? The answer is a resounding YES! Cheney clearly has had a relationship with The Associates, Robert Elliott, and Stillwater Capital since 2017. Robert Elliott was his boss (broker) and all three offices are together at The Star for several years. Moving to Monument Realty on March 22, which is 15 days before the expected vote on The Link project does not absolve him of a conflict of interest. Did he recuse himself from all conversations or meetings with developers? He stated in some of his comments that he had conversations with the developers and based on the emails clearly he did not recuse himself. Did he recuse himself from council discussions, due to his relationship with Stillwater Capital? No, he spoke at nauseum at the April 6, May 4, and May 18 council meetings. To anyone watching, it was clear his determination to help get this project approved. Is that because it was a good project, because of his relationship with the applicant, or because he had an investment in the deal? We honestly can’t determine his motivation because of the clear glaring violations that took place. Is it fair for the mayor to argue language semantics as a defense during his ethics complaint when clearly the applicant stated their name as Stillwater Capital during the approval process on record and it is listed on city minutes the say way? No, he should not be able to bend the rules to suit himself when necessary but in Cheneyville we live by his rules. Should Cheney be helping the developer with presentations and marketing materials? Should he be sharing private conversations that he has had with other council members with developers or using those conversations to help developers “win” approvals? Should Cheney be doing “city business” via his personal real estate email? No, absolutely not! When someone files a PIR does the city actually review his personal email or do they ask him to turn over documents pertaining to the request on good faith? How can he say his personal business is not a conflict when he is using it to run city business as well? The city is asking residents to “trust me” we did the right thing. Based on what we have already unloaded would you “trust the city?” Probably not, since all these things give off the perception of shady behavior.
We agree this is a project to be proud of, a project that will change Frisco forever which is a great thing. Stillwater Capital and all of those involved have done a phenomenal job in bringing this together and creating a true masterpiece. Where we disagree is Mayor Cheney’s clear and almost blaring horn-honking conflict of interest. Our concerns are ligament when our mayor is so closely connected with a project, and it is justifiable for us to ask about his relationship whether it be a friendship or business relationship. We don’t think it is out of line to say something smells like shit and up to the end there was a major conflict of interest. Trying to “CURE” a conflict just weeks before the vote for The Link should have everyone’s eyebrows raised including the city attorney unless he fell asleep. What we cannot understand is why are citizens not outraged, asking questions, standing up, and saying something is not right here. It is time for citizens and the media to ask questions and the first should be what shady shit is happening in Frisco?
Since childhood, I have loved a movie night with the family. My dad would take me to the corner store where he always got my mom a Bit-O-Honey and then he would look at me and say in his deep voice, kid you can pick a sweet treat too. I am sure I smiled ear to ear the whole way home looking out the window of the old truck with my $100,000 candy bar in my hand. Today the candy bar is called 100 Grand and I still pick one up every Friday with a quick pick lotto. In the movie Other People’s Money (1991), Lawrence Garfield said, “I love money more than the things it can buy…but what I love more than money is other people’s money.”
Our lives center around other people’s money, and we don’t even realize it. The bank owns the home until you make the last payment. The car belongs to the lender until you make the last payment. The new furniture you bought at Nebraska Furniture Mart that is financed over 24 months is not yours until the last payment. By now you see the connection, until we make the last payment the thing we love is not really ours. Politicians LOVE other people’s money because it helps pay for costly campaigns. The more campaign contributions they bring in, the less they will have to take out of their own pockets or through a loan. Political contributions are a time-honored tradition, and some would say “The Cost of Doing Business.”
In 2019, Sharon Grigsby with the Dallas Morning News did an article about Phillip Michael Carter, who was accused of taking advantage of elderly investors for million dollars, and the relationship he had with both Cheney and Keating’s campaign. Cheney received $15,000 and Keating received $5000 from Carter, both said they were returning the donations which was the right thing to do. She interviewed Cheney for about 45 minutes and Cheney told her he met Carter sometime after he became Mayor in 2017 and Carter later visited his office at City Hall about a sign-ordinance provision that was causing him difficulties at his Preston Road commercial property. Cheney said it was not unusual and most developers reach out to the mayor and ask for help. Cheney confirmed he helped resolve the issue but was steadfast that the 2018 campaign contribution was not tied to that case and said, “there was never a this for that.”
Cheney also told Grigsby that his “reputation is everything to me.” He regrets not looking deeper into the allegations but he is “so busy every single day, from sunup to sundown to the weekends.” The article goes on to say Cheney first learned of Carter’s state charges and arrest relating to fraud charges on November 14, 2018. He immediately linked the $5000 donation from Carter but said he had completely forgotten about the entire case until he began reviewing his campaign finance reports in anticipation of his interview with Grigsby. He admitted in the interview much of what Grigsby was laying out in regard to charges was news to him. The article was riveting but it never discussed the timeline between his donations and when the “issue” got fixed so we did some research.
May 24, 2018: Cheney $10,000 by Carter Family Office LLC (Phillip Carter)
October 10, 2018: Cheney $5,000 by North Forty Development (Phillip Carter)
October 15, 2018: Keating $5000 by Texas Cash Cow (Phillip Carter)
October 23, 2018: P&Z holds a public hearing for Sign Variance: Preston Wade Crossing by Frisco Wade Crossing Development Partners, LLC (Phillip Carter)
**Interesting fact the P&Z Commission in 2018 was led by Robert Cox who was appointed to the Commission in April 2016 with the first motion by John Keating and second by then councilman Jeff Cheney.
January 2019: SEC Files Charges against Phillip Carter for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme that took place from May 2015 to Feb 2017 and totaled around $45 million dollars and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
In 2019, Frisco’s population according to the US Census was about 200,907 people. It is hard to believe that someone who is the mayor of a booming and bustling town and also an extremely successful businessman could just “forget” about a fraud case that involved a real estate developer and millions of dollars. At the time it was plastered in local DFW papers and the top story on most local news stations. To be fair, Cheney and Keating accepted a campaign donation and nothing illegal occurred. They were never named in allegations that involved Phillip Carter and both returned the donations. Again, this is just another situation that “doesn’t look good” and could lead many to believe that something improper was happening, even if it wasn’t. That old perception is reality for many folks is a stinker.
