The City of Frisco is asking taxpayers to consider a new Performing Arts Center that has a rumored will cost taxpayers a rumored price tag of $300 Million up to $600 Million+ dollars. The city has started a “Sell It to the Public” campaign with a company called Theatre Projects on social media which begins with residents taking a survey to gather feedback on the grand idea. They announced plans to host open house sessions at City Hall, talk to local arts organizations, and will host listening sessions for the public.
We received an email this week from one reader who attended their “Zoom Session” and guess how many residents participated? Maybe 15 plus the representatives from Theater Projects who is doing all the dog and pony work for the city. I guess the small attendance still counts towards feedback but compared to a city of 220,000 people it does not like seem a great sample to us. The email also said how they are currently looking at two properties to potentially house this Performing Arts Center which we find very interesting.
The website which has been set up talks about the Project History and how the city has been studying the possibility of a new performing arts center for over 6 years. It refers to several studies and assessments done to support the future planning of the “critical Frisco asset” for our community. It also has a link to the 45-page 2023 Business Plan put together by Theatre Projects. Even though the 2023 Business Plan put together by Theatre Projects shows the Hall Group vision, our inside source says Hall Group is out! They will not be a part of this theatre project in any way shape or form, and they are not offering up the land for it any longer. Hence why on the “zoom” we mentioned earlier, they stated they were “eyeing two different potential sites for this PAC.
They are using every avenue to make sure we know how great and grand this project is and to show us how badly we need it. The city’s friends at Frisco Enterprise, the paper in their back pocket, wrote an article and it states that “Back in September, the Frisco City Council approved a $1.4 million professional services agreement with consultant Theatre Projects.” Part of that agreement is that the city leadership and the team from Theatre Projects would do venue tours to gather data and talk to venue operators. We “the taxpayers” are paying for all this travel, plus we are paying for the additional travel cost for the Theatre Projects team to attend. In case you are wondering that additional expense is not included in the $1.4 million agreement we have with them for consulting services.
According to the Frisco Enterprise, the visits included the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida; the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida; the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, Texas and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We figured since they were on this whole “Sell It to The Public” Road Show, we would file a Public Information Request for more information. We asked for the complete copies of the performing arts center studies and any associated documents related to the reports including those from consulting groups or 3rd parties like Frisco ISD or Hall Group. We asked for all 6 of the previous studies they have done that we were able to find in meeting minutes.
We assumed that it would be no issue getting any documentation because of how badly they want to “Sell It Like a Cheap Cheney Piece of Real Estate” to Frisco taxpayers. Imagine our surprise after paying $16.74 yesterday and today the status changed to “SENT TO AG FOR A RULING.” The did release the 7 studies to us, but the “other supporting documents” are subject to copyright and will be available in the City Secretary’s Office for viewing only. Who wants to go review the documents for us and report back what is in them? Email us at FriscoWhistleBlower@protonmail.com
What did they send to the AG for review? How much are they withholding from US, THE TAXPAYERS, whom they are going to pitch a tax increase to soon so they can spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a performing arts center which will be city owned and operated. Then we always hear them quote “copyright” as a reason to withhold things. We are just confused, when does copyright matter to the city? They made it clear during the recent political election when council members were using the “copyrighted” city logo in their campaign materials they did not care and in fact they said they could not do anything about it. Strange because the city websites states in black and white they CAN NOT USE THE CITY LOGO for political campaigning so why have a rule you can’t enforce about a copyrighted logo? Now when it comes to documents related to the Performing Arts Center, they want to say copyright matters. It seems they use that word copyright when it is convenient to withhold information, they don’t want you or me to see.
The way we see it is simple! The city is spending millions of bond approved tax dollars on studies for a PAC, then they want to claim copyright to withhold those details from those of us who are paying for it! Just release all the documents and stop trying to play games because it is getting really old.
Oh, one last thing, Frisco ISD got tired of the games a year or so ago, and they are currently building their own Performing Arts Center because outside influences kept delaying the project. That means you, the taxpayers will be paying for multiple Performing Arts Center. Feels like an episode of Oprah, where she yells “You get an arts center, you get an arts center, and you get an arts center!”
