Editor’s Note: Realfrisco.com sent out a questionnaire to all of the candidates that filed for a place on the Frisco City Council. The questionnaire is intended to help give residents a more intimate look at the gentleman running for council. A different questionnaire will be placed on the site every few days. The next candidate is John Keating who is running for Place 4. His Web site is www.keating4frisco.com
1.What is your current occupation? I am a semi-retired real estate investor and financial services consultant, providing private asset management for my existing clients. I developed group benefit packages and executive planning strategies for tech start-ups. I was blessed with success when times were good and put myself in a position where I didn’t have to work full-time.
2.What made you want to run for a place on council? As an active member of the community, I have seen and heard first-hand the issues concerning the average Frisco homeowner and believe I share the same values of the families who live here. I see issues presented to the council that affect the families of our community and the dissension that has risen among members of the council. I believe city leaders should be working together for the benefit of everyone who lives in Frisco, not simply those with special interests.
3.What experience do you feel that you have that makes you a good fit for the position?
I am a decorated 13-year US Army veteran. I served as a counterintelligence agent and gained the best leadership training in the world. I was active in Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm and led deployments of counterintelligence personnel throughout three continents to evaluate special operations forces training. I know what it takes to lead a team, motivate individuals, make a decision and take responsibility for what I believe.
As a father and small business owner I share the same values as a majority of people who live in Frisco. I have two sons who participate in Frisco sports, attend Frisco schools and rely on fellow citizens and city officials to keep them safe. I have a record of serving the community in such roles as President of the Starwood Home Owners Association, Silent Auction Chair and VP of Fundraising for the Spears PTA. My friends and peers know me as a man of both action who gets things done and integrity, promoting honesty and transparency.
4.What key issues are you campaigning on? What brings people to Frisco? Residents move here for the business opportunities, great schools and low taxes. Why are we raising taxes in a recession? From 2003 to 2008, the city tax rate went up 35%. Last year, by a 4-3 vote, the city council raised our tax rate. So in good times they raise our taxes, and in bad times they raise our taxes! When are they not going to raise our taxes? The federal government is not going to be cutting taxes anytime soon. We’re being nickel and dimed to the point where we soon won’t have any nickels or dimes. I’m campaigning on fiscal responsibility and priorities. To me, public safety is the number one priority for this council; two, our roads and infrastructure; and three, our public-private partnerships. Everything else follows these priorities.
5.What issues would you like to see the council address? An acceleration of the Grand Park project, because it’s going to add so much value to the city. Another issue is no clustered Section 8 Housing in Frisco. Even if only 20% of a clustered development is Section 8, who would want to live in the other 80%? Then, who’s going to want to live in the neighborhood next to the Section 8 Housing, and then who’s going to want to live in that part of the city? We’ve seen it happen in too many other urban and suburban areas. We need to stem the tide now! I would also like to see more public-private partnerships like Field House USA. City leaders did an excellent job acting as a bank, offering the developer a $12.5 million dollar loan and a 20-year lease, without impacting our tax base. The developer pockets the profits from Field House USA, but pays all the maintenance and operating costs, AND makes principal and interest payments to the city. At the end of the lease, the city owns the building and the dirt underneath! What a great idea!
6.What would you like to change about the council? What does it mean when a candidate says they want to keep taxes low? Frisco’s tax rate is .465 cents per $100 of assessed value, and McKinney’s tax rate is .58 cents, so McKinney’s tax rate is about 25% higher than Frisco’s. If our taxes are raised to a point just under McKinney’s, can we say we kept our taxes low? They’re still lower than McKinney’s, so possibly we could. What I’m saying is, for the next 12 months, no tax rate increase! We will protect jobs and cut services before we raise taxes. I will not be party to what the current administration is doing in Washington. I will not tax and spend, and spend and tax! Let’s say “Yes” to true public-private partnerships like Field House USA, “Yes” to projects like Grand Park, which over the long-term, will add value to the Frisco community and increase our property values. The last tax rate increase passed by a vote of 4-3. If I were to win, our conservative council members would have a fourth vote to ensure these priorities are fulfilled. We need a fourth council member who is decisive, with fiscally conservative convictions.
7.What would you like to stay the same about the council? I honor all those who serve, because they are all volunteers and they are not getting paid. Even though there are some on this council I disagree with philosophically and politically, they do put in their time and they do work hard. I’d like to see that same work ethic remain.