Another thing we learned from Grigsby’s March 2019 DMN article was Cheney’s personal policy of not accepting more than $10,000 from a single donor when it comes to campaign contributions. I am not sure when that became his policy because he accepted $20,000 in 2017 plus $6000 in 2020 from Ali Kahla who we believe was a representative for IGO-USA, The Gate developer. I guess he also must have been ridiculously busy and forgot his personal policy almost 9 months after his interview with Grigsby and the article because in 2020 he accepted $15,000 from Fehmi Karahan (Fields). Again, we want to say there is nothing illegal about the donations (we don’t want to be sued) other than they seem to break his personal policy. I guess it is good to have a flexible policy that benefits you when needed.
Philip Anthony Hopkins who played Odin in the movie Thor said, “Even with two eyes, you can only see half of the picture.” If that is true, then we should all go to the Ophthalmologist to get our eyes checked out. The problem is repetition, the action of repeating something that you have already done or the recurrence of an action or event. The repetition of “it just looks bad” starts to become a theme and that can have a detrimental impact on the citizen’s perception of you and the city. The conversation becomes about the lack of trust and confidence in our city, the city council members, and our mayor.
Dark Money is a powerful documentary by Kimberley Reed about a dangerously corrupt campaign finance system that has shifted the power in politics from the people to pay-to-play corporations at the state and federal politicians. In Texas, Title 15 of the election code regulates political funds and campaigns. It was adopted by the Texas Ethics Commission and applies to candidates and officeholders in local municipalities across our state. In Texas, campaign finance reports are accessible to the public and show how much money is coming into a campaign and how much is being spent. The Texas Tribune said it best, the disclosure of the reports makes it hard to hide some kind of corrupt bargain. An individual can make a donation to a campaign, but a corporation is prohibited. The City of Frisco has campaign finance reports available online at https://www.friscotexas.gov/634/Campaign-Finance-Reports for each candidate or office holder present or past. You can also see mayor and council reimbursement reports.
I was interested to see if any individuals associated with the PGA, The Link, or Fields projects donated to any of our current sitting city council members. While doing the research it has hard to be sure a specific individual is connected to a specific project but my wife and I did our best to try and piece it together. We listed it by date, candidate, amount, the person who donated & possible association up through the year-end of 2021. The donation date, dollar amount, and donor name came directly from the council member’s campaign finance reports. The “possible association” to the project is based on what we could find from news articles, websites, city council meetings, and online research.
3/29/17 Cheney $2000 from John Wagner (Republic Property Group) – Fields
3/29/17 Cheney $1000 from John Wagner (Republic Property Group) – Fields
3/29/17 Cheney $2000 from Anthony Ruggeri (Republic Property Group) – Fields
December 4, 2018 – City Council Approves PGA
1/14/19 Woodard $750 from Chris Kleinert (Hunt Corp)
1/14/19 Woodard $750 from Michael Sinacola (Mario Sinacola & Sons – Excavating)
1/14/19 Woodard $500 from Jeff Brawner (Grogan & Brawner PC) Fields Karahan Atty
7/28/21 Woodard $500 from Jeff Brawner (Grogan & Brawner) Fields Attorneys
7/30/21 Woodard $2000 from Philip Rose (CrossTie Capital) Fields Investor
8/1/21 Woodard $1500 from Fehmi Karahan (Karahan Co) Fields
8/6/21 Woodard $1000 from Colin Fitzgibbons (Hunt Corp) Landowner
What did we learn as we followed the yellow brick road? First, we looked for donations that occurred within a few months of a vote. For example, Woodard received almost $4500 dollars in campaign contributions from individuals with connections to these projects in January 2019. That was just one month after the city council approved the PGA. While it doesn’t look good to get donations so close to a vote it could be justified as he was running for re-election in the May 2019 general election.
The same could be said for Mayor Cheney who in December 2020 received $5000 from Robert Elliott of Stillwater Capital and then in January 2020 received $30,000 + in campaign contributions from individuals associated with these projects. Most of the donations occurred between 1/27/20 to 1/31/20. The largest donor was Fehmi Karahan with $15,000. Then the city council approved the Fields project in March 2020. Cheney did run for re-election in 2020 unopposed so the public could justify the contributions. In general, it is not a good look but that will be up to the public to decide.
Another important “hot” race in 2020 was between Robert Cox, Dan Stricklin, and Laura Rummel. With them being all new candidates, why was this important? Robert Cox was Chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission for the City of Frisco in 2020. While he did not vote on the decision he did oversee the committee which approved the Fields project on February 25, 2020. After the vote, he received about $45,000 in campaign contributions before the November 2020 election. The general public has to determine if it looks bad or is justifiable since he was running for council.
Keating & Livingston also has the same dilemma. From the end of March 2021 to July 2021 John Keating received around $14000 from individuals associated with these developments. The vote for the Link was expected to be in April 2021 but it was held over until May 2021. One would say the timing does not look good for Keating, but he was running in the May 2021 General Election. Livingston received around $6000 in September 2019 which was six months after a vote and 6 months before the next vote. No votes occurred in the immediate proximity to the timing of his donations which bodes well for him.
In a previous blog, I wrote “Pretend for a moment, everything is above board, and there is no shady shit happening but there is an appearance of wrongdoing, that appearance is just as important as reality in the minds of the public, citizens, and voters.” Frisco residents are calling for transparency and that is not an unreasonable request of those “WE” elect to office. Council members push their own personal agenda, and it is time they listen to what “WE” the citizens want. I learned that looking at campaign donations can show who is invested in certain candidates. Donations are not a sign of any wrongdoing or illegal activity, but they can create doubt or a perceived conflict of interest. It is a fine line between a simple campaign donation and a pay-to-play scheme or dark money. Matlock would say to look at it from another angle. Pretend a project is not popular with residents so they speak out against it and the council votes to pass the project. Several months later we find out that the candidate had accepted thousands of dollars from individuals involved in said project, would you believe the candidate voted for it because that is what was best for the city and residents or because they got paid? Residents should call for an end to the shady shit and ask the City of Frisco to adopt a similar policy to the City of Plano which states a campaign contribution of more than $1,000 to any city council member(s) shall create a conflict of interest based on an appearance of impropriety. Problem Solved and peace of mind for everyone!
Rain, rain go away, come again some other day! Many were hoping and wishing for that back on August 22, 2022. The metroplex had a few days of intense rain and the overcast sky gave off a humble gray tone. By mid-morning to everyone’s delight a glorious glow from the sun appeared from behind the two-tone gray moving clouds. This was going to be a monumental day for Frisco as the PGA of America unveiled its new $33.5 million dollar headquarters. Along with the new headquarters, Forbes Magazine reports the 600-acre campus will include two 18-hole courses, Fields Ranch East and Fields Ranch West, plus The Swing, a 10-hole, par-3 short course.
