Where does a school district’s money come from? School funding is largely in the hands of states. The primary job of the state finance system should be to account for differences between the districts in the cost of providing the right educational quality level, and then to distribute the funds. About 30 years ago the Texas Supreme Court ordered the Texas Legislature to fix the state’s unequal school funding system. The fix by lawmakers is often called the “Robin Hood” recapture plan. In 2023, three school districts voted to stop paying the recapture money to the state and two of those districts are here in North Texas. Carroll ISD and Keller ISD led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options. If you received one of the recent postcards, they sure look misleading!
So, what is the funding system? According to a 2019 Texas Tribune article, “Texas guarantees every school district a certain amount of funding for each student. State lawmakers determine the base number per student, which is currently $5,140. Many educators argue that the state should regularly increase that base number, at least with inflation, to get all schools the money they need. But the amount has not changed in four years.” What many Texans don’t realize is that Texas consistently ranks in the bottom 10 to 12 states for education spending per student. According to an article by Texas Standard, Texas hasn’t increased school funding since 2019. It goes on to say to keep up with inflation over the last four years, state lawmakers would need to add almost $1200 per student. Two North Texas districts, Carroll ISD and Keller ISD, led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options.
Remember when we were told if we approved the Texas Lotto, it would support education, where is all the money from the profits of these scratch-offs and power ball drawings? The truth is only 7% of the funding by the state for the state’s public school system comes from the Texas Lotto. However, the Texas Lottery is a better wordsmith to perfume the pig. The Texas Lotto website reads, “The Texas Lottery Supports Texas Education. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $33.9 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas.”
While funding is an important part of the discussion so are the spending habits of some of these districts. How did our school district choose to spend their money? Are the funds being distributed properly? Are they spending based on a well-thought-out budget? We decided to investigate the spending habits via the Frisco ISD Check Registers on the district’s website. The district has 4 funds: The General Fund, Child Nutrition, Debt Service, and Capital Projects. We started with the General Fund!
$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Abernathy Law $40,851.93, in 2023 they paid $85,913.58. We are curious, would it be a conflict of interest if the same law firm represented both the city and the School District? Was the legal advice received around these “Public-Private Partnerships” that are sold to residents as success ventures.
$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Walsh Gallegos Kyle another law firm $411,336.57 and in 2023, $353,028.02. Why does the district have two different law firms? What kind of legal services is the district needing?
$$ Amazon: In 2024, the district spent $2,271,090.30 on “MISC SUPPLIES.” That is slightly higher than the 2023 spend, which was $2,047,880. That is a lot of Amazon!
$$ Dallas Physician Medical Services for Children: In 2022, the district opened a medical clinic to provide FISD employees with free access to health and wellness. As we know nothing is free! In 2024 the district paid DPMSC $470,000 dollars, and in 2023 the district spent $472,000 dollars. We are curious why they would partner with a medical service for children – when it is supposed to be for adult employees.
$$ Blue Star Frisco EV: In 2024, $457,915.28 for “Rentals”, in 2023 the district paid 359,028 dollars. When the public-private partnership was announced for The Frisco Star residents were led to believe this was a good deal for the school district as they would have use of the facilities. The city website reads “It houses Frisco ISD events such as football games, soccer games, marching band competitions, commencement exercises, and other similar events.” Everyone failed to mention how much the district would pay for it each year on top of what the district paid for in the original agreement.
$$ City of Frisco (Contracted Services): In 2024, the district paid the city $2,361,742.00 and back in 2023, they paid $2,135,134.56 dollars. What contracted services cost that much?
$$ City of Frisco/Park (FISD Debt Payment): In 2024, the district paid $4,511,073.80 and back in 2023 they paid $5,678,818.38. What is the district getting back from that?
$$ Hilltop Holdings (Yearly Investment): In 2024, the district paid Hilltop Holdings $63,301 and in 2023 it was $81,017.98. What is the yearly investment for?
$$ GCS Trails of Frisco (Contracted Services): Par for the course the city is paying for the use of the facilities for GOLF! In 2024, the district paid $61,555.85 and then in 2023 they paid $54,893.94. I thought the whole point of the PGA partnership was to have “USE OF THE FACILITIES” so why are we paying to rent facilities.
$$ Population & Survey (Demographics Survey): The most interesting expense was the 2024 payment for $115,700 for a survey. Then we noticed in 2023 they paid $113,450.00 for another survey. Why? For What? We plan to file a PIR for the information.