Wouldn’t the world be such a simple place if someone’s nose really grew when they told a lie? Think about it for a moment, we wouldn’t have to spend so much time trying to determine if someone is telling the truth or a lie. It is much easier in person through verbal and non-verbal ques to tell if someone is lying or withholding the truth from you than it is through filing a Public Information Request. However, PIR’s are all we have here at Frisco Chronicles to get to the truth.
Recently we filed several PIR’s based on leads we received from “whistleblowers” to see if the city would disclose “The Truth” to us through PIR requests. One of the PIR requests read, “We would like the list of the complaints made about political signs to code enforcement or the city secretary for the period of 1/1/2024 to present. We would like a copy of any complaint made about electioneering at the election polls from April 20th to May 5th.” It is a very simple request and after we paid the $6.30 we thought we would get a handful of responses. Instead, we found that the city left a lot of complaints out of our request. We know this because many folks sent us copies of their complaints to the city and they are not in the disclosed information given to us even though it fits the criteria of the request.
The first email we received a copy of was from Councilman John Keating, sent to Kristi Morrow on May 4th, Election Day. It states “poll greeters are playing loud music at FS 8 (they turn it down, then turn it back up). Also, this truck passed through the parking lot several times. Within 30 minutes of receiving the email Kristi Morrow forwarded it to Amy Moore in Code Enforcement who made her way out to Fire Station 8. This is the incident we reported about in our blog Election Playbook: Code Enforcement.
The interesting thing about this email is that John Keating failed to mention to the City Secretary his own team including himself, The Cheney’s, and his friends were electioneering in the parking lot for almost four hours that morning. It is documented with pictures in our blog and proves our point that it is okay for John Keating to break the rules, but others can’t. Just “PAR FOR THE COURSE” in the city council world.
The next email we received in our PIR was about “Illegal Signs” that was sent by Judy Adams on May 3 to City Secretary, Kristi Morrow. It states, “These signs are placed by polling stations all over the city. It is in violation since there are no disclaimers. Very sad that ‘these people’ are claiming to uphold the law and order but are breaking the law by doing the things they accuse others of. I believe they should be removed immediately.” The picture just barely shows the corner of a sign, but we did recognize it.
Why did we recognize the sign? It is a Frisco Chronicles sign! Now to be clear we did not buy these signs, we did not put them out, and we have no clue who did. With that said we do love them, and they gave us a good laugh! We received an anonymous email from a whistleblower that they put them out to spread the word of our site. They did confirm they were all placed on private property and none of them were placed on city property or at any fire station. Lastly, it is not a political action committee, it does not support a candidate, so it does not need a disclaimer.
Judy, think about carpet cleaner signs or we buy ugly houses signs, do they need disclaimers? We suggest Judy Adams focus on what she does best which is blowing people aka blo me! Now get your mind out of the gutter! We are referring to her focusing on her new Blo Bar she just opened for those who need a good blow, or maybe her real estate career, or her closed coffee bar instead of silly illegal signs on private property. Better yet maybe she should make her own BLO ME signs with a phone number to make an appointment, if she does, we will make sure to have readers call them in for being illegal signs.
The third email we received was from April 22 from Jeff Cheney to City Secretary, Kristi Morrow. It is important to note the email was sent from JCheney@friscotexas.gov so clearly, he wrote this as the “Mayor of Frisco” and not as an individual resident. It states, “Pretty clear this is not in compliance with the maximum size of 10×10” referring to the Firefighters tent at Station 7. Kristi Morrow sent the email to Amy Moore in Code Enforcement and Amy replied Justin was on his way to the station. Then Kristi Morrow replied and asked Amy to call her when she gets a chance. Wonder what they talked about?
The next email we received was on April 25th, from Councilman John Keating (JKeating@friscotexas.gov) to City Secretary Kristi Morrow and Assistant City Manager, Henry Hill. He questions if “these are allowed as they are showing up at polling stations. He specifically notes the one at Fire Station 7 in the picture he submitted. He is referring to a Voter Guide Stand that is put out at every election by a political conservative group called Red Wave. You can see at the bottom of the voter guide it says Pol Ad Paid For Red Wave Texas.