There is no doubt the PGA was an extraordinary WIN-WIN for Frisco. It was reported that the deal included a $90 Million abatement, which means the PGA won’t pay property taxes for at least two decades. The economic impact is expected to be $2.5 BILLION over the next 20 years for North Texas according to a State of Texas study. PGA President Jim Richerson said, “the new HQ will be a first-of-its-kind golf laboratory that offers the best in professional development for our nearly 28,000 PGA professionals.” The big draw for the PGA was the opportunity to create a destination instead of the standard office development.
Surrounding the PGA campus will be the Omni PGA Resort which Texas Monthly reports will be the second largest resort in Texas at a cost of $520 million. A pedestrian promenade will link the PGA to its neighbor, The Link, a $1 Billion-dollar mixed-use development featuring office space, dining options, and green park space. The 240-acre master-planned project is the brainchild of Dallas-based investor/developer Stillwater Capital.
The entire project is nothing short of extraordinary and I wanted to know how did it end up in Sports City USA? I found an amazing article by LocalProfile.com that talked about how in 2014 a local dad convinced The PGA to move to North Texas. David Ovard’s two sons had a natural talent for golf but there were a limited number of courses available for teen boys to practice. He felt like Sports City USA forgot one major sport, Golf! It started with a napkin, some connections to important people, and a father’s determination to give his two boys and other teens a chance to achieve their golf dreams. I was stunned to learn that one man had the idea and the golf drive (a long-distance shot) to make it happen.
I had no idea the project dated back to 2014 or that the first visit by a PGA official to tour sites was in 2015. In 2017 city officials and local movers and shakers traveled to North Carolina for a championship PGA event to talk with PGA officials. The turning point was in 2018 when Omni Hotels & Resorts, local Dallas-based developer & investor Stillwater Capital, and Woods Capital came together and committed to the project. This commitment is what helped to solidify an amazing win for so many.
Stillwater Capital is a co-owner in PGA Frisco today and is owned by Robert Elliott. In reading several articles that name stuck out to me. Elliott also owns a full-service real estate brokerage called The Associates which was formed in July 2016. While sitting in my favorite lazy-boy recliner, I glanced at a timeline I had written on a little notepad with my old teeth-marked pencil (old habit) sitting on the side table. In November 2017, just a few months after that official visit to North Carolina, Cheney’s Real Estate Group joined The Associates, owned by Robert Elliott. Based on that relationship, Cheney had to file affidavits to recuse himself from discussions in executive session. Filing the affidavit was 100% the right thing to do! There was one thing that puzzled me, did the new relationship give Cheney behind-the-scenes access to these 3 world-class developments since he shared an office with Stillwater Capital and worked with The Associates? Did he recuse himself as Mayor from all conversations or meetings with developers and did he recuse himself from council discussions, due to his relationship with Stillwater Capital? What is the city’s policy when it comes to conflicts of interest? What is the State of Texas policies when it comes to politicians and potential conflicts of interest?
There is one thing for certain, after the Win-Win of the PGA the goal to become Sports City USA was complete. Its fantastic for local residents, businesses, future teen pro golfers and for the City of Frisco and the State of Texas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.” One of the driving forces behind human discovery is curiosity. What if Galileo never bothered to look through his telescope? He would have never observed celestial bodies proving that there were objects in space. A person’s curiosity to look at something and then want to know the story behind it is what changed the world thousands of times. I am no Galileo, but my curiosity is what drives me to investigate to find the truth.
For years drivers along the DNT, Panther Creek and 380 roadways wondered “what will these fields develop into one day?” I don’t think Frisco residents ever expected 3 world-class developments centered around the PGA & Golf. There is no doubt about it, the deal is a win-win for Frisco and its residents. The portion that intrigued me was Fields, a 2100-acre master-planned community. Plans for villages (neighborhoods) and a network of trails built around the natural topography sound brilliant! It soon became clear with the Cheney Group announcement of being the Fields experts, that he had access to information, homesites, and builder information before anyone else in real estate and that was a red flag for me.
I am not the first to ask questions or have the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Take a moment and browse social media and you will see residents ask questions in regard to Cheney profiting personally from his position as Mayor. In May of 2018, Texas Scorecard released an article by Ross Kecseg asking will the Mayor profit from the PGA deal. On June 25, 2018, Texas Scorecard writer Ross Kecseg released another article regarding the Frisco mayor lashing out at PGA deal coverage and that he has threatened to sue Texas Scorecard to uncover their sources. The articles questioned the conflict between Stillwater Capital, The Associates and the closely tied relationship to Cheney.
In going through documents from a PIR request, I came across a series of emails. The first email was August 1, 2019 and it was written to Mayor Cheney from Holly McCall, Admin Assistant to the Mayor & Council. It reads On Thu, Aug 1, 2019 at 11:23 AM Holly McCall wrote: Mayor Cheney, A gentleman named John Baumgarten, from (redacted) (investors group), came by the office this morning to invite you to attend a dinner on Sept. 10 at 6 pm at Del Frisco’s, Legacy West. Beau Welling plans to speak about building golf courses, including the PGA project. They would love for you to participate in a Q&A at the end if you are willing. Mr. Baumgarten says this is a group (of @ 25 investors) with an interest in golfing and the PGA Project, and that they “are not selling or promoting anything.” They have also invited some of the Omni Group and Joe Trahan from Channel 8. John Baumgarten Principal, Private Wealth Management
The same day at 10:13 pm, Lorie Medina who was known as Mayor Cheney’s Chief of Staff responded. It’s important to note that Lorie Medina was not a city employee, she was paid by the Mayor $5000 a month from his campaign.
On Aug 1, 2019, 10:13 PM -0500, Lorie Medina , wrote: Would you like me to ask Jon McCary about this firm? This could be a good discussion since we are trying to attract VCs and PE firms to Frisco for Inspire Frisco. Also, it might be good to include him at the meeting, if possible.
VC standards for Venture Capital Firm and they invest in industry startups and PE stands for Private Equity Firm and they buy companies and overhaul them to earn a profit. Capital for investments comes from outside investors. Inspire Frisco helps to build a network for Frisco entrepreneurs.
