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.