Platform Topics
Action NOW for Frisco's tomorrow
During my time serving you on Frisco City Council, I have kept my promise to always keep Frisco's future in mind as we make decisions today that will impact us for generations to come.
PLATFORM TOPICS
Prioritize our infrastructure
Frisco has been growing by roughly 10,000 people every year, and we have now reached a population of over 240,000. A proactive plan for continued population increase has been one of my top priorities since joining Council, including investing millions into building out new roads. Just as important, Frisco's reinvestment strategy in our existing roads, buildings, and city services has been a top focus as many of these turn 20 years or older. In my opinion, it is necessary to do both of these to help to keep our quality of life at the level we have come to expect. With all that needs to be done, we need to continue putting a focus on finding new ways to innovate and use technology to help create efficiencies, helping to keep our taxes low.
According to the City of Frisco's estimates, the average assessed household value has increased to around $800k. While these increases in value make your home a good investment, it also means property taxes are increasing as well. Keeping our property taxes as low as possible has been a top priority for me as a member of our Budget and Audit Committee. In June of 2025, I voted for the 3rd time to increase our Homestead Exemption, this time to 20% (the state maximum). I also voted for implementing a Senior Tax Freeze, so our seniors will never be priced out of their home as our property values continue to increase.
Frisco has consistently been rated one of the "Safest Cities in America", but crime still exists and we have to maintain focus on public safety. If we want to maintain this reputation, we must continue to approve additional public safety positions to support our growing city. Public safety positions can be hard to fill with top candidates, so we also need to ensure we are competitive in our pay ranges against the other area cities (I approved multiple increases for this very reason). We recently opened a new fire station, which comes with a staff increase that we've been planning over the last few years. We have another firehouse to build in the near future, so we need to plan appropriately for the increase in employees there as well.
Smart Growth
Frisco is approximately 85% built out. Completing that last 15% is much more challenging as we put the final pieces together, keeping future redevelopment in mind as part of the process. During my time on Council, I have consistently voted for developments that will be beneficial to our city, and I consistently voted against zoning I didn't believe was right for the location where it was being requested. As Legislative Chair, I fought against state law SB840, which allows developers to build multi-family without city approval. I am committed to continuing to challenge this law until local control is restored. Myself, and Council members before me, have fought for years to reduce the outstanding apartment rights by the thousands, but this law puts all of that work in jeopardy. We have to continue to fight it!
Frisco is a desirable area to live and getting too expensive for young adults or young families to afford. I have shared with multiple potential developers that they should consider, instead of more apartments, we offer more smaller-format housing options like condos, townhomes, and zero-lot-line homes as alternatives. These types of options would also be multi-purpose, appealing to both young professionals and to our retired citizens who want minimal maintenance.
Fuel Innovation
Frisco's City Council in 2020 had a strategic goal of making Frisco a destination for innovation and entrepreneurship. This goal was one of the reasons I first decided to run. With previous experience in an early stage start-up, I am keenly aware of the needs of these organizations (access to pitching for venture capital funding, flexible workspaces, and shared support services to name a few). We are now well on our way with hundreds of startup companies opening in Frisco. I helped to secure the partnership with Plug and Play for the two startup accelerator programs, allowing us to draft off of these existing businesses and build a vibrant ecosystem. I've also stayed involved in this initiative, lending my knowledge and expertise to the programs. But why am I so focused on this particular business segment? Start-ups typically provide slow and steady organic growth for the city, as well as bringing high-paying jobs, two attributes I would like to see us continue to recruit here to Frisco.
You can't read many business articles without coming across artificial intelligence, and it's a tool I use regularly in my professional life. After adding AI and Innovation to our Progress in Motion priorities for this year, staff has been empowered to be thought leaders in this area. As a result, we are already testing AI in a few departments. The area I am most excited about is the pilot that is using AI to improve traffic flow. There are multiple companies out there focusing on cities and city services to help improve operations. If they can bring a positive ROI to Frisco safely and securely, we need to learn about them!
My pet project - our pets!
During my first year on Council, I drove the initiative to establish Frisco's first Animal Advisory Committee with the mission of taking a more proactive role in supporting our domesticated animals. One of the first questions they asked is how can we reduce the number of animals going to our county shelter. Some of the reasons animals are taken to a shelter is for health, financial, or behavioral reasons. Since chartered, the committee has worked with Frisco Animal Service and the Frisco Police Department to execute 3 vaccination and microchip clinics, improve resources for lost or found animals, and increased the focus on ongoing education of good pet ownership. They will continue to look for ways to educate our community on pet ownership and advocate for our pets, like the importance of spaying and neutering pets. The committee has also played a key role in our Paws and Stripes festival for the past two years.
In terms of having a shelter in our city, I have been working in conjunction with city staff to identity potential private partners who could help make this possible for Frisco. I believe we can build something more innovative than a traditional shelter, one that focuses on combating the reasons for homeless pets, and a private partnership could enable this without an increase in taxes. A local facility would be valuable for our residents and provide an enhanced city service beyond what we have today. There is a lot of work still to do on this project, but I'm hoping we are able to bring forward a partnership for. Council to vote on in early 2026!