The district’s website reads “OUR MISSION is to know every student by name and need.” At Frisco Whistleblower our mission is to understand how the district spends its money and the need to ask us for more Bonds = More Taxes! There were many more payments in the 2024 and 2023 General Fund Report that some may question. While we wanted to highlight a few, we are still left with the question of what the point of the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ). If all we are doing is paying out on them then how are they beneficial? What are we getting back from these TIRZ if we now have to go and ask residents for another $1 Billion dollars? Next up we will look at the 22/23/24 Capital Fund spending. Until then, you can review the Financial Reports on the district’s website. Lastly, look over the check registers as you might find some interesting things like we did.
Frisco ISD has proposed a new 2024 Bond Vatre which the district and the so called “Vote For Frisco ISD PAC” are pushing hard for. They want us to vote on four (4) propositions that they claim will fund important projects. What is a VATRE? A VATRE is triggered when a board adopts a tax rate that exceeds the district’s voter-approval tax rate (VATR). The VATR is determined for each district by a statutory formula and is the highest tax rate a board can adopt without holding an election. A district’s adopted tax rate has two components: its debt service rate or its interest and sinking (I&S) rate, and its maintenance and operations (M&O) rate.
While a bond election authorizes the issuance of bonds to generate funds for a district’s buildings and infrastructure and to be repaid from I&S revenue, a VATRE approves an increase in the district’s M&O tax rate, which can only be used for items related to programs and people, such as teacher salaries and stipends, training programs, educational programs, and other student activities, such as extracurricular programs. Confused yet?
The school district and the Vote For PAC are selling it to you on the basis that the priority has shifted from building new schools to maintaining the district’s existing facilities. A key piece of the proposed bond is refreshing aging schools and the supposedly includes a refresh for 20 Frisco ISD campuses that are 25 years old. The VATER portion according to the district’s website is needed to increase teacher pay and be more competitive. The district claims this will affect every campus, but they promised similar things in the 2018 bond, and we question if the money was used as they promised. Now they are back, asking us to trust them again but remember they DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT FOR THE REASONS THEY ARE ASKING FOR NOW. That means you can vote for it and then they can change how they or what they use the money for just like they did in 2018.
Getting the information out to the public about the upcoming propositions is not cheap. In fact, principals and the district are trying every avenue possible to get the information out, from using the PTA’s to hold informational sessions to ADVERTISING! Community Impact is one of the largest community papers for Frisco and for a long time we have thought they are in bed with Frisco political powers. We have never seen them write a hard-hitting story or an investigative story, instead most of the articles are “watered down” informational pieces. We have always had one burning question when it comes to Community Impact, how much does it cost to advertise during campaign season. I mean we know Jeff Cheney can afford it because he always owns the back cover for his business – but at what cost?
We started looking into these questions awhile back and set what we had found to the side until we saw a post on social media asking, “How much did Frisco ISD pay for the four-color glossy sticky notes located front and center in the recent Community Impact?” The paper has several different avenues of advertising such as an insert, sticky notes, direct mail postcards, online presence, and in-paper display ads. If our research is right, we can tell you!
We were sent a copy of their Frisco Elections Advertising PDF and according to the document, Community Impact goes out to 85,264 mailboxes in Frisco and their online presence in Frisco hits about 10,176 daily subscribers. Not bad coverage for a city with voter apathy! You can also bet they are working their inside connections in the Desis community as they alone can decide this vote.
Drum Roll Please…… Sticky Notes cost $0.15 each! If the district did 85,264 sticky notes to the Frisco readers, then the district spent $12,789.60 for one paper. Additionally, inserts are $0.15 each, sticky/insert combo is $0.25/set, and direct mail postcards are $0.26 each. If they decided to use the website ads on communityimpact.com it would cost $300/month per market for 30 days. If they choose to advertise via the morning impact email newsletter that goes out to 10,176 subscribers, it will cost $500 for the top of the newsletter and $450 for the middle of the newsletter.