8.What will you do to ensure that the council makes fiscally responsible decisions? I’ve lived in Frisco for 11 years and we can’t go back to 2003. We do not have $13 million in permit fee revenue anymore to cover our costs. Our permit fee revenue will be gone when we reach build-out. Every resident-homeowner moving into Frisco uses some of the city services, such as police and fire, sewer, water, waste, roads, etc. Houses valued at roughly $350,000 and up generate a proportionate amount of revenue for the amount of services they use. Homes with a higher value create excess revenue. The average home value in Frisco is about $290,000. We need to attract more executive-level homebuyers to help sustain the city’s growth. Meanwhile, residents with homes valued at or below $290,000 will pay less tax, but will enjoy the same benefits. We’re all on the same team here in Frisco! We’re all in a partnership! It’s not an “us and them,” it is a “we.” We need to continue to grow, but we need to do it responsibly.
9.What do you feel is the most important issue facing Frisco? The economy, the economy, the economy! One of my fellow candidates is very enthusiastic about selling a $16.4 million bond, right now, or in the very near future, for the Arts of Collin County (ACC) project. As lovers of the arts, my family has donated our own money to the project. That was a personal decision, but I am not prepared to commit millions of tax-payer dollars to the project without solid proof of significant economic returns to the three-city region. As a council member, I am not going to make it compulsory for the good citizens of Frisco to surrender their hard-earned money right now, during a recession, for a single project that will cost Frisco an estimated additional $7.5 million over the next 20 years. Do I want to see it happen eventually, some day? Quite candidly, yes, I do, but in a recession we must focus on “necessities” not “niceties”!
10.Are you for or against raising taxes and why? I wish the question was, “Are you for or against cutting taxes and why?” The TLOTA Bill, which some of our council members supported, provided the option for residents in cities like Frisco to raise their own taxes. I would have supported the bill if it allowed citizens to vote to lower their taxes! Will any candidate running for office say they are going to raise taxes? I don’t see why, in the near future, we should have to raise taxes in Frisco. We have one of the lowest tax rates in the region and we’re going to work to keep it that way because it attracts new residents. You have to use innovation and ingenuity to survive in tough economic times. As recent as 2008, of all the new jobs created in the entire country, 70% of them came from Texas. Other states look to us as the economic standard. California, the “Golden State,” once an economic powerhouse, is the example we should shy away from.
11. What would you like to accomplish while in office or what would you like to be remembered for? The City of Frisco is far more important than any one individual. I have two young boys who are 9 and 12. The Great American Dream has always been to do better than the generation before you. I want my boys to have that opportunity, but when the federal government rings up $12.5 trillion in debt, what chance do they have? I don’t want to see city governments doing the same thing. Increasing debt in a recession is irresponsible. I want to be remembered as somebody who loved his wife and was a great husband; somebody who loved his boys and made them a priority in his life; somebody who was a great father. I want to be remembered as someone who never compromised their morals and ethics. If I were to be remembered by my fellow citizens, I would want to be remembered as a man of my word, who worked hard for the good citizens of Frisco.
12. What are your accomplishments and other organizations that you are involved in?
Decorated veteran of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm
President of “Keating Financial Services” Preston Trails Community Church
Leadership Frisco, Class XIII
Spears Elementary PTA Silent Auction Chair, Carnival Chair,
VP of Fundraising Starwood HOA Board President, Village Representative, New Construction Committee Chair, Modifications Committee Chair,
Traffic Enforcement Committee Chair
Frisco Heritage Foundation, Lifetime Member
Bachelor of Science, Mass Communication, Towson University, Maryland
Associate in Applied Science, Criminal Justice, Central Texas College, Texas
Former Regional Counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee and Frisco attorney, Tom Smith, today announced his candidacy for Mayor of Frisco.
On Monday, March 29th, Dr. Jim Joyner officially launched his campaign for
Frisco is in the mood for a little government pork. The list of projects that Frisco has applied for to get funding for, from the nearly 1 Trillion dollar stimulus, is below. It seems like the dollar amount on some of these projects is out of control. Even if the money is coming right off the presses in Washington and out of your Children's piggy banks. 8 Million for a communications system seems a bit extravagant. If this was a business the size and scope of the Frisco Government, these projects would come in a lot cheaper and not take nearly as long. It has taken longer to improve Eldorado between Teel and 423 then it took WYNN to build a luxury Casino. Seems like we could keep the cost of these projects down, but I could be wrong, 50 Million to expand 423 for a five mile stretch seems like a fair price (yeah right). 1 Million per mile. The complete list is below.