August 2nd the Mayor replies from his Cheney Group personal email where he was a Broker Associate with The Associates Realty and it reads On Fri, Aug 2, 2019 at 12:58 PM Jeff Cheney wrote: Would love his input if he thinks it’s a worthwhile use of time. I do not normally want to kill an entire evening unless necessary. Jeff Cheney, CPA Broker Associate The Associates Realty One Cowboys Way Frisco, Tx 75034 www.CheneyGroup.com
Were the emails a big deal? We didn’t think so until we hit another email sent from John Baumgarten to Jeff Cheney on September 11, 2019. It reads
From: “Baumgarten, John” Date: September 11, 2019 at 11:24:14 AM CDT To: Jeff Cheney JCheney@friscotexas.gov Subject: B & B dinner
Jeff, Cannot thank you enough for carving out some time for us last night and sharing the history and vision of this spectacular project. Congratulations for putting this audacious project together. As a small token of my appreciation, I would love to make a donation to a charity that is connected to this project – let me know what you suggest. I would also like to get on the unofficial lot list – let me know what is involved in that. Thank you again. Maybe we can host another event as we get closer to the next phase being completed. Again, thank you for participating. My guests really enjoyed it based on the early feedback. John
To understand why this email is important you must rewind to the Facebook post on 10/13/22 where the Cheney Group announced they had been working on somethingspecial for the last year. They were excited to announce the Cheney Group team were the Fields Experts and that The Preserve at PGA was teeing off and lots were going fast. The Perry Mason in me had some serious questions.
First, the email above was from 2019 and John asked how to get on the unofficial lot list mentioned at the dinner and what was involved in that. What unofficial lot list and were these lots for the Preserve village? Was Mr. Cheney the only one with access to sell these lots? How many of the unofficial lots were sold prior to the public announcement lots were available? The post said his group had been working for the last year, but the emails were from 2019 so did he work on it for more than a year?
Second, John also mentions making a donation to a charity connected to the project and we safely assumed he meant the PGA/Fields project. We were surprised that Mr. Cheney forwarded that to Lorie Medina to ask her thoughts. She responded with how about we send him to www.giveforfrisco.com and he can pick a charity of his choice. Wait a minute! Was the donation part of getting on that unofficial lot list? Was there an expectation that if a donation was made the person would have more access to the unofficial lot list? The fact that he forwarded the email to Lorie asking for her thoughts, does that display his willingness to accept a donation?
Third, the thank you email was sent to the mayor’s official email address. However, we did not see a response to it! Does that mean the mayor never responded to the gentleman’s two questions? Does it mean he replied through his private email since he knew any communication could be a public record? To give the benefit of the doubt, we are going to assume it was not included since it was out outside of the scope of the PIR.
Truth and Transparency are what residents want and it seems like we always moving in circles without an end or satisfactory answer. The emails by themselves seem like little concern but the emails as a whole have very shady implications. Even if nothing wrong took place, the appearance of impropriety is enough to cause doubt that shady shit is happening in Frisco.
I remember as a teenager sitting around the living room with my family once a week to tune in to our favorite family show Murder She Wrote. Jessica Fletcher played by Dame Angela Lansbury was not cocky, but she did know her own skills. She knew to ask questions when she didn’t understand something and how to rely on others who may have the expertise in an area she didn’t. My favorite thing she used to say episode after episode was “Now, I may be wrong, but frankly, I doubt it.” She taught me to be curious and to ask questions which is why once my interest was peaked I could not stop diving into what I believe is the Shady Shit happening in Frisco.
As I said in my last blog I had all these questions about how Mayor Jeff Cheney could represent Fehmi’s Fields lots and advocate for Universal at the same time. In my humble opinion, there is a clear conflict of interest and that made me want to deep dive into Fields. To start, you must understand that the PGA, The Link, and Fields are 3 separate world-class developments, but one would not have happened without the other. Hunt is who identified and purchased the 2544 acres of land on the DNT. Hunt has partnered with Stillwater Capital to do the PGA and The Link. Hunt then announced its partnership with Fehmi Karahan (Legacy West Developer) to do the Fields West development. Fields website states it will be home to restaurants, businesses, ten thousand homes, schools, parks, and open spaces. It will also be home to the PGA headquarters and the University of North Texas.
Now we have identified two players in the Fields project: Hunt Realty Investments and Fehmi Karahan. The investors are Chief Partners and CrossTie Capital, and the development team is led by KDC Architects. Home builders will include Darling / Taylor Morrison, Britton / Perry, Highland Homes, Olivia Clarke, Shaddock Homes, Toll Brothers, and several more custom home builders. Mario Sinecola & Sons will probably be doing the excavating and FCS Trucking will also be involved. In a nutshell, there are a lot of players in the overall project. So how does Jeff Cheney fit into this?
Let’s follow the social media trail. On October 13, 2022, the Cheney Group announced The Preserve at PGA was teeing off. It went on to read the Cheney Group would be the Fields Experts. Just days later October 16th the Cheney Group released a video with Jeff Cheney presenting all things PGA. You can check it out on the Cheney Group YouTube Channel. On October 17th Jeff Cheney led Monument Realty’s Roadmap 2023 event where they shared tips and tricks with top agents. The same day on social media the Cheney Group released a video of the Championship Holes 14 & 15 the Preserve lots overlooking them. On October 19th they announced they just got their hands on the first set of floor plans for Brookside South at PGA and they had several more upcoming builder meetings planned and could not wait to fill us in! Fast forward to Nov 2nd Capital Title hosted a knowledge session for Realtors in North Texas at Stonebriar Country Club led by Jeff Cheney. On Nov 8th they meet with architects involved at The Preserve to learn about the level of standards they would be bringing to the Preserve. We could keep going but I think you get the idea!
Just following the social media trail, we are left with several questions. Does the Cheney Group have an exclusive to the lots? If so, is that because they are a top-producing team or because Cheney is mayor, and when was the deal made? The Monument Realty Roadmap Show was that for Monument agents only or were other agents outside the brokerage invited? How did other brokerages in DFW learn about the PGA’s future homesites? Did other brokerages get to have exclusive sit-downs with the architects? Can any agent go out to the 14th and 15th holes and take photos of The Preserve homesites overlooking the course? Did other brokers and agents get their hands on the floor plans the same day as the Cheney Group or after? The Capital Title knowledge session that was held for local realtors, was the Fields representatives, home builders, and developers there, or was this led by Mayor Jeff Cheney or Jeff Cheney of the Cheney Group? It makes me curious, why are other agents and brokerages not outraged by the exclusive access Cheney seems to have?