We have a lot of questions:
Should the district be paying $13k for advertising when there is a Vote For PAC who has organized?
Are they advertising clearly, correctly and honestly? For example, on the districts website it reads “100% of bond funds stay in the district and is not subject to recapture by the state.” Will it really stay “IN THE DISTRICT” such as our schools and facilities, or will any of it (even $1 dollar) go to one of the public-private partnerships they have? You might have heard the City of Frisco approved a $182 million renovation for Toyota Stadium, but did you know Frisco ISD pays part of that bill? The recent headlines don’t alert you that the ISD is paying part of that BIG BILL!
That is right, $77 million of the $182 million comes from the public-private partnership TIRZ for the City of Frisco and Frisco ISD. They just did stadium improvements in 2016 for Toyota Stadium. I thought the point of all these public-private partnerships was to make money not just spending it. They also have a TIRZ / public-private partnership for the PGA Golf Course, Ford Center, Expansion of Dr. Pepper Arena, etc. Read more about it on their website.
While they are claiming 100% of the bonds are staying in the district, they are not telling you the VATRE is subject to recapture. According to Community Impact, “the new tax rate would generate an additional $11.5 million in revenue for the district. In total, the increase would generate $19.5 million in revenue, but $8 million would go to the state in recapture.” But they are not advertising that, are they? FISD voters last approved raising the M&O portion of the tax rate by $0.13 per $100 valuation in 2018.
We are just diving into the ISD stuff but as of right now we are not sold on voting for this bond/vatre. Just a few concerns include, we question if Waldrip the Super Intendent is the right might to lead the district as the last city he was in didn’t want him. We also don’t trust the school board President who has a history of personal financial problems to oversee tax dollars. We also don’t believe Frisco ISD is being smart, transparent or effective with the money they have now and we are unsure if throwing more money in the pot is the best solution. Last but not least our ISD needs to explain if any of this money will ever be used for public-private partnerships because if it will that makes it a no for us!
There is a magical art behind asking for something you want and then getting it! I read an essay many years ago that talked about how culturally it was not always the norm to ask directly for what you want and when we do, we are usually bad at it. People tend to hem and haw and often walk away from asking because we cannot clearly articulate the message. For example, many are uncomfortable asking their boss for a raise or salary bump.
Persuasion tactics are strategies that can help you convince people to see things your way and being good using these tactics is usually an art form. To be good, or to be great you must first know exactly what you want and what you need others to “buy in” to. Second you must ground yourself in why you are doing it and make sure it resonates with you so you can “sell it from the heart.” Third, you must be able to state clearly and with no confusion what you are asking for or trying to sell to the people. It must be direct, clear and specific. Lastly, you must be selective and targeted about who you ask or when you announce it.
In Frisco, one man is very good at Persuasion Tactics and his name is Mayor Jeff Cheney. When he “wants” something in Cheneyville, well he gets it! He is very good at “telling you” what you want versus “asking” residents what they want. For example, he has put together his team and he has been gathering his clan of supporters to push for the Performing Arts Centre. When he hit a no with the public/private partnership with the school district and Hall Group, he didn’t stop. Nope, he just changed course and came back at it again with his little clan in toe. Next thing you know he will get what he wants, residents will bitch, and no one knows the wiser of how we ended up here.
The talk of a Performing Arts Centre is not new, but what is new is we are curious “How much has this cost taxpayers?” The city has spent $1.6+ million on the current Theatre Projects assessment or feasibility study, but how many others have we done in the past? What were the costs to taxpayers in the previous studies? Why are we doing so many studies? When it comes to wanting studies and assessments what is the magic number of how many we will do before we say enough is enough? We did some research, and this is what we found:
Feb 17, 2015: Under the consent agenda for the city council meeting item 17 reads, “Consider and act upon approval of publishing a RFQ for the development and implementation of a study to examine the feasibility of a performing/theatre arts facility within the corporate limits of the City of Frisco.” We looked high and low and could not determine how much any of this cost. We could not even find the RFQ they approved to publish.
