As early voting enters its second week, now, more than ever, is the time to become familiar with your area’s candidates in preparation for the polls.
Frisco City Council Place 5 has seven candidates vying for its seat. In an attempt to help audiences hear from and learn about their candidates and associating platforms, Local Profile reached out Frisco’s Place 5 candidates to find out their plans for Frisco.
Laura Rummel
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
My primary focus would be to help us to navigate through the financial impact of the pandemic while balancing the need to prepare for our upcoming growth. We have 10,000 people move to Frisco every year and with major corporations moving here soon, we need to be proactive. That means we have the infrastructure in place to support our city's growing population and we plan for that growth in a smart, forward thinking fashion.
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
I am a business woman with a long history of collaboration, relationship management, and navigating through difficult situations. I would use my experience working for a successful start to help create the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center the City has outlined in their Vision 2020 goals, as well as I have some ideas for Grand Park as we move forward with planning that development.
Grand Park is now planned to be over 600 acres. I want to be sure we have a solid revenue plan in place for maintaining it, without raising property taxes. Ideas like businesses along the Tollway that we can rent to, maybe even our own animal shelter, would help to separate the highway from the park. I’ve also seen small cafes in parks where people can grab a coffee or picnic to enjoy, but only accessible by foot so no motorized traffic access. I’d also like to see a volunteer program organized to help maintain areas like a flower garden.
Campaign website: https://www.lauraforfrisco.com/
Ruan Meintjes
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
Well, I think two things. Number one is making sure we have a sustained financial recovery, and I think Frisco has been doing very well during the pandemic, but as we go into the next two to three years, making sure that we have that continued bounce back is going to be awfully critical. So that looks like making sure we’re opening up as quickly, but responsibly as possible and making sure that Frisco enjoys the greatest amount of liberty that we can give to our residents while still being responsible.
Number two is a focus on making sure we continue to recruit the right employers and the right developers to Frisco. With us being about 30 to 40 percent away from being built out, we’re in the final stages of our growth and after that we will be transitioning to a point where we’re going to be a mature city where we have to transition more into maintenance, as opposed to growth. So how we build out the last 30 to 40 percent of our city is incredibly important.
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
I’m the youngest person in this race. I’m 26 years old. Forty percent of the Frisco population is under the age of 30, so I think number one, it is really important to have young people and the future of Frisco involved in the government of Frisco, right now. I bring a really unique perspective and there’s no one else on city council right now that’s able to bring that youth perspective. Number two, I don’t think we should just be voting young people into positions just because they’re young, that’s kind of
I manage a 30 million dollar public partnership developing out in Sherman. I’ve managed medical related transactions worth millions of dollars and I work with some of the most prestigious law firms, specifically one in D.C. that handled multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court. So, my argument is that from a business or legal perspective I have the horsepower and the qualifications to be of very substantial value added to the city council.
Third, I and my family have been in Frisco since 2008. I’ve been a resident of Frisco since 2016, but we’ve been doing business here since 2008. I served on the board of my HOA (HomeOwners Association) which is in one of the older parts of Frisco so we’re primarily focused on renovation and rebuilding older parts of Frisco in my neighborhood. I also served on the board of LifeTalk, Frisco’s only pregnancy resource center. We’ve had an active presence in Frisco since 2008. So I’ve been very active in our community, very active in my neighborhood and very active in the business and economics side of Frisco. I would argue that I’m a young person, I have a really high level of qualifications and I bring a lot of history and insight into the community to my long time here.
Campaign website: https://www.ruan4frisco.com/
Rob Cox
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
While the rise in equity of residents' homes has been beneficial for homeowners, they really only realize it monetarily until they sell their home. The downside consequence has meant significantly increased property tax bills for homeowners. We need to continually address the tax burden on homeowners and renters. To combat higher residential property taxes, we must diversify our economy by attracting more employers offering high paying jobs. This will allow Frisco to continue it’s path to becoming a strong commercial employment center, with increased commercial valuations along our DNT spine. Commercial developments will add billions of dollars of valuation. There will be two significant impacts to added commercial development: 1) It will allow the city to lower the tax burden on homeowners, and 2) It will allow the flow of billions of dollars in commerce into the city, providing long term sustainability for the city and it’s residents.
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
There are several strengths that differentiate me in this election. The first is my work experience as a technology executive. Over the last 25 years, I have helped create over 100,000 jobs globally and have opened new markets for software in India, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina, Europe and Australia. This diverse global view is beneficial to both current and future residents. I have demonstrated experience meeting and working with C level executives and small business owners alike.
