All right. She doesn't need prep. She's a professional.
She's a professional. She literally ran from
one function. I'll be there in five minutes.
We got her a beverage. Yes. She's a machine.
Yes. We're very excited. And we are talking about
our special, special guest. We do. It is. So
what is today's thing? It's December 14th. It's
a Tuesday of December 14th. It's the second week
into December 16th. I can't see that little camera's
in the way. You need glasses. I do. I do need
glasses. It's the old person's podcast. Nugget.
All right. We have a special guest. Chuck is
at the helm over there. He's our producer. Dudes
Like Us. I'm Sean. I'm Paul. And I'm Jeff. And
I'm Ann. There you go. And welcome to the podcast.
Not a dude. You're a dude, Ed. You're a dude,
Ed. You're qualified. You're an honorary dude
tonight. All right. All right, so we have a special
guest here. She's running for city council, and
we want to say hello and welcome. And we're going
to kind of give you the floor and tell you, you
know, why are you running and, you know, what's
going on with that program. Yeah, who are you?
Yeah. All that good stuff. I'm sure you've answered
a lot of this stuff. Maybe you start with your
full name. My full name. There you go. Here we
go. Anne Renee Anderson. How's that? There you
go. Now you know what I get called out when I
get in trouble. Oh, there we go. Nobody calls
me that anymore. I've been in Frisco for 20 years.
A military child. So I grew up kind of all over.
Frisco is the place I've lived the longest in
my life. But I lived a lot of my life in West
Texas and San Angelo, Texas. So anybody know
where that is? Yes. Okay. Congratulations. The
dusty area of the state. It's very brown. Kind
of like landmine. Yes. Very landmine -y. It's
very landmine -y. Yes. Okay. Perfect. It's very
brown there. But yeah. So I love Frisco. It's
a great place to live. I've raised my children
here. My husband teaches at Frisco High School.
We're very invested in our city. And I just felt
like after I've watched some of the goings on
in our city, it was time to have maybe somebody
who had different ideas, who talks to people
like yourselves and other maybe educators and
volunteers and people in the city who have different
questions than what I keep hearing over and over.
And I thought it was time to get off the sidelines
and get in the game. So this is the first time
you ran for public office. Yes. Excellent. It's
exciting. You're brave. Yes. You could call it
that. And what are you running for? Frisco City
Council place one. Place one. Which place one
covers which area? We are not geographical. We're
at large is what you would call it. Oh, so you
don't cover the east side or whatever. No. So
when we vote, we vote. For all of them. It doesn't
matter. We don't have a city council member.
They're all for us. We don't have districts in
Frisco. So for those dudes like us out there,
listeners, what is seat one versus seat two,
etc.? It's just a number. It's just an identifier.
It's how many they have. How many do they have?
Six. And are they labeled one through six? Yeah,
place one, place two, place three. So when place
one leaves, does it get replaced by another one,
or do they move two and everybody up? No. No.
Or down. They keep their spots. Yes. I don't
know. And how long do they hold office? Three
years at a time for a maximum of nine, unless,
for example, I'm filling an unexpired term. You
hear I speak that I'm winning. Filling an unexpired
term means that I'll finish out John Keating's
last year of his seat. And then I can run for
re -election for three more terms. He resigned
so he can run for mayor. For mayor. Mayor of
Frisco, huh? Yeah. Is that up next year as well?
Yeah, Jeff is terming out. So Jeff Cheney, not
to be confused with the other Jeffs in the room.
So to clarify, so you are actually holding that
seat now? No. Oh, you're not? No, I'm not. No,
I'm running for it. I'm just saying that I'm
going to win. Okay, so this is an off cycle to
fill this seat that's being vacated by Keating.
Correct. Who's running for mayor. Okay, perfect.
Got it. It's a special election. Special election.
There we go. Okay, so. Yeah, pardon some of the
ignorance we have. It's okay. We bounce all over
the place in terms of international politics,
national politics, federal, state. There's a
lot of people that don't understand the concept.
And that's exactly why I wanted to ask these
questions. A lot of people are not involved.
A lot of people don't understand. So this election
is happening right away. The early voting starts
January 14th, and the election day is actually
January 31. Oh my gosh. I know. When I say it,
it's like... And it's one of those elections
that hardly anybody votes. Unfortunately, we
know that's the truth, right? It's the truth.
Well, we have a million listeners. Yeah. I saw
that. They're all in Bangladesh. In our dream.
We have some in Norway, but yeah. How many folks
running against you? One. Just one. Just one.
So it's you against, okay, gotcha. Now, is this
somebody that has held public office before or
a newbie like you? He has not held public office
before, but he was, he's. been in bureaucracy
is most of his career i would guess yeah okay
okay so i'd love that you decide to step off
the sidelines you're you're tired of what's going
on or maybe you're excited of what it could be
like give us the actual motivation what what
when were you sitting on the couch and going
you know what i've had enough or you know what
this is exciting i'm gonna do it because of um
it was more of i've had enough okay the last
couple election cycles were very ugly and last
may got I would sit in the forums and listen
to people talk and they would say things that
weren't true. So you're saying the campaigning...
No, say it's not so. I know. You're saying the
campaigning itself was really ugly. Yeah, it
was. And I would call and say, hey, I'd call
maybe one of the departments in our city and
say, tell me, I just heard this. Is that actual?
And they're like, well, you know that's not true
because... And they'd explain. So one of the
new things you're going to develop is the Frisco
Snopes. Right, right. Oh, my gosh. You run a
fact -checking service? Let's have a fact -checking
service at every forum. Somebody's fact -checking.