Just the other day I visited my favorite coffee shop and two agents sitting next to me were talking in low whispers about how they felt it was a massive conflict of interest that the Cheney Group has an exclusive. I wanted to jump up and say, me too but I didn’t. I just sat quietly with my head tilted back reading the paper and listening to them vent their frustrations. I don’t fully understand if Cheney has an exclusive right to these lots but it is clear that the Cheney Group has a leg up on any other brokerage or realtor when it comes to the PGA which is one of the most notable developments to hit North Texas. If the Cheney Group does have an exclusive and he is profiting from his position and connections as Mayor then an argument could be made there is a serious conflict of interest and Mr. Cheney should recuse himself from all talks, votes, well anything that has to do with Fields West.
Someone told me once “It would be better for us to have some doubts in an honest pursuit of truth than it would be for us to be certain about something that was not true.” So in my search for transparency, and the need to know the truth, I decided to file a PIR to obtain more information. That is where I found some shady shit!
It started like any other January day residents across Frisco woke up and started getting ready to take on a new day. I stepped out of the shower and could hear the morning newscaster on the television giving the traffic report followed by the weather. The deep voice said, prepare for the warmest January day since 2009 because today we should hit a high of 83 degrees. Texans generally joke about how we hit all four seasons in one day. Winter starts at 6 am, spring starts at 10 am, summer is at 2 pm and fall starts around 5:30 pm.
Midmorning sitting at my desk I get a notification that Visit Frisco has gone live on their Facebook page so of course I tune in to see what is going on. Standing behind a podium is Mayor Jeff Cheney announcing all the officials and guests in attendance. He then goes on to quote Dr. Seuss and says “One Fish, Two Fish, Frisco has a new wish and that is to welcome Universal Studios and Universal Kids to Frisco, Texas.” I was thinking about why would we want a theme park, where would it go, and how did this development come about. Mark Woodbury, Chairman & CEO of Universal Parks & Resorts, share a rendering of a bright and colorful theme park geared towards young children with a hotel featuring 300 rooms. Page Thompson, President of New Ventures for Universal announced they just purchased land 97 acres east of the DNT and north of Panther Creek Parkway in the Fields development. Mayor Jeff Cheney takes his position back at the podium to thank Fehmi Karahan of Fields and Karahan Properties as well as Hunt Real Estate who brought PGA here and is now bringing Universal Theme Parks.
In my head, I was thinking how did this dynasty development come about? The response on social media was swift and it soon became clear not all Frisconians were pleased about the park’s announcement. Weeks went by and I passively watched everything play out online and at city meetings. The key message being communicated by our mayor was how excited everyone was to welcome universal, and how the project had been fully vetted by the city and council. The key message from residents, they didn’t want the park. I was just intrigued by how much our Mayor was trying to sell the project to residents and news channels, and how he advocated relentlessly for the development.
Then one night while sitting in my recliner, I remembered back in October a post that I had seen from The Cheney Group that said his agents have been working on something very special for over a year now. They were excited to announce The Preserve at PGA is about to tee off and if someone was interested in building their own custom home reach out to them asap. He talked about early interest being historic levels and how they were the Fields Experts. My golf buddy in real estate around that same time was pretty upset telling me that The Cheney Group had snagged the exclusive to list The Preserve homesites. He even showed me an alluring glossy mailer that he had received in the mail from The Cheney Group. The front talked about the residential communities of PGA, living at Fields with renderings of the development. It had an attractive picture of The Cheney Group in front of the Fields boxes we see along the feeder road of the DNT. The back talked about Fields West, from the visionary behind Legacy West referring to Fehmi Karahan and new communities The Preserve and Brookside.
Growing up I always wanted to be like Perry Mason, Matlock, or Remington Steele probably because of my curious nature. It is that curious nature that leads me to ask how can The Cheney Group be the exclusive Fields Experts and now Jeff Cheney, acting as Mayor is advocating for Universal? Fehmi spoke twice at the February 7th, Special Meeting of the P&Z Commission and City Council meeting on behalf of Universal, so it is clear he has a personal interest in seeing Universal go through as it will be a part of the overall Fields project. I am no legal eagle, but I would think that if The Cheney Group is in any way financially benefiting from representing The Preserve for Fehmi Karahan which is part of the Fields Development then Jeff Cheney should recuse himself from any development talk regarding Fields and Universal as it is part of the same overall project.
My curiosity had me wondering, is that why when several residents showed up to a city council meeting to speak at citizens input he responded to each of them like he was selling the features and benefits of the Universal theme park. Am I the only one who feels like the mayor is trying to sell this project so hard to the public? Am I the only one with these questions or think they may be a reason to be concerned? Am I the only one who thinks something feels shady about it? It goes back to that little word transparency, and the perception or appearance of a conflict of interest.
After the council ruled on the complaints at the July 2021 council meeting, a resident came forward at the August 3, 2021, council meeting to speak during citizens’ input requesting an independent ethics committee. Mayor Cheney responded to the citizen announcing the Governance Committee would be meeting later that month to review the current ethics policy and the citizen was welcome to attend and speak at that meeting. He then said when it was first put in place that the city attorney told them it could be used as a political weapon against council members. Then Ms. Rouse took the podium and spoke and Mayor Cheney responded to her red faced and with beady little eyes, that the city did not need to hear her complaints because they were not filled out correctly but he insisted they be heard because he wanted them dismissed since they were not factual and ridiculous.
It made us wonder, what do other cities do? The City of Denton has a Board of Ethics which was created in 2018 and their duty is to solely hear ethics complaints filed against city officials. The city website thoroughly details the policy, procedures, and forms. The City of Plano is much like Frisco in how they hear ethics complaints. One interesting thing to note about their Code is Sec 2-109 which states the acceptance of a campaign contribution in excess of $1,000 by any city council member(s) shall create a conflict of interest based on an appearance of impropriety. In a nutshell that means they must recuse themselves from votes that could benefit anyone who gave more than $1,000 to their campaigns. The City of Dallas strengthened its code of ethics policies in 2021 and all complaints go before the Dallas’ Ethics Advisory Commission whose 15 members are appointed by the council. We were surprised to see most cities have the same process as Frisco when it is clear there are major conflicts of interest involved.
Now that you understand the process, and we broke down one of the complaints, it is time to talk about a few reasons why the ethics policy is bogus.
Reason 1: Relationship Conflicts
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s interests such as family, friendships, financial or social factors could compromise his or her judgment, actions, or decisions. In this case, several conflicts of interest led to the whole process being bogus.