2015: Frisco Association of the Arts commissioned a “Facility Programming Report” by Page Southerland Page. According to the minutes for the Citizens Bond Committee on 01/26/2015, Tammy Meinershagen provided an update that a feasibility group has been identified to conduct a study for the PAC in Frisco. She went on to say it would take about six (6) months to complete the study and has an estimated cost of $200,000 dollars.
2018: The City of Frisco commissioned a “Needs Assessment” by Webb Management Services and Parkhill Smith & Cooper (PSC). According to a Community Impact article, the study showed there 14 performing arts groups that have 667 days of demand for performance facilities in Frisco. According to the study, the majority of this demand—466 days—calls for a facility with 225 to 500 seats while 177 days of demand calls for a facility of 1,001 to 1,750 seats. At the June 2018 Council Summer Work session, PSC Associate Michael Howard presented the findings and told the council there is not enough capacity in Frisco right now. At that time Cheney told Community Impact that “it was council’s preference to use available bond funds to build a 300- to 500-seat facility to meet the current demand of community arts groups with the hope of working with a private partner to build a larger performing arts center.” Of course, Cheney always changes his tune later! The CI article goes on to say the Councils “Performing Arts Committee is in the middle of a feasibility study to determine the size and needs of a potential PAC.” HOW MUCH DID IT COST – We don’t know! We can’t find anywhere in an agenda search where this shows up from 2017 to 2019.
August 2020: Frisco ISD commissioned a “Programming Report” by Schuler Shook. We can’t determine how much this one cost our ISD Taxpayers either. We have sent a PIR asking for that information.
October 2020: The City of Frisco and Frisco ISD commissioned a “Feasibility Report” by Garfield Public Private and Schuler Shook. Well Shocker – we cannot find anywhere what this one cost taxpayers either!
September 2021: Frisco Arts Foundation commissioned a “Market & Feasibility Study” by Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc. We cannot find out how much this one cost either. However, we are guessing since each year the city “FUNDS” the FAA through Hotel/Motel Fund somehow Taxpayers still paid for it.
May 2022: City of Frisco, Frisco ISD, and Hall Group commissioned a “Space Analysis Narrative by Corgan + Studio Gang. In February of 2022 the city council authorized an agreement for services in the amount of $175,000 dollars. Remember in late June of 2021, the city and Frisco ISD entered a public-private partnership with developer Craig Hall to construct a $67 million performing arts center. The city has agreed to contribute $14 million in voter-approved bond money, while Frisco ISD will contribute $43 million from the 2018 bond package, and Hall will contribute $10 million. Remember this is the one that “FELL APART” and truly if the city had wanted a PAC would have been the best option for everyone involved but we have learned from city insiders that “to many chiefs got involved” which caused the band to break up.
July 2022: Hall Group commissioned and performed a “Proposal and Outline” and we could not find out what the cost of this study was.
January 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned and executed an agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., for consulting services related to a performing arts venue in the amount of $99,300 which was to be paid for by Bond Funds
September 2023: The City of Frisco commissioned part two of the agreement with Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., in the amount of $1,415,500 dollars. Recently in 2024 after some CLARITY they Upp’d that amount to $1.6 million as we told you in our last article.
We did learn a few interesting facts along this deep dive…
According to the Dallas Morning News, “Frisco leaders also launched the HEARTS Project initiative — an acronym for Hall, Education and the Arts — to crowdsource an additional $100 million in donations for auxiliary upgrades. The amenities could include a large video screen facing The Star in Frisco, box suites, a VIP arts club with membership benefits, Frisco summer musicals, and a restaurant or bistro, according to the campaign website, but would not contribute to additional seating.” The 2021 article went on to say that “although city officials have previously said the center could host professional performances, the petition states that the limited seating capacity is too small for consideration by Touring Broadway. Experts recommend between 1,750 and 2,000 seats, according to the petition, which cited Theatre Projects’ market assessment and feasibility study for Frisco.
Next, we found it interesting just a few years ago in 2021 Frisco ISD had committed $43 million from a 2018 bond package and now they are back in 2024 asking voters to VOTE FOR the new 1-billion-dollar bond because they are broken penniless poppers! Just a few years later, they are begging for us to vote in favor of the bonds so the Frisco Kids can have an 11,000,000-tennis center.