That would be nice. It should be, really. And
that's the unfortunate truth about politicians,
right? I mean, in general, we all think that
they just say whatever it takes to get elected,
right? Right. Generally. Unfortunately, and I
think that it's... It's very pervasive. It's
something that I don't think was so much in Frisco,
but the national politics are starting to infiltrate
our little burb here. Well, the city is a quarter
million people now. I was going to say, not little
anymore. Yeah, we're not little anymore. No,
we're not. Yeah, Julie and I moved here in 98
when there were 20 ,000 people here. 97 when
it was 16 ,000. You just had to one -up me. I
one -upped you big time. 93 when there were three
people here. Dang it. You were one of the first
three people? I was, I was. No. 2005. And we'll
get through this throughout the podcast, but
I'm going to be interested in asking what your
vision is because we see what Frisco is today,
right? And it's grown dramatically. And we'll
get into some of the policy stuff, but I want
to keep going on to the drive that got you into
this race to begin with. You said some of the
misinformation, some of the incorrect information
last year. Was that it? Just kind of the dirty
politics of it last year? I think that and people
were not looking far enough forward. I think
that we, a lot of people running for office,
especially newer people that have run for office,
will talk about. you know like oh the roads are
bad or oh there's so many apartments or you know
things that but okay what about the fact that
you know we're in the middle of this massive
explosion of a population that's going to change
everything in the next 10 years and you know
i talk about water because i've talked to people
on the water municipal water board like this
is truly something we should be concerned about
but also that's because i've lived places where
there are shortages and they're we really where
they actually do have really bad traffic i mean
we have traffic situations but yeah i just go
back from sacramento over thanksgiving and i
told my brother -in -law i don't think they've
paved the road since we moved away 38 years ago
he's like i think you're right they haven't paved
these roads in 38 years so you've seen a small
city grow exponentially and not plan for it correct
yeah okay and what and where have they fallen
short in planning in your opinion i don't know
thus far i don't know that Frisco has really
fallen short. I mean, certainly we can always
do something better. I think I will tell you
that I think some of the wins in Frisco are zoning
and land use planning. You know, when I'll talk
to relatives in other states and we'll be on
the phone while I'm running errands and they're
like, how many stores have you been to just now?
And I said, oh, I had five stores in the last
20 minutes. How is that possible? Because they're
all kind of clumped together. Right. And when
I go into the residential area, it's all houses.
Right. You know, that zoning is very intentional.
Where I've been in other cities where you'll
have a house and right next door to it is a gas
station. Yep. Right. And then there's big, ugly
signs that are really tall. So my high school
years were in Houston where they had no zoning.
Yep. So I can appreciate, when I moved here,
big, big difference. Just in aesthetics, right?
I mean, prettier, the signs are lower, there's
landscaping. It's like you said, it's laid out
a little bit better. So, yeah. I mean, the things
that the recent councils have done about more
green space and trying to preserve that, I think
that's very smart. But I think also we have to
look at what we can do regionally and what does
10 years down the road look like. And I was on
the Comprehensive Planning Committee, which is
basically like the Future Planning Committee
that kind of tells our city departments, this
is where we want things to be. This is what we
think things are going to look like. So I was
on that committee. I got more interested in,
you know, like why are we not asking the right
questions? Right. You know, I'll tell you one
of my big supporters is JP Hogan. And he said,
I don't support everybody because they don't
ask the right questions. They all think they
play in the same sandbox. So if you're not thinking
differently. And so he and I met and he's, he
was like a hundred percent behind you. Nice.
Yeah. What kind of influence will he have? Clarify
that a little bit better. So he's behind you.
He supports you. Is that just for. Just for friendly?
Or is he financially? He is very well respected
in the veteran community. He's a retired colonel.
Has a lot of influence in the city with people
in his circles. So having his support, I think,
says a lot as far as this is somebody who's well
respected, who's been here a long time, who thinks
forward. He's picked her. It's an endorsement
is what it is. It is an endorsement. And so pardon
my ignorance. What is his capacity? Is he a current
city council member? No, he's just an active.
So he's just somebody who's really involved in
the community and has a voice that people recognize.
Yes. Gotcha. Okay, cool. That's huge. All right,
give us a little bit of your background. So you,
corporate world. Yes. Tell me a little bit about
that. So over 30 years in corporate American
financial services, um, did everything from processing
payments to processing loans to, um, managing
the Western United States for a mortgage company.
Okay. So I traveled a lot. Um, I did ridiculous
things like tell people how to set up their two
hole punch. So their files would get through
underwriting, which was nice. That's a good use
of my skills or, um, right. Actual, um, sales
protocols for our sales force um and then um
i helped to vet our joint venture partner when
we opened a a title company a national title
company here in dallas which is what moved me
here nice yeah so how do you feel that translates
to what they need on the city council so i'd
spent before i opened my own business i spent
my life reading contracts um i did a lot of executive
planning uh with as far as employees like career
ladder we would plan out their careers and map
out where they want it to be in 10 years right
so looking at contracts for our staff setting
I we would write compensation plans we would
I mean with the joint venture I had to look over
the contract with that to see you know is this
a good deal from our company to go into business
with them and then of course when we came here
we had to hire we hired 50 people during the
holidays and I had to convince them to go to
Pittsburgh for training during December Oh, nice.
Nice. I have some persuasion skills, I guess.
There you go. You're a good salesperson. Power
suggestion. Nice. There