Breaking The Political Rules

by | Jan 19, 2024 | Angelia Pelham, BNSF Railroad, Campaign Signs, Community Development Corp, Economic Development Corp, Frisco City Secretary, John Keating, John Redmond, Mark Piland, Politics

Campaigning has begun and we are excited to see how the next few months play out. We thought we should educate ourselves on the rules, so we read city’s Political Campaign Sign policy listed on the city website.   

Rules 1 & 4 are pretty clear so we decided to look at the candidates social media pages and election websites.   

Rule 1: Political signs cannot be placed on any City of Frisco, Community Development Corporation (CDC), or Economic Development Corporation (EDC) property or in a City of Frisco easement.

Rule 4: The City of Frisco logo cannot be used in any way for campaigning including on political signs. 

John Redmond website appears to only be one page and has a short intro to who he is and his campaign logo.  We could not find any social media pages for him.  – Passed Inspection

Mark Piland website does not include pictures of political signs on city property, and it does not contain the official city logo.  In a review of his social media, we did not see any violations either.  – Passed Inspection

Angelia Pelham currently holds Place 3 and serves as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem.  Her website passed inspection.  However, her social media did not!  On January 17th she held a filing party at city hall.  She had several supporters come join her and there are numerous pictures of her and supporters holding Pelham campaign signs on city property and more so in the rotunda of city  hall!  That is a clear violation of Rule 1 even if it was temporary.  The photos also violate Rule 4 regarding the city logo not being used for campaigning because clearly in several photos the official city logo can be spotted.  It became campaigning when she turned into a filing party, had her political signs and several supporters wearing t-shirts.  The photos appear on her political Facebook page as well as personal page and on Instagram.

We liked her campaign video, she looks good in red and has a catchy slogan.  We are a little curious about one portion of the video which shows her standing at the back of the room with Frisco Public Safety officers from both the PD and FD.  The video is tagged in the corner with her campaign logo which could give people the impression she is endorsed by either public safety group, which she is not.  The picture includes Mark Piland who has announced he is running for Place 1 which made us curious how he feels his likeness in her video?  Lastly, when the photo was taken we were pretty sure none of them knew down the road it would be used for campaign video.  We are not sure if there is any violation here according to campaign rules or city rules, however one would think before using someone’s likeness, out of respect, you might want to ask them if they are okay with it.  Many police departments have rules about offices being photographed and for the purposes they can be used for.

Lastly, we looked a John Keating’s website.  He currently serves Place 1 and is the Mayor Pro Tem.  We could not view his social media because has blocked us across all channels.  Keating’s website is in clear violation of Rule 4.   As soon as the page loads you see a picture of Keating with the slogan Promises Made Promises Kept and behind it is a watermark of the official City of Frisco Flag.  Then if you scroll down, right after he asks you for your money, you can clearly see the official city logo.   

On the “About John” page it shows him standing in the Frisco City Council Chamber up on the dais.  This picture was taken on December 4, 2018, the night the council approved a plan for the PGA of America.  The picture appears in an article for the Dallas Morning News.   

The last page titled “The Mission” has a picture of Keating with the official city of Frisco Logo right behind him, which is again, a clear violation of Rule 4.   Then under Public Safety he has a picture with Chief Shilson, Frisco PD which mislead residents of an endorsement that he does not have.   Now the picture with Shilson may not be a violation but is misleading.

When it comes to campaigning, rules should be taken very seriously.  We could understand how first-time candidates can make mistakes, but if they are running it is their responsibility to know the rules.  As for the Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Angelia Pelham, and Mayor Pro Tem John Keating, they have no excuse.  If they are serving in the Deputy Mayor Pro Tem and Mayor Pro Tem positions then clearly they should know the rules.  Keating has been around since 2011, off and on and if he doesn’t know the rules by now then we may have bigger issues.    We go back to why are there rules for thee but not for me?  I can guarantee if some of the previous candidates who ran for office committed these violations we would not hear the end of it. The city should also be accountable to uphold their own rules! Email the city council and ask them to uphold to the city rules now and in the future.