We also learned Keating was a huge fan of the arts from a 2018 article in Lifestyle Frisco. He is quoted as saying Deputy Mayor Pro Tem John Keating said, “This is our chance to blow it out of the water, Frisco style!” Remember, Keatings motto in his last re-election we are #1 this, #1 that, #1 here, #1 there! Now he is closing on his house in The Preserve at Fields the #1 most exclusive community in King Cheney’s Frisco.
In closing, the city has buried how much these things cost deep in agendas, under nicknames and code words, hoping that you or I will give up looking. We did but what we can tell you with the most recent study in 2023 plus the other three we are at about $2 million alone in just “STUDIES, ASSESSMENTS, ANALYSIS” done for a Performing Arts Center. That means we are going to keep paying money for these via the bonds, hotel/motel tax fund, or something else until King Cheney gets his Performing Arts Center. You can bet little pretty Princess Tammy will be right next to him the whole way. Trailing behind will be their wingman “John “The Infamous Cheating” Keating.
Diving into all this has taken a lot more time than we expected and unless you understand the arts and all these studies it is a bunch of well-pitched jargon crap to confuse the residents of Frisco. We will continue our deep dive into this because we know the city is about to hit us with a bond. It will be through the City or the secret weapon “THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD”. Just wait and see…. the EDC will make the pitch because the city has been called out.
Do you love Amazon? It is hard to believe that there is one website where you could literally scroll and find anything and everything you want. Half the time, you can find items to buy that you did not even know you need, until low and behold your eyes see it! The dangers of scrolling can hit the pocketbook. We like to look at how the city spends our tax dollars, and it is kind of like Amazon. They spend money like they are shopping on Amazon, adding items to the cart and when they are bored they just look for something that tickles their fancy.
Imagine our surprise when scrolling through the city agendas, we found another interesting item from the July 2nd City Council Meeting related to purchasing authority. Daniel Ford, Director of Administrative Services sent a memo to the Mayor, Members of the Frisco City Council, and cc’d in Wes Pierson – City Manager and E.A. Hoppe – Assistant City Manager asking them to consider a change to the ordinance granting purchasing authority to the City Manager or his/her designee for all budgeted items not exceeding $100,000.
In 2017, the City Council approved a threshold increase from $25,000 to $50,000. Why are they now wanting to change it to $100,000? The memo states the request is being made to streamline the contract approval process, expedite routine non-controversial purchases, and to reduce the administrative burden on staff, while maintaining compliance and transparency.The word transparency made us laugh!
The memo goes on to read that in 2018 the purchasing of items on the consent agenda was 117 for the full year. Now they claim it has gone up to 245 for the full year and this change would reduce the administrative and processing time for putting council items together by almost two weeks. It also states the increase would allow more flexibility and efficiency to handle these agreements. HOW DOES MAINTAINING TRANSPARENCY AND FLEXIBILITY GO TOGETHER?
Would you be surprised to learn that Agenda Item #30 passed and was APPROVED 6 – 0. The new ORDINANCE 2024-07-32 basically allows the city to spend more with less oversight. How is that transparent? Who determines what is a ROUTINE AND NON-CONTROVERSIAL purchase? Oh yeah, the city determines that that! If one of the council members knocked on your door and said I need 100,000, don’t ask questions, just trust me, would you? The staff is asking to reduce the administrative burden they face so they want to be paid the same but have their workload made easier or do less work.
Does anyone besides us see an issue with this Ordinance? Interesting how they threw it on the agenda before the Summer Vacation break, don’t you think? Why does the city always claim they are taking steps to be more TRANSPARENT, yet they send almost every single PIR to the Attorney General and hide information from the public? If you think this is a bad change then you should email your city council and city manager. Now they claim in this memo they want to spend more with less oversight to be more transparent.
If you are from the DFW area you may recognize the name Robert Tilton, an American Televangelist and the former pastor of the Word of Faith Family Church in Farmers Branch. His ministry peaked in the early 90’s and it has been reported his infomercial style church program aired in some 225+ American television markets. It has been reported that Tilton brought in $70 to $80 million dollars per year. The message he pushed upon viewers was the importance of “vows” aka financial commitments to the Tilton ministry. The minimum vow was $1000 but if you wanted to receive a personal “word of knowledge” from Tilton you had to “vow” anywhere from $5k to $10,000 dollars. If you sent a prayer request with a vow, then Tilton claimed to lay on top of the prayer request to heal the weak.
