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 Jeff Cheney who is running for Place 2.
1. What is your current occupation?
· Realtor, Keller Williams Realty Frisco Stars
· Owner, Frisco-Online.com
· Owner, Northstar Property Management
2. What made you want to run for a place on council?
My wife and I have a great deal of passion for the city of Frisco and we became very active in the community immediately when we moved here over 7 years ago. Frisco is such a dynamic and exciting city that I found it very natural to aspire to serve the community in this fashion. I feel honored to have the opportunity to serve the community that has been so good to our family and we will continue to do our part long after my City Council service is complete. I feel in this stage of Frisco’s development it is critical that we elect experienced leadership. I feel this opportunity is a privilege and I take that responsibility very seriously through my dedication to the position as well as assisting the Mayor in my role as Mayor Pro Tem.
3. What experience do you feel that you have that makes you a good fit for the position?
My professional background and experience as a business owner has trained me for the large skill set required to serve on City Council. Through my career I have learned many important skills relevant to this position including the importance of proper operational checks and balances, financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, negotiation, and management. In addition, my entire career has been in professional services acting as a role as a fiduciary for my clients, meaning I must always place the interests of my clients above my own. As a fiduciary for Frisco, I will represent the city in a professional manner, I will maintain a high level of integrity and ethics, and I will be dedicated in serving the needs of our community.My three years of experience on Council have allowed me to develop many relationships with our residents, throughout the business community, and with our surrounding cities and regional partners. With the high amount of turnover we have had over the last three years, electing experience is more critical than ever.Since I work in Frisco, I am easily accessible for our citizens. Through my business networking and profession, I constantly hear the concerns and opinions of our local business owners and our residents. My accessibility and day to day interaction with the citizens of Frisco helps me keep my finger on the pulse of the City.
4. What key issues are you campaigning on?
Experienced Leadership – Frisco has undergone tremendous turnover over the last three years. I have served with nine Council Members and two Mayors. In addition, there has been turnover in many of our regional representatives. Developing relationships with our business partners, regional leaders, and other stakeholders takes time. Electing experience is crucial at this time in Frisco’s development. In addition, the complexities of the budget can take years to fully appreciate, even for CPAs such as myself. Managing the budget over the coming years will require experience and expert knowledge to position Frisco where we need to be.
Fiscal Conservatism – I believe Frisco should focus on core priorities first (Police, Fire, and infrastructure). In addition, I believe in a diversified tax base through retail, business and commercial growth. These types of strategic investments through our Economic Development Corporation as well as other public/private and FISD partnerships is what has led to being able to deliver such quality city services at a low tax rate.
Transparency in Government - When a few people are making the decisions for the city as a whole, it is crucial that all interested parties have their opinions and concerns heard. By constantly having my finger on the pulse of Frisco, I am able to bring a wide range of perspective to the City Council for consideration in our decision making. Through my work on the technology committee, I advocated the introduction of live streaming of council meetings as well as new communication methods such as social networking. I serve on many organization and boards outside of Frisco City Council and I am dedicated to being available to listen to our citizens. I have found the best way to hear from the people is to go directly to them. You will continue to see me at nearly every public event in Frisco to be available to answer any concerns the citizens have. In addition, I am constantly networking within the business community as well as many other organizations throughout the city. Also, I have consistently met with many neighborhood groups or any citizen who wants to learn more or express a concern. I will continue these efforts to bringing city government closer to the people.
Quality Growth – With Frisco not even 50% developed yet, many of our decisions center around development. My experience in real estate provides a unique perspective to these discussions. Frisco needs to continue to focus on high quality sustainable residential and commercial development by maintaining our high building standards. We will continue to seek partnerships to attract businesses and projects that lead to economic growth.
5. What issues would you like to see the council address?
Developing a Central Core – I feel it is crucial for Frisco to have a strong central core. Pizza Hut Park and Frisco Square are a great start. The development on Grand Park, the Frisco Junction, the Train Museum, and ultimately tying it into old downtown, will give us the very strong central core that we need. This area will eventually be the signature location in Frisco that continue to make Frisco a destination city.