Why does Keating not like the voter guide stand? Oh, that is because it has listed for Place 1 Mark Piland and for Place 3 John Redmond. We want to know how often John Keating votes in elections. These have been at polling sites during several election cycles. If he is just now seeing it, then we are curious if he has been doing his civic duty to vote? Maybe he just didn’t like it because it was not his name on the guide!
Lastly, we received an excel spreadsheet of complaints. Not sure what to make of it!
Here is the problem, our request was very simple and straightforward which states, “We would like the list of the complaints made about political signs to code enforcement or the city secretary for the period of 1/1/2024 to present. We would like a copy of any complaint made about electioneering at the election polls from April 20th to May 5th.” We have several emails sent to us which reported about in our blog, Breaking All The Rules related to John Keating, Angelia Pelham and the Safety-First Frisco PAC putting up signs at 9am on Sunday April 21st which was 6 to 9+ hours earlier than they were allowed. We have several emails about the 4 x 4 political signs at Station 7 and questioning if they are on city property that were sent to us.
We also have several emails sent to the city secretary regarding electioneering occurring at the polls, some even documented with videos and pictures.
Yet none of these emails and others we have were given to us in our Public Information Request. They fit the issue, time frame and criteria of the request we made so why don’t we have them from the city. What other emails have they withheld that we don’t know about? Readers and have sent them in but our own city will not be forthcoming and turn them over in a Public Information Request. We have proof the city HAS WITHELD PUBLIC RECORDS…AGAIN! The city claims TRANSPARENCY, yet they can’t even be honest with a public information request and fulfill it as they should. WHY DOES THE CITY LIE AND HIDE INFORMATION FROM TAXPAYERS?
We have a PIR out right now for the body cam footage from the Code Enforcement cameras worn during the election, but they have sent that to the Attorney General. Why do they not want us to hear the conversations they had at the polls with the political candidates or the firefighters regarding code enforcement complaints called in?
Most concerning is how our Mayor and Councilman Keating act like winey children when it is something they don’t like so they use their city emails and position to make complaints which are acted upon immediately by the city. However, the numerous complaints about the signs being put out early at the fire stations by these same folks had no action or fines taken against them for clearly violating the rules. Rules that they should know as they are sitting active council members. Remember John Keating has 16 years on council so if he does not know the rules by now, then he truly is dumber than a bag of rocks. In fact, those complaints are not even documented apparently, or they would have been in our public information request. This is Frisco folks! Rules for thee but not for me!
Did you think we were done talking about the upcoming City Council meeting and the published agenda? Think again, it is time to continue our journey down the yellow brick road. The consent agenda is often used to streamline the approval process for items considered routine or non-controversial. Consent agenda items are typically approved without individual discussion unless a council person requests to pull an item for discussion. This means important matters may be approved with little to no public discussion or debate and we would argue it can be used to obscure or hide certain matters from public scrutiny.
We identified another item on the upcoming consent agenda for the Frisco City Council Meeting on May 21, 2024. Under the consent agenda we noticed Item 22 which is to execute a proposal from GL Seaman and Co to provide and install furniture worth $140,999 for Fire Station #10. It said funds are available through “BONDS” related to this project. We will come back to this.
A little history, since 2006 over the course of 4 bond elections (2006, 2015, 2019, and 2023) the city has asked residents to approve $258,900,000 for public safety. We detailed out the Bond information our previous blog Bond, Frisco Bond! 007. If you have not read it, then you should because you will be surprised you paid for some items twice.
Typically, bonds are used for large expensive and long-lived capital improvements & projects such as road or street improvements, parks, water treatment facilities, and building of new facilities or updates to public buildings (libraries, police stations, fire stations). Investors who buy municipal bonds are lending money to the issuer in exchange for interest payments and the return of the principal at maturity.
According to a 2023 report in Munichain, the City of Frisco, Texas, sold almost $233 million in bonds to fund municipal improvements. The bonds will finance improvements to Frisco’s roads, waterworks, parks, and municipal center, as well as the construction of a new garage in the city’s downtown area, among other projects. The city issued the bonds in three series.
The Series 2023 bonds, consisting of $161.5 million, mature between 2024 and 2043, yielding between 2.8% and 4.14%.