Political Campaign Sign Regulations: 

TxDot Campaign Sign Regulations (PDF)

City of Frisco Electioneering Ordinance (PDF)

City of Frisco Sign Ordinance (PDF)

Fire Station Political Sign Boundaries (PDF)

The Preserve Lots

by | Jan 15, 2024 | Cheney Group, Fehmi Karahan, Fields West, Mayor Jeff Cheney, PGA Frisco, Politics, The Preserve & Fields

Our investigation into The Preserve at PGA Frisco has offered up a treasure trove of information over the last year. We first talked about this back in February 2023 in our blog Fields West Dynasty where we discussed the historic future Fields development and the woven professional relationship conflicts. We began to unravel our opinion regarding the conflict of interest at play for Mayor Jeff Cheney vs Real Estate Mogul Jeff Cheney and his relationship with the Fehmi Fields development. Just the Fields Frisco website was cause for pause – why is there a letter from Mayor Jeff Cheney on it?

Then in our Field of Dreams blog, we talked about how Texas Scorecard had questioned the same thing we did years earlier. We also shared an email by John Baumgarten to then-Mayor Jeff Cheney asking how he could get on the “unofficial lot list” for The Preserve and that he would like to make a “donation” to a charity involved in the development. We also pointed out there was no response to Mr. Baumgarten supplied in our PIR but there was a continuing conversation between Cheney and then Chief of Staff Lori Medina (MedinaUSA) on where the donation could be made.

We continued our questions regarding The Preserve and PGA Frisco in our blog, The Silicon Valley of Golf followed by our blog Dark Money where we pointed out some very questionable campaign donations from all these developers involved in future Fields / PGA / The Link. Then we laid out in detail the conflict of interest friendships Mayor Cheney vs Realtor Jeff Cheney built in our blog Anatomy of a Friendship.

Then we release our Breaking News: The Preserve Lots VIP Program blog where we have a recording of a builder rep telling local Real Estate Agents that Jeff Cheney has a lot in The Preserve along with other important people in the project, kind of like a millionaire or billionaire row so to speak of lots and future homes. Go listen to the recording you won’t be disappointed. Then we published the proof in Land Lies of the developer plot map which shows the names Cheney and Keating under a “Developer Hold.”

Why are we reminding you about this? You have to go back to the beginning to understand how what we uncovered today is concerning. For years now local Realtors have been questioning the potential conflict between Cheney’s role as Mayor and as Realtor/Broker of the Cheney Group. Questions also surround his convoluted relationship with Fehmi Karahan and the sale of the lots in The Preserve. Multiple times, Cheney has publicly stated he is not the Realtor of record for lots in The Preserve. He joked in front of a room of real estate professionals, please don’t call me as I am not the agent for these lots. Realtors questioned though how a majority of the lots were already sold before going public to real estate professionals.

With everything he has said publicly were surprised to see 3 lots worth over $2+ million for sale in The Preserve at PGA Frisco on his website. A few months ago it said it was listed by one of his agents but now according to the multiple listing service (MLS) the REALTOR OF RECORD IS JEFF CHENEY OF THE CHENEY GROUP!

In closing, we initially were doing research into some rumors about a possible shake-up or break-up within the Monument umbrella. That led us to these lots for sale which sparked us to look through public records, talk to some builder reps as we “house hunted,” and what we learned from our Realtor neighbor. The lots in question had been sold or contracted by other agents for client’s they had. So why are they for sale now? We can only assume the original buyers probably changed their minds or backed out for some reason which happens all the time according to my neighbor. If they were contracted by other agents, then why are those agents not selling the lots? Why are the lots now listed with the Cheney Group? Why is Jeff Cheney listed as the Realtor/Broker of Record? With so many questions, you can see we are still looking into this so stay tuned for more of what we uncover.