The second differentiation is volunteer experience in the city. I have been invested in Frisco for over 22 years, and in the last 6, have served on the Frisco ISD Long Range Planning Committee, District of Innovation and for the last 5 years, been on the Frisco Planning and Zoning Commission, and the last 3 years being voted by my peers as chairman. In this role, I have represented the city meeting with homeowners, solved problems alongside our city managers and helped reduce our future density over 25 percent from 2015 to 2019. Real experience, real results allow Frisco to be named the best city in America to live, one of the safest cities in America to live, and have one of the highest household average incomes in Texas.
Josh Meek
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
My primary focus for when I am elected will be restarting our economic engine. Frisco has an advantage compared to other communities in that we are a “destination location” for retail, sports, events and entertainment. In 2018, $2.1 billion were spent in Frisco on tourism. My experience from serving on the Visit Frisco board gives me a unique advantage to helping Frisco recover from the effects of the pandemic.
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
My strengths are many and there are a variety of ways they can serve the Frisco community. First, I am committed. Since making the announcement to run in the summer of 2018, I have attended the last 55 Frisco city council meetings. I am a local business owner, [and] served on the boards of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce and Visit Frisco, which means I have strong experience in knowing and understanding our local Frisco economy. I have led teams and have strength in understanding financials which will serve Frisco residents well, as council directs city staff over the course of the next few years.
Ram Majji
Ram Majji is a Frisco resident of 20 years and has embraced the city as his forever home. He shares on his website, “When I moved to Frisco 20 years ago, my wife and I had recently married. We wanted a great place to live and start our family. Like many newlyweds, we started with no money and big goals. Frisco has been good to us and allowed us to achieve the American dream.” If elected, Majji aims to lower property taxes, improve infrastructure, bring more employers to the community, support public safety and public servants and, lastly, to seek partnerships that expand educational opportunities.
His professional career involves technology management and implementation where he’s gained more than 25 years of experience and hopes to add more technology jobs to Frisco. Majji also states on his campaign site, “Although I have lived half of my life in Frisco, I am an immigrant like many Frisco residents. I possess a unique understanding of the role that diversity of thought plays in creating a balanced city.” Majji served on the Frisco Indian Affairs Committee and the Frisco Citizen’s Bond Committee and is a Frisco City Hall 101 graduate.
His closing statement at the Frisco chamber forum on Oct. 5 as reported by Community Impact reiterates his platform and priorities if elected to city council: “It's bringing in world-class employment. Employment is the key to me, and local jobs; making sure that we have cultural programs; making sure that Frisco is actually the number one city.”
Campaign website: https://ram4frisco.com/
Dan Stricklin
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
Frisco is constantly rated as one of the best places to live in the US yet there is more work to do, our city needs to attract employers [that] offer high paying jobs and we need to stand together as a community and help our small businesses by Shopping Frisco First.
My Pledge to the citizens of Frisco is to put Frisco Families First by making sure our Police and Fire Departments have the resources they need to do their job, ensure continued public safety, keep taxes low, vote against high density and help support economic growth to help Frisco recover from Covid-19.
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
I’m a United States Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur and Business Owner. I’ve been in the Electronic Security Industry for the majority of my career and have a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and an MBA.
We moved our family to Frisco because this is where our church home was. My wife’s name is Kara, we have been married for over fifteen years and are college sweethearts. Both of our children attend FISD schools. My family believes in giving back to our community. I served on the Hosp PTA Board of Directors, am an active Member of Frisco Association for the Arts, was an Advocate Member to the Frisco Council of PTA’s and served as an Usher/Greeter at Elevate Life Church for four years. I was elected twice to my Homeowners Association and unanimously voted President for my last term. As HOA President, I made a promise to my community that we would become a Frisco Five Star Neighborhood and am happy to say I made good on that promise in 2019.
Campaign website: https://danstricklin.com/
Hava Johnston
What will be your primary focus if elected to city council?
Right now it’s the health and safety of our communities and the economic recovery from this pandemic. I would be looking to the higher leadership and scientists and the experts in the community and working with the current city leadership and other elected officials to make sure we are following the recommended protocols that are put in front of us. And taking the advice of the experts, i.e. ‘wear your mask!’
What do you think are your strengths in [regards to] serving the city?
I think my strengths in service to the city are the same strengths that I possess in every aspect of my life. I’m a hard worker and I am very loyal and dedicated. I’m an organizer, I bring people together over various common causes. For various reasons, it’s what i’ve always done and what I continue to do now. It’s a matter of organizing, networking, and being a community leader.
My biggest message to them [voters] is that I am working to be the voice of those who oftentimes are underrepresented and underserved. As wonderful as Frisco has become and will continue to be, there are still areas and needs aren’t being met and we need to switch our focus to make sure that every citizen in Frisco is enjoying the benefits that Frisco has to offer. The whole point behind my campaign is that I want to be their friend in Frisco. At the end of the day, I’m not running for a seat on city council, I’m running so that they have a seat on city council.
Campaign website: https://havafriendinfrisco.com/