The Series 2023A bonds, consisting of $18.5 million, also mature between 2024 and 2043, yielding between 2.85% and 4.15%.
The Series 2023B bonds, which are taxable, mature between 2026 and 2038, yielding between 4.35% and 4.875%.
Using these bonds responsibly is important because the money was subject to voter approval and must align with legal requirements for municipal bonds. Bond funds are generally intended for long-term capital improvements, so we asked ourselves, is furniture a capital improvement? We pulled up the purchase order and compared it to the actual Knoll Omnia Partners contract referenced in the agenda memo. Technically if it is a permanent structural change then it would be considered acceptable but surprisingly several of the items listed on the purchase order are “Freestanding” furniture items on casters. The items on the po that are “system furniture” are those you see in most offices around the country, of course could be paid for by capital improvements as they permanent furniture systems.
Why are we pointing this out? Well, we support using bond money to build a new fire station for our hard-working men in the FD. It is a place where many of them spend holidays away from their families while we enjoy the comfort of home. We have no problem with top-of-the-line amenities for our PD and FD. We just want to know why we would use bond money for movable furniture over the city’s general fund.Why would we pay interest for years for movable furniture which could be replaced before the bond ever hits the maturity date.
Do you think is furniture a good use of bond money or not? Leave us your opinion in the comments.
The other night our grandkids were over, and we thought we should introduce them to the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. In The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy found the man behind the curtain, pretending to be the great Wizard of Oz, the spell of the Wizard was broken. The great and powerful wizard was exposed. He was simply an ordinary man, who was just able to perform some clever tricks. The trouble with fantasy is that, for some, the line between delusion and reality is blurred for those people who simply don’t deal in the truth. I am talking about those people with fantastical perceptions of themselves that are so great, that after a while, their fantasies become their reality.
After the movie was over, we played a game of Jenga. We told them, you must be careful because the game looks easy, but the truth is you must have patience as you carefully remove pieces of wood while hoping the tower does not topple over. I told them the game requires observation, strategic thinking, and sometimes a bit of intuition. Seeing young kids hold their breath while each piece of wood comes out, then mesmerized in the moment to see if the tower will topple is greatness.
As we played, I continued to think about the movie the Wizard of OZ and how it describes our city council. Mayor Cheney is the man behind the curtain, the great Wizard of Oz. While people in Frisco put him on a pedal stool, he is really an ordinary man who can pull some clever tricks past the residents. As you continue to read you will find each council member fits a character’s persona. As we played Jenga I realized we use the same skills in the game of Jenga every other week as we look over the upcoming agenda for the Frisco City Council meetings. We often find behind every agenda, there is a “hidden agenda”, but you will not find it unless you delicately navigate through the list of items and understand their implications. We find ourselves asking what is the underlying motive or objective behind certain proposals, discussions, or agenda items? Much like in the game of Jenga, if you are not careful you may miss some things that could be very important for the tower to continue to stand.
The next morning, we sat down to look over the upcoming agenda for Frisco City Council meeting. We first noticed under “Individual Items” that both John Keating and Angelia Pelham will take the Oath of Office for their elected places. Then we noticed right after that they plan to nominate the new Mayor Pro-Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem. In our opinion, the political clique who are like characters in the Wizard of OZ, will probably nominate to keep positions the same. That means Pelham, or Glinda the Good Witch and Keating, who is obviously the Brain-Seeking Scarecrow, will retain their titles since they are the two top Wizard of Oz Enforcers.
As to why the others would not be nominated, well that’s easy. They hate Brian Livingston who they treat like the Wicked Witch of the West, since he supported candidates outside the political clique in the last two elections. Laura Rummell, or the Cowardly Lion, is known as the go along to get along girl and she won’t fight any nomination for fear of getting on the bad side of the political clique. Tammy Meinershagen who is the prefect Dorothy, is too busy writing a poem for why we need a $300 million dollar performing arts center. Lastly, Bill Woodard, the heartless Tin Man, just pulled out all the stops to create a larger divide between the city and the Frisco Firefighters. Probably would not be a good choice if they wanted to “find healing” as Pelham would say with the rank and file of the Fire Department.