Tilton’s demise came in 1991 when word got out that he may be a fraud or over promising “blessings” to viewers. Some “garbologists” who worked for ABC’s Primetime Live spent over a month dumpster diving outside of Tilton’s many offices and what they found was shocking. Over 10,000 lbs. of prayer request letters cut along the edge with the vow removed and the prayer request still inside the envelope, untouched and discarded in dumpsters. Lawsuits commenced by followers, the Tilton’s headed to divorce court and many felt it was an attempt to protect their assets. Now, why am I reminding you of this Tilton character? Well, he was full of it, kind of like our city council.
For years, our city leadership has made grand promises when it comes to some projects, but then they vanish into a cosmic void, much like matter falling into a black hole. The city has been talking about Grand Park since before most of us were born. Well after several municipal bonds, environmental studies, we have a walking trail, but no grand park (remember like Central Park in NY) or lake as promised. Then there is Wade Park which later become known as Lake Lebanon which sat for years after the developer went belly up. It later became known as The Mix, which we have heard about for the last two years and yet…still nothing but a fence around the property. Then we had the Frisco Theater, a grand place for plays and as of late now Broadway style shows. Well 5 to 7 studies later over 8 years, still nothing! Oh wait, now they want us to buy into a $500+ million theater run by the city on taxpayer dollars. My point is, they council is much like Robert Tilton and his “Word of Faith” ministry who make grand gestures and promises, ask us to pass more bonds, potentially increase our taxes and yet nothing seems to actually be coming together.
Picture of Lake Lebanon (formerly Wade Park) before it rained and filled up with water. Note it is now supposed to be The Mix. Side note we had a lake here it was just not in Grand Park like they promised. Picture by Dallas Morning News
Another example, the city has been talking about the revitalization of Frisco’s Downtown area as far back as 2016-2018. Well, after spending at least $50 to $75,000 visiting different cities to “study their downtown areas” we finally broke ground to fix downtown. The city has dragged its feet since 2016, spending money on tours and trips but only now that FIFA is coming in 2026 is there a push for this project to be done in time so we can look good for the many “visitors” it will bring downtown.
The sad part is we have had Frisco locals take interest and invest in our downtown area way before this city or the council have done anything. While we may not always agree with Donny Churchman, he is one man who has had a passion for downtown and the Frisco Rail District. In a 2018 interview with Lifestyle Frisco, he notes the downtown area has been ignored during all the development. He talked about the name change of downtown Frisco to the Rail District has a lot to do with Frisco’s history and the BNSF railroad and we could not agree more with him on that.
He started investing years ago in the downtown area with The Patio at the Rails and Tower at the Rail, then came the Nack Theater. His overall goal is to “restore downtown Frisco” and it is a passion for him. We are curious how Churchman feels today, with the city bending over backwards offering tax incentives for Rollertown Beerworks, a venue that features a two-level taproom and 4,320 sq ft outdoor beer garden. Did the city break their back for Churchman’s investments. We don’t know but would be curious to find out more.
Along with Churchman, many residents who own historic homes downtown have spent time and money to meticulously renovate and update them while keeping that 1900s charm about them. All this local money and passion bringing life in to downtown, and yet our city has sat on it since 2016. Many of these locals have advocated for something to happen downtown for the last ten years as everything seemed to develop around it. If they can do it then why did it take FIFA coming here for the City of Frisco to finally do something.