If one of the fellow council members is indirectly linked to the issue then how could they vote on it? In this case, indirectly, Angelia Pelham was named in the complaint. The mayor campaigned for her, held fundraisers for her just months before the vote, and the alleged allegation in question is related to a post about her. While Angelia is not accused of anything in the ethics complaint, and we don’t believe she had any knowledge of the mayor’s actions or what he planned to post she is indirectly connected to the complaint. One could argue that she could not be impartial and should recuse herself.
To have a council member vote against another council member whom they have served next to for some time and could be friends with smells like shit. The whole thing is questionable and creates an appearance of impropriety.
One of the ethics complaints that evening was against Councilman John Keating for his alleged poor public display of public behavior. For Cheney to vote on Keating and then Keating to vote on Cheney, how is the public supposed to think they don’t have a gentleman’s agreement to not vote against each other? Let’s also take into consideration they are neighbors, literally right next door/across the street from each other in the same cul-de-sac.
Reason 2: Campaign Donations
Did you know that for years those who serve on the council have donated to each other’s campaigns? Some more than others but this is a time-honored tradition based on our review of campaign finance reports.
John Keating over the years has donated $3500 to Mayor Jeff Cheney’s campaign, he also donated 477 dollars to himself, he donated $7000 to Angelia Pelham’s campaign,, $1000 to Bill Woodard’s campaign, and $1500 to Laura Rummel’s campaign. Oh yeah, let’s not also forget Jeff Cheney and John Keating are neighbors (in the same cul-de-sac).
Jeff Cheney along with his wife held a fundraiser for Angelia Pelham that was valued at $1556 bucks according to the campaign finance report as well as he publicly supported her during her election. Dana Cheney also donated 250 dollars to John Keating’s campaign.
Bill Woodard donated $200 to John Keating’s campaign and according to his campaign finance reports he received a $100 donation in 2016 $100 from someone with the last name Abernathy. Is that the same person who serves as the City Attorney? We don’t know but it left us wondering.
Will Sowell donated $450 to Jeff Cheney’s campaign, and $100 to Bill Woodard’s campaign.
Brian Livingston donated $265 to Jeff Cheney’s campaign as a (food expense) and $500 to Laura Rummel’s campaign.
Shona Huffman donated $100 to John Keating’s campaign.
With campaign finance donations going back and forth between candidates, there is no way the council could claim to be impartial. Money flowing between candidates should be an immediate reason for recusal. To one on the outside looking in a donation could be equivalent to a gift. It could also be seen as reciprocal favor where there is an understanding with another person that official action will be rewarded directly or indirectly. Regardless of the amount, a donation should automatically be a reason for recusal.
Reason 3: The City Attorney
You are wondering, what the city attorney has to do with it being bogus? The city attorney works for the city and his goal is to protect the city. That means he advises them of the merit of the complaint and provides a written report describing the nature of the complaint and an assessment of the complaint. What could influence the city attorney in how he does his job or the decisions he makes? You know that thing you call a yearly review – where your company grades you on your performance which ultimately can affect your pay or your employment. The city council and the mayor write the attorney’s yearly review every year. That could influence anyone on how they do their job and the decisions they make.
All residents want is transparency which is important when there is a perceived conflict of interest. Pretend for a moment, everything is above board, and there is no shady shit happening but there is an appearance of wrongdoing, that appearance is just as important as reality in the minds of the public, citizens, and voters.
A resident should not need an attorney to file a complaint against an elected official that was voted into office by the residents. The city should have the City Charter, Code of Conduct, and how-to instructions easily available on the website. It should be easy to obtain all the necessary forms from the city secretary’s office. Calling for a review of the Ethics Policy after complaints were made, gives the appearance of being shady. The city should also consider adopting something similar to Plano, which states a campaign contribution in excess of $1,000 to any city council member(s) shall create a conflict of interest based on an appearance of impropriety. Meaning Jeff Cheney and others on the council would have to recuse themselves from voting on developments where they have received large campaign contributions from those associated with the project. That would be a game-changer rule in Frisco and not one that you would see many on the council voting for anytime soon.
The conflicts mentioned above are glaring red flags and the residents of Frisco should be outraged. We recommend you file your complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission or the Texas Attorney General because it is clear your voice of concern is not welcome in Frisco and that is some shady shit!
What is the Public Information Act and what is a Public Information Request? Well, the Texas Public Information Act assures that government entities give citizens access to information about what the public servants are doing on their behalf. It is a way for citizens to hold their public officials accountable. The Public Information Act Handbook can be found on the Texas Attorney General’s website and lays out the “how-to” to do open record requests.
In Frisco, many of our city council members and mayor use their personal devices (cell phones) to communicate so the question becomes what is “public information” and what is subject to the act? If information was made, transmitted, maintained, or received in connection with a governmental body’s official business, the mere fact that the governmental body does not possess the information does not take the information outside the scope of the Act. Emails or text messages sent via personal email and personal devices if related to city business are subject to the act. Why is this important in Frisco? Several of our council members use their personal devices and personal emails regularly to conduct city business. When a request comes in, the city sends it to the individuals named and say do you have anything related to this PIR, if so please send it to us. It allows for dishonesty, if you don’t want someone to see an email you can simply not send it. It’s the Honor Code system.
In the ethics complaint we reviewed, Cheney wrote in his social media post “As a leader of a council that upholds transparency and full disclosure, I will provide them here without edit as they would appear in our official city records” so we decided to investigate the official record and his claims. We filed a PIR that read:
Per Cheney’s Facebook Post (Account: Mayor Jeff Cheney) dated May 25, 2021, he admits to sending an email posing a simple question to senior members of our Frisco City Staff: “In the runoff race which Place 3 candidates have asked to meet with you?” Each staff member was questioned separately using electronic media making their response part of the official city record and subject to public information requests. Based on that post I would like the following communications from May 23, 2021 – May 26, 2021 :
1. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and City Manager George Purefoy
2. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Police Chief David Shilson
3. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Fire Chief Mark Piland
4. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Henry Hill, Deputy City Mgr
5. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Ben Brezina, Asst City Mgr
6. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Jason Cooley, Ph.D. – Chief Information Officer
7. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Ron Patterson, President Frisco Economic Development Corporation
8. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Marla Roe, Executive Director Visit Frisco
9. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and John Lettellier, Director of Development Services
10. All Electronic Media communications (including email, text, Facebook/Facebook messenger from Mayor Jeff Cheney’s official account) and Paul Knippel, Director of Public Works
The response to our PIR was 7 pages, the first 2 were a copy of the post from his page and the remaining pages contained 4 text messages between the mayor and 4 senior staff members. Problem #1 it appears we received an incomplete PIR request from the city. So where are the remaining 6 text message communications? Problem #2 Cheney quoted Marla Roe, Executive Director Visit Frisco on his social media post as saying “Just Angelia. Had a great conversation. Henry was there.” However, after receiving our PIR Marla Roes actual statement via text said, “Just Angelia. Had a great conversation. Henry was there. Will say Jennifer stopped by my house and I told her I worked for the city. Not much else. With Angelia was via teams FYI.” Why is this important, he left out that the other candidate had interacted with the city employee. One via door knocking and one via Microsoft Teams. Does not seem like a big deal but when it comes to transparency – it is a very big deal!