After the May General Election every year, appointments to the City Council committees are brought to the City Council for review. City Council members may be appointed and reappointed to the various committees at the discretion of the Mayor and City Council. That is why the regular agenda item 34 stood out which is consider and act upon appointments to City Council Committees. If you remember last year, Brian Livingston was stripped and removed from every committee he served on by the great Wizard of Oz, Mayor Cheney. It was a punishment for going outside of the political clique we told you about above.
The current appointments to each committee are:
Budget and Audit Committee: Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem Angelia Pelham & Council Member Laura Rummel.
Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition: Mayor Pro-Tem John Keating.
Frisco Square Management District (FSMD) Board is composed of three (3) City Council members and two (2) representatives from the developer per the Local Government Code. The board members currently serving are Mayor Jeff Cheney, Council Member Bill Woodard, and Mayor Pro-Tem John Keating.
Governance Committee: Council Member Bill Woodard, Council Member Tammy Meinershagen, & Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem Angelia Pelham.
Legislative Committee: Council Member Laura Rummel, Council Member Tammy Meinershagen, & Mayor Pro-Tem John Keating.
North Central Texas Council of Governments Emergency Preparedness Planning Committee: Council Member Tammy Meinershagen with Council Member Laura Rummel as her alternate.
North Central Texas (NCT) 911 Project: Council Member Tammy Meinershagen with Council Member Laura Rummel as her alternate.
North Texas Commission is represented by Mayor Jeff Cheney.
Park and Trail Naming Committee is represented by Council Member Bill Woodard.
Regional Transportation Council is represented by Mayor Pro-Tem John Keating.
Animal Advisory Committee is represented by Council Member Laura Rummel.
Frisco Veterans Advisory Committee: Mayor Pro-Tem John Keating, Council Member Laura Rummel, & Council Member Tammy Meinershagen
On Tuesday, the city council can do one of two things. First, they could choose not to appoint or reappoint current appointees. Secondly, they can review it and make new nominations to the committees “IF THEY CHOOSE.” What do you think they will they choose to do? Will they do the right thing and put Mr. Livingston back on the committees or continue this petty behavior? Is Brian Livingston still considered the Wicked Witch of the West by his fellow council members for having independent thought?
If they shun Mr. Livingston again who ran unopposed for his seat in May 2023, then they are essentially telling the 14,282 voters that came out to vote for him “YOUR OPINION DOESN’T MATTER!” Just for a point of reference, that is 2922 more votes than Mayor Cheney received the same year. It is also telling the 41,128 residents who voted for Livingston in 2020 that their opinion doesn’t matter. In 2020, Livingston faced two opponents, if you add together the votes of those 2 opponents, they still were 11, 192 votes short of Livingston. Now compare that to the other seat on the ballot in 2020 which Laura Rummell ran for. He had 24,773 more votes than her.
Lastly on the agenda we noticed items 23 – 26 which have to do with the Boards and Commissions. Apparently, they are changing the names of some of the committees. The Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) will now be the Hike-and-Bike Advisory Committee. Bill Woodard, the heartless Tin Man, must be so excited over the change since he is known as the Hike-Trike-&-Bike guy. Then the Frisco Arts Board and Public Arts Program will be renamed to the Frisco Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. We suspect this may have something to do with the “new performing arts center” the city is trying to sell residents. Item 25 will modify certain provisions governing the Parks & Recreation Board. Lastly, the Urban Forestry Board will be changed to the Frisco Natural Resources Advisory Committee. It’s no big deal they are changing the names we just find it the timing interesting that’s all.
It is time for us to click the heels of our red shoes and chant “There’s no place like home!” We encourage you to look at the agendas and enjoy the game of Jenga the city plays with us. The city hopes we are not paying attention to the pieces of wood they are moving around but the Whistleblower Team is always paying attention. It will be interesting to see if Pelham and Keating keep the Mayor Pro-Tem and Deputy Pro-Tem titles.
It is clear Cheney is setting up the path for Angelia Pelham to be our next Mayor at the end of his term. I wonder how Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Brain-Seeking Scarecrow, or the Heartless Tin Man feel about that? We would encourage the other council members (minus Cheney) to think about that fact that Brian Livingston is a pretty popular councilman to his base that elected him. None of them have come close to the accumulated votes he has received over the years so it will be interesting to see what path they all take on the yellow brick road Tuesday night.