The June 2024 announcement of the new grand downtown plan made us wonder, if we went back 5 to 10 years what “priorities” did the city have and which ones have been completed. We found a town hall video discussing the 2018 Top Ten Priorities, which include the following:
1) Implement Traffic Innovation
2) Increase Capital Expenditure Fund
3) Performing Arts Center
4) Downtown revitalization & finish the master plan
5) Grow and expand our Economic Development Corp to go after fortune 500 companies
6) Lower property taxes
7) Development of the North 380 Corridor & its Growth,
8) New facility expansion options like city hall or the library
9) Final master plan for our future parks
10) Legislative Plan to Protect Frisco
Awe, the dreaded word in this town…Traffic! Cheney said the first priority was Traffic Innovation because we have become more congested (DUH!!). The priority aims to use new technologies to help relieve that congestion such as adaptive signal control systems which communicate with cars and autonomous, or self-driving, buses in Frisco by this year, used in the private sector. Seven years later, if you drive Frisco – TRAFFIC SUCKS! Not sure the signal control systems are working, and we don’t have autonomous self-driving buses in Frisco but guess what we do have…ROUND-A-BOUTS and TRAFFIC! If we were grading the city on this priority, they would get a big fat F!
One of the other 2018 Priorities was the Performing Arts Center Strategy. Cheney told Community Impact in 2018 that he would like to see it as a public-private partnership. The article also said they were in the middle of a feasibility study to determine the size and needs of a potential PAC. Well in 2024, we are on our 6th or 7th study, they are proposing a city owned theater at the taxpayer expense, but they hope down the road could be a public-private partnership, and several discussions over the years for a PAC have failed and fallen flat. We would give this a priority a big fat F as well!
The 2018 Priority for finishing the downtown master plan started with them approving a contract with a consulting firm to update the 20-year-old downtown master plan. Cheney told Community Impact at the time that the council and city official plan to continue to work with the private market to explore old downtown Frisco options. Remember, the cool market with a beer garden that Frisco Market developers promised? Well, we have the market but no beer garden and downtown has not changed that much except for the private development by Churchman and residents.
What has the city done downtown? Not much, but now that FIFA is coming, we have a $70 million dollar renovation downtown happening and you can bet it will be finished in time for the visitors to come. We give them a big F for this too. Just look at what they finally say they will commit to in 2024.
The next big priority was the Northern Corridor and creating an identity for it. Cheney told Community Impact that their plan for 2018 was to attract more business and residential developments to the area. Well, they must have known something we didn’t, we are referring to the December 2018 announcement that the PGA of America was relocating its headquarters to the “Northern Corridor” of Frisco. This was a good win for Frisco, and we gave them an A+ for it! However, they get an F for the shady business dealings, friendships, and conflicts of interest that came from some of the development around the new PGA for Cheney and some council members.
As for the expansion of city facilities, we have a new 65-million-dollar library, new court building, city hall in 2023 started an expansion inside and facilities just opened a new building in the last year. As for the masterplan of parks well you can bet Bobblehead Bill got his bikes and trikes trails. As for Grand Park, well that is still…not Grand at all but if you want to see a butterfly you can walk the trail they put in.
Back to Robert Tilton, he was about big words, fancy clothes, and was about “putting on the show” to get your vow. He promised to pray for his flock, but he failed when money took over. What we have learned is that the importance of a project in the City of Frisco is determined by a select few who sit on council. We have also learned they love to talk about things and promise things for many years but the truth is they are failing us as residents. When those sitting on our city council run for office, they each run for their own purpose or passion project. That is okay but they should be representing all of us and the truth is our council only represents the WEST SIDE, which is where you have seen all the investment in the last 5 to 8 years. Why do we say that? Well just ask our council members where they live.
Not one person sitting on our council today lives on the East Side of the tollway or the Collin County side, maybe that has something to do with where all the money is going. They all live in the Denton County side of Frisco which is WEST of the tollway. That’s right folks, Tammy Meinershagen, Laura Rummel, John Keating, Jeff Cheney, Angelia Pelham, Brian Livingston and Bill Woodard all live on the WEST SIDE OF THE TOLLWAY. Maybe that is why they get the PGA and the Frisco Star, and the East Side is getting Universal and Business Warehouses Developments along PGA Parkway.
I went to her to ask for help with an issue my child that was getting nowhere with the school,…
So whatever became of the $17 million dollars that the city council gave the Mayor to beautify a drainage ditch?
At last count, there are 3 different "spa/massage" businesses in the small office park at the northeast corner of John…
I literally just saw this. Yeah, she used to forward everybody’s emails behind their backs.
You're dropping truth bombs! These mom and pop shops are what should be the least of Karen's worries. If they…