We want to believe our elected officials are good people, honest people, and forthcoming. The truth is we don’t know and that is why the act is so important because it allows us that transparency. Transparency should never be based on the honor system. Not everyone is honorable! That is how they can hide the shady shit!
In 2021 several Ethics Complaints were filed by residents involving those who serve on the city council. One of those complaints was filed by Frisco resident Ms. Rouse and was against Mayor Jeff Cheney. It alleged that the mayor used his city email for political campaign purposes to support then-candidate Angelia Pelham. It pointed to a Facebook post by the Mayor on May 25, 2021, where he states he asked each senior member of city staff, “In the runoff race which Place 3 candidates have asked to meet with you?” He then proceeded to publicly publish the responses in a Pro Angelina endorsement on his official Mayor Jeff Cheney Facebook page.
Review of Mayor Jeff Cheney’s Sworn Response:
Mayor Cheney states in his sworn response that the complaint does not comply with the requirements for filing a complaint and that Ms. Rouse did not provide a statement of facts but instead offered her statement of opinions, assumptions, and allegations, and none were not supported by facts or evidence. FACT: First Exhibit A, Ms. Rouse pointed directly to the mayor’s post on May 25, 2021, which that acknowledges on May 24th he used electronic media and sent a message to every senior staff member and then published their names and answers to his question.
Second, he proceeds to state that none of the responses were a result of his city email (he texted them) so that part was factually false. TRUE: He texted senior staff and her reference in the complaint was he used city email. OPINION: One could argue the mayor tried to mislead the public in his social media post when he says he sent it via electronic communication because most would assume that he alluding to email.
On his social media post, he notes that any city staff response is part of the official city record and subject to Public Information Requests. In his written sworn response, he noted that he was not asking any of the senior staff to support a candidate. TRUE: His social media post is correct in that Senate Bill 933 & 944 states work-related text messages sent by public officials (the mayor to senior staff) are a matter of public record even if sent from their own personal device or outside work hours. OPINION: He said he was not asking them to support a candidate, but he did not explain why he was asking the question. So the senior staff had no idea if it was a personal question if he was asking for city purposes, and/or asking on behalf of his position as Mayor. The mayor did not tell them ahead of time he was going to use them in a social media post where he intended to support a candidate. Had he been upfront with city staff about his intentions they may not have chosen to respond to his text.
Third, he states in his response that the complaint on its face does not state a violation of the ethics laws. FACT: Ms. Rouse in the third paragraph of her complaint stated the section and specific portion of the City Ethics Code she believed the Mayor had violated (Sections 6, 7, 8, and 9). OPINION: Now we are common folk and no legal eagle but upon review, it is our opinion the Mayor most definitely violated Section 7 of the City Code of Ethics Section A (1) which talks about influencing subordinates and states a city official shall not directly or indirectly, induce or attempt to induce any subordinate of the Official to participate in an election campaign or to engage in any political activity related to a candidate or issue. Also, it is our opinion he violated Section 8 of the city code of ethics which states a city official shall now knowingly assist or induce or attempt to assist or induce another city official to violate any provision of the Code of Ethics.
In the mayor’s sworn response to the complaint, he said citizens were asking him if city staff had met with any of the candidates and argued they had the right to know. OPINION: He is partially correct, and he should have told each resident they can file a Public Information Request (PIR) requesting that information from city staff, city management, and the city council. However, say 5, 10, or even 100 citizens asked that question it does not mean the mayor should use that in a campaign support message for a candidate. He did not post these responses in an FYI public information message. He published these responses in a political endorsement for Angelia Pelham on his OFFICIAL MAYOR JEFF CHENEY Facebook page where he tagged the OFFICIAL Facebook page for Angelia Pelham for Frisco and in the last sentence he says make your voice heard, vote Angelia.
Going back and watching the city video for this meeting, Cheney read the agenda item and then made a few statements. Cheney started by saying the complaints should have facts, not allegations, and he denied any wrongdoing. He also stated it does not allege facts sufficient to constitute a violation of the ethics policy. Then he recused himself and Bill Woodard, Mayor Pro Tem took over. They received advice from the city attorney, opened the public hearing for citizens’ comments, then some of the council gave feedback. One member of the council noted that any complaint should have contained a sworn affidavit and that she needed to have a lawyer help her. Then Bill Woodard (Mayor Pro Tem) said “I know every member up here has spent a significant amount of time reading these complaints over the weekend, discussing them with the city attorney, then discussing them tonight in executive session again with the city attorney” – wait, what? Bill Woodard admitted to discussing the complaints before the City Attorney would have met with them at the City Council in executive session at its next regular meeting to present a written report describing in detail the nature of the complaint, and the attorney’s assessment of whether the facts as alleged constitute a violation of the ethics laws.” So that leaves us asking, who discussed it over the weekend? How can we be sure there were no back-door deals made for a vote? The issue is perception and transparency. If the city does not follow its own process written in its Code of Ethics then how can we trust the process? Why does a citizen with a true concern need a lawyer to file an ethics complaint, last I checked we the citizens voted you in and you work for us! Now we have no voice without an attorney.
The council agreed in a 5 – 0 vote to dismiss the complaint. Now let’s look at the shady shit that makes the Ethics policy bogus!
As Frisco has grown so have residents’ concerns and questions about future developments, density, and the lack of transparency between the city, its leaders, and residents. In recent years residents have called for transparency and filed ethics complaints against members of the city council. Before we get into the complaints and why the system is rigged, you first need to understand the process.