We are glad the municipal election season is over, and life is getting back to normal, or as normal as it can be. Proposition A which was for Civil Service was, came down to a difference of 665 votes. That is not a landslide win, and it should speak volumes to the Frisco City Council and City Management to do better. On Proposition B, which was for Collective Bargaining, it came down to a difference of 2,383 votes. City leaders and the Safety Frisco First PAC did a good job of scaring voters that if it passed our Firefighters would become a group of “Greedy Bastards” and bankrupt the city.
Residents spoke and while most conveyed their support to the Firefighters, they didn’t feel Civil Service and Collective Bargaining were the right way to go about it. According to several voters we talked to, they believe the residents need to help fight for change at city hall and demand more from our city leaders. WHERE ARE THOSE RESIDENTS NOW? Did any of those who came out to vote, go home, and take the time to email the city leadership? Probably not! Did anyone write an email to city leaders expressing concern about the City Manager who is the reason we ended voting on these issues. Probably not!
We still continue to think about the call for “more staffing” and wonder do we have a staffing issue? Did you know that over the last four years the city applied for several grants related to staffing?
What is a SAFER Grant? The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER) was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained, “front line” firefighters available in their communities. The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire departments’ abilities to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by the NFPA which stands for the National Fire Protection Association’s codes and standards.
At the 01/18/2022 council meeting the council voted on an agenda item #21 authorizing the City Manager to submit a SAFER grant application in the amount of $5,420,500 over a three-year performance period for STAFFING that would help fund 15 Firefighter/Paramedic positions needed to staff a fourth Truck Company assigned to Fire Station 9. The memo we found was from Mark Piland to then City Manager George Purefoy, Deputy City Manager Henry Hill and the entire council. The resolution says duly passed and approved on the 18th day of January 2022.
The application states “Due to this rapid growth, the City’s ability to build and staff new fire stations and apparatus is limited. The City has committed to building a new fire station, Fire Station #10 and additional apparatus, such as a fourth Truck and additional Medic, but needs federal assistance to on-board additional firefighters to staff this apparatus. Without this funding, it takes our fire crews longer to establish effective response forces according to NFPA 1710 standards which increases the likelihood of property damage and risk to the fire crews. Without this funding, our response times will increase due to the first due truck not being within close proximity to the rapid areas of development that would need an aerial ladder response.
It goes on to say, “During 2020, the city began construction on 13 multifamily housing and completed 7 multifamily housing units that were already under construction for a grand total of over 26,000 units. The City houses 22 specialty care facilities to include nursing homes, free standing nursing facilities and adult living communities. Within the last 2 years, we have had 6 new high rises completed and we have 3 high rise buildings currently under construction. This additional funding will allow for a fourth fire truck to be put into service which will increase our NFPA 1710 standards for response to a high-risk structure to include multifamily housing, specialty risk structures and high-rise buildings. NFPA 1710 recommends that an agency place 42 or 43 personnel on a fire at a high-rise structure. The department is currently staffed to respond with 34 personnel.”
Yet the City Council and City Management Say, “We don’t have a staffing issue.”
We were also surprised to see at the 04/04/2023 council meeting the council voted on an agenda item #23 authorizing the City Manager to submit a SAFER grant application in the amount of $8,894,880 for a three-year grant performance period for STAFFING. The memo written by Interim Fire Chief, Lee Glover goes on to say, “if awarded, the FY22 SAFER Grant Program would provide funding for 24 Firefighter/Paramedic positions consistent with the Fire Department’s current five-year staffing plan.”
We pulled up the application and pulled some highlights. The first one states, “Over the past year, our department has seen the 90th percentile response times for first arriving fire/EMS apparatus in these areas increase to nearly ten minutes and NFPA 1710 single-family dwelling full alarm assembly time increase to over 20 minutes, well beyond the NFPA 1710 recommendations.” The second highlight states, “Without the assistance the city will likely be unable to simultaneously bear the cost of constructing two new fire stations and staffing/equipping firefighters, which would negatively impact Frisco FD’s ability to provide appropriate and timely emergency response and assembly of the recommended effective response force.”