Retail Bleeding – Stonebriar mall was a very big win for Frisco many years ago. Today we are already starting plans for the next frontier along 380. Frisco needs to be aggressive in developing infrastructure and being prepared to win the next mall destined to be built along 380. In addition, much work has been done to deliver needed services along 423 and Custer road where tax dollars were leaving to go to neighboring cities rather than staying in Frisco. The Wal-Mart on Eldorado and the Super Kroger on 423 are great examples of keeping tax dollars in Frisco. We need to continue to look for opportunities along our borders to provide additional services where residents are currently visiting other cities to get what they need.
Economic Development – The Frisco EDC is getting more inquiries than ever. Many businesses are seeing Frisco as a great place to do business and executives see the community as a great place to relocate their employees. A primary goal we have is to attract a Fortune 500 company as well as continued growth in the technology sector. Providing opportunities for our citizens to work in the community they live in, is a core advantage we have by funding our EDC.
Destination City – Frisco lowers the tax burden on our residents by generating tax revenue from visitors from outside of the community. One of our main goals is for Frisco to be a destination city. We have many great venues, great shopping, and many activities to bring people from all over the metroplex and outside of the region. We would also like to recruit a destination style hotel and other destination opportunities to continue on this success.
Quality of Life Components – One of my biggest passions in serving on City Council is the sense of community our residents feel. Providing family friendly activities in our community helps bring our residents together. This Council takes great pride when our residents tell us they do not need to leave Frisco to get their family entertainment.
6. What would you like to change about the council?
I feel strongly that a city is not just a collection of buildings, roads or houses, but is predominantly defined by its citizens. We currently spend a great deal of time each year interviewing candidates for our boards and commissions. Each year, we are amazed at the level of talented people in Frisco willing to serve the community. Due to the limited number of positions open each year, many talented citizens are not appointed each year. We need to continue to find ways to keep these citizens plugged in and contributing to our city.
7. What would you like to stay the same about the council?
Every Council member truly has a passion for doing what they feel is best for the citizens of Frisco. While we do not always agree, we always show each other respect and when an issue is done and we move beyond it with a collective voice. We travel the State meeting Council members from many other cities. Frisco is always complemented on its level of professionalism and ingenuity. At a State Mayor’s Conference this year, the Mayors were polled to vote on the model cities across the State. Frisco was one of the Top Three Cities selected by our peers. That is quite a compliment!No Council Member can accomplish anything alone. It takes a shared vision between Council, staff, and the citizens to reach our goals and I want this Frisco First team attitude to continue.
8. What will you do to ensure that the council makes fiscally responsible decisions?
Through my experience as a Certified Public Accountant, financial auditor, and a financial analyst, analyzing budgets is one of my strengths. In fact, during my employment at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of my clients was the City of Bellaire.In my first Council work session, I first expressed my concerns of Frisco’s over reliance on building permit revenues to sustain the budget. At that time, the debt service portion of our tax rate had ballooned to nearly 50% of the rate. This is alarmingly high, even for a high growth city such as Frisco. By being fiscally conservative, we have managed that figure down to 43%. My goal is for Frisco to get under 40%. By reducing our debt load, it has created a much more stable financial situation.During my three years on Council as well as serving on the Budget and Audit Committee, we have accomplished much to keep our taxes the lowest in the region, while also delivering the highest level of services. Some of this work includes installing internal control audits, 5 year budget projections, sensitivity analyses, delaying of bond sales, pricing the FAC to be self sustaining, and balancing all of our utility accounts. In the last three years, building permit revenues have declined from $11 million to $3 million, coupled with flattening sales tax, growth, and property values. Despite this, our efforts toward fiscal responsibility have allowed us to deliver budgets well below bond projected rates each year. Frisco is positioned to come out of the recession in a much better position than most cities and that will allow us the flexibility to act on opportunities before us. Also, as previously mentioned, we will continue to look at reducing the tax burden on our residents by building our retail and commercial tax base, leveraging resources through private/public partnerships, reducing sales tax leakage along our borders, and generating tax from outside our borders through tourism and travel. Conservative fiscal policy is a key ingredient to maintaining financial health in good times and bad.