The process for filing a complaint under Ordinance number 09-04-25 with the city is for any person who believes that there has been a violation of the ethics laws to file a sworn complaint with the City Secretary. The complaint must identify the person or persons who allegedly committed the violation, provide a statement of the facts on which the complaint was based, identify the rule of rules allegedly violated, and be sworn to in the form of an affidavit.
As for confidentiality, the ordinance also states that no city official shall reveal information relating to the filing or processing of a complaint except as required for the performance of Official duties. All papers relating to a pending complaint are to be confidential.
After filing a copy of the complaint, the notification process begins. A copy of the complaint shall be promptly forwarded by the City Secretary to the City Attorney and the person charged with the complaint. The person charged with the complaint shall receive a copy of the ethics rules and be informed that within fourteen days of receipt of the complaint, they may file a sworn response with the City Secretary.
A copy of any response by the person charged in the complaint will be provided by the City Secretary to the complainant, who may within seven days reply to the sworn response with sworn writing filed with the City Secretary and a copy of the response will be provided to the person charged in the complaint. Then the person charged with the complaint may request a hearing.
The ordinance states “at any time assistance is required, the City Secretary shall provide information to the persons who inquire about the process for filing a complaint.”
Once the complaint has gone through the process it will be reviewed by the City Attorney. Within seven business days after the attorney receives the complaint the City Attorney shall make an initial assessment of the complaint. The City Attorney is to assume that all facts alleged are true and determine if the facts constitute a violation of the ethics law. After that is completed the City Attorney meets with the City Council in executive session at its next regular meeting to present a written report describing in detail the nature of the complaint, and the attorney’s assessment of whether the facts as alleged constitute a violation of the ethics laws. Then in an open session of the council meeting, a majority of the council members not implicated in the complaint may dismiss the complaint based on certain grounds, determine that the complaint on its face does not state a violation of the ethics laws, or refer it to an investigation.
Sounds easy, right? Sounds fair, reputable, and honest right? If you ask Ms. Rouse she might disagree with you! Next, we will dig into the Shady Shit of one of the complaints.
Thirty-four years ago, a car drove into town carrying a man named George Purefoy. When he arrived in Frisco, the population was around 5000 and it had one red blinking traffic signal at the corner of Preston and Main Street. Purefoy was named Frisco’s first City Manager. At the time he took over the helm, the city was essentially broke, which lead to some budget cuts and staff reductions. In many articles, he said employees referred to him as the “hatchet man.”
One of the most important goals for George Purefoy was to build a strong foundation in the city so it too had an opportunity to grow and compete with cities like Plano. He strongly believed he had to find the “right professionals” to head the various departments in the city. As a leader, he felt it was incumbent upon himself to set the tone and be the example of what a professional city manager should be. Purefoy had a vision for the city that included growth, potential, and future developments.
One of the first “big” projects to hit Frisco was Stonebriar Mall in 2000. Frisco had to compete in the bidding process against Plano to win the Stonebriar development. Purefoy knew that was not going to be an easy fight. He also knew what kind of economic engine it would be for the future city. Purefoy believed sports, tourism, and private-public partnerships would be what sets Frisco apart from surrounding cities. He was right and, just around the corner were future landmark developments that would forever change the landscape of Frisco.
When Purefoy announced his retirement in 2021, it was important to him and many others that the new city manager continued the “strategic vision” for the city. Ask anyone walking down the streets to heavy hitters in the city about the Legend George Purefoy, and you’ll hear he was a salt of the earth, behind-the-scenes guy. He had a reputation for being kind, soft-spoken, trustworthy, creative, and with integrity, and most of all, he was dedicated to getting projects done.
The reason it is important to tell you about George Purefoy is that he was the mastermind that set the tone for this city, its employees, and the citizens. Mayors and council members would come and go over the years, but Purefoy was here for the long run and had the biggest impact on the city over time. No one is willing to question his motives and intentions.
It just makes us wonder if he knew some of the shady sh*t that was happening around him here?
Jeff Cheney is a man with a diverse and successful career path. Back in 1998, he was a Senior Associate for Price Waterhouse Coopers. In 2000 he became the Director of Portfolio Operations for Highland Capital Management. Two years later, he joined Keller Williams forming The Cheney Group. Then in 2007, he became a councilman for The City of Frisco and served until 2016. During that time, around 2014 to 2015 he also became the President of Earth 911.
As his council term came to an end, Cheney decided to run for Mayor of Frisco, which paid off as soon as he won the election. In May of 2017, he officially became Mayor Jeff Cheney for The City of Frisco. Then in November of 2017, The Cheney Group joined The Associates, owned by Robert Elliott. In 2021, The Cheney Group moved one more time to join Monument Realty Group.
You thought we were done? Cheney also served as the owner of Frisco-Online.com from 2004 to 2017. In 2017, Frisco Online merged into Lifestyle Frisco that Cheney maintains a partnership. Today, Lifestyle Frisco touts on their website they are the guide for “What to Do, Where to Go, and Who to KNOW” around Frisco! In 2021, Jeff Cheney told David Arkin with CheckoutDFW.com that shortly after his second child was born he unloaded their life savings to buy FriscoOnline.com, and looking back, what a smart investment, it was. He went on to say that FriscoOnline.com was hitting 4-5 million page views a month which played a big part in his real estate business. Finally, Jeff is known to love Yoga and his family owns Hot Body Yoga in Frisco.
Some might say when he took office in May of 2017 that Frisco became Cheneyville and a sanctuary for wealthy people! He is known to love urban planning and development and has been quoted many times that he loved how Frisco was a blank slate. Cheney takes great pride in that he helped plan out the remaining space in The City of Frisco. One key thing he wanted to pass was an ordinance that future developments have a certain percentage of open space.
Unfortunately, Cheney has advocated for growth and big named developments all while ignoring residents’ calls to slow down! Truth is, some of these developments are great for the city and its residents, and then some leave people to question, why did Mayor Cheney and the City Council approve that?
In the last few years, Frisco has been recognized as the fastest-growing city in America, and the best place to live by Money Magazine. Without a doubt, Jeff Cheney has played a big role in Frisco! The only question now is, did Cheney do all this for the residents, or did he do it for himself?
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?
We have several concerns about the public works department the department head's relationships with a "certain someone" but we need…
No Kamala is not our Attorney General. As for the posts itself we write about what we can confirm. We…
Kamala is isn’t our Attorney General so we have a chance for fairness. Why is the majority of posts about…
They don’t hire fire fighters because they are too busy giving raises and promotions to other undeserving individuals that should…
Bill is a tool. I never trusted him the moment I met him. Slimeball.