The application goes on to say, “The Frisco Fire Department continues to experience increasing call volume and faces new risks. The total call volume for the department has increased by 76.7% since 2015.” It continues, “The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America relocated to Frisco in 2022. While Frisco has experience with large special events, these attendance numbers are more than double the size of current venues in Frisco. In addition, Universal Parks and Resorts recently announced the opening of a new theme park scheduled to open in 2026. A new 2,500-acre development in northern Frisco is underway, with 14,000 homes and apartments planned, as well as commercial and retail development. These developments, events, and venues are new risks for the Frisco Fire Department in an area not close to an existing fire station which have resulted in significantly increased response times over the past few years.”
Fire Chief Lee Glover now says, “we don’t have a staffing issue.”
On a side note, we hope all the developers who donated $10,000 to fight the firefighters now realize the city is not prepared, they flat our said so in a federal grant.
As a resident, why do I feel like I need a shower and we are being blatantly lied too somehow! During the election Mark Piland said as the former Fire Chief he advocated over and over for staffing. Then we see this application by Lee Glover in 2023 which talks about how all the new development has put new risk for the FD and resulted in “SIGNIFICANTLY” increased call times. Most glaring is his statement “we have seen NFPA 1710 single-family dwelling full alarm assembly time increase to over 20 minutes, well beyond the NFPA 1710 recommendations.” Less than a year later we are hearing the complete opposite from Chief Lee Glover and every single member sitting perched up on the city pulpit.
For the last few weeks, we watched the Safety-First Frisco PAC scorch any ground left between the city and the firefighters. They implied they were Greedy Bastards, basically attacked their character, willingness to work, called them lazy, liars and power hungry. It was a nuclear response to an already tense relationship. Meanwhile over at the police department, Chief Shilson’s wife Jana Shilson is advocating with the PAC on social media. At the Fire Department, Chief Lee Glover’s wife Jamie Glover is also advocating with the PAC on social media.
On the other hand, the firefighters are scared they will suffer repercussions for being on the front lines of this fight for the propositions. The firefighter’s message has never changed which centers around staffing and the fact they have no confidence in city leadership or their Chief to do what is right. City leaders continue to try and blame this on former leadership which has nothing to do with it. The former leadership fought with them and for them at the polls, right next to them. Come May 5th, the firefighters said win or lose, if you the resident calls, we your Frisco Firefighters will answer that call and risk our own lives to make sure you the citizen is safe.” We ask again, what’s next? Where do we go from here?
A starting point is every resident should be asking the following questions of our City Leadership: The City Council, The Mayor Jeff Cheney, City Manager Wes Pierson and his staff and Fire Chief Lee Glover:
If we don’t have a staffing issue, then why did you “THE CITY” apply for several SAFER FEMA grants specifically for STAFFING?
Were you honest on the FEMA Safer Grants? If yes, then you have been lying to residents.
Were you honest to residents and lie on the FEMA Safer Grant? If yes, who thought it would be a good idea to lie on a federal grant application?
The 2023 SAFER grant says without assistance the city will likely be unable to simultaneously bear the cost of constructing two new fire stations and staffing/equipping firefighters, which would negatively impact Frisco FD’s ability to provide appropriate and timely emergency response and assembly of the recommended effective response force.” If that is the case, then why does the city continue to offer developers incentives to do business here, why did we build a 60+million-dollar library, and why are we considering a performing arts center? It sounds like we are broke or destitute.
The fact is only after the grants were denied did the city say we are fully staffed, trust us everything is okay, just trust your city leadership. Well, I don’t trust you….AT ALL! Will residents really get involved and express their concern to city leadership about what is happening in our city and demand they find a resolution to these issues or will we see the Fire and Police Association back on the ballot in two years fighting for Civil Service, again!
“Let no man’s ghost return to say his leadership and training let him down.” – A Firefighter
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Sangita and Jared are both solid individuals with the best intentions for Frisco. I don’t know the others but we…
The sheer hypocrisy here is priceless. Half of you "christian" Karens on here harping about this are either involved in…
It wasnt very long ago that a job as a Frisco Firefighter was a prized “get”. They had shiny new…
Your comments capture perfectly the concerns I have with Meeks and Gopal. Meeks as still another real estate person -…