9. What do you feel is the most important issue facing Frisco?
The most important is clearly our budget as well as setting priorities moving forward. While we feel confident that we have developed a sustainable budget that we can operate at a high level even during bad times, there is still much uncertainty in the economy. We have seen some positive signals with growth in our building permits as well as slight increases the last few months in sales tax. However, commercial valuations will be released this summer and we expect possible 10% declined in those values. We have prepared for that possibility and will continue to look at areas we may be at risk. As the market starts to improve, managing a long list of competing priorities will be our biggest task. In addition, Council needs to start building a long term capital reserve fund. One drawback to the hyper growth Frisco saw over the last decade is that this infrastructure and these facilities will all start aging at the same time. We need to be planning now so that Frisco is ready for that in 10-15 years.
10. Are you for or against raising taxes and why?
I would expect every candidate to answer they are against raising taxes. Efficiency in our spending and proper internal controls should be policy at all times. Many residents moved here because of our low taxes and high quality services.Municipal government differs from most other levels of government in that the voters largely vote on their tax rate through bond elections. Managing these bond sales and resulting effects on our tax rate is one of our biggest challenges. Frisco takes great pride in always delivering budgets below the projections given to the citizens when they vote on a bond package. Over the last three years, Council has worked very hard to tighten the belt on our budget. As a result of the economy, we have used our discretion to reduce our bond sales so we could deliver lower budgets. Frisco has been operating at a very efficient level so we can deliver the level of services our citizens expect at a very low tax rate. In addition, our budget is no longer as dependent on variable income such as building permit revenues which makes it more sustainable. As the economy improves, we can use the growth and new revenue sources to start capital projects as well as funding our long term capital reserves. My preference is to delay major capital projects until our core services, such as police, fire, and other open positions are fully funded and we can fund new capital projects without a tax increase.
11. What would you like to accomplish while in office or what would you like to be remembered for?
I would like to be remembered as someone that is passionate about Frisco, was dedicated to the position, listened to the citizens, and always made decisions that were in the best interests of the city of Frisco.I want Frisco to be financially stable long into the future. This is accomplished by fiscally responsible policies. I am an advocate of Frisco’s award winning comprehensive plan and will continue the vision to develop Frisco into a “unique and sustainable” city. I have three young children and I hope through our work today, they will see Frisco many years from now as a place they want to raise their families.
12. What are your accomplishments and other organizations that you are involved in?
· Endorsed by Police Officers Association
· Endorsed by Frisco Fire Fighters Association
· Mayor Pro Tem (may 2009 to current)
· Collin County Business Press 21 Leaders for the 21st Century
· Frisco Education Foundation Board Member 2005 to Present
· Frisco Chamber of Commerce Member 2004 to Present
· Keller Williams Agent Leadership Council
· Mayor’s Youth Council – Council Liaison
· City Council Budget and Audit Committee
· City Council Technology Committee
· Frisco Square Municipal District Board
· Certified Public Accountant
· Registered Investment Adviser
· Masters in Professional Accounting and Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin
· CCAR Certificate of Appreciation for outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of the real estate profession
· Sponsor and volunteer for numerous Frisco Charity and Community Events including Relay for Life, Frisco-Online Child Safety Day, Get Fit Frisco!, Frisco Family Services, Frisco Cares Clinic, the Storytelling Festival, Frisco Arts Festivals and the Frisco Education Foundation
· Preston Trails Community Church
Frisco City Council Candidate 
Frisco City Council Candidate
(January 23 2009) Candidates interested in running for Frisco City Council may file for a place on the May 2009 ballot, beginning Monday, February 9.
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 David Prince who is running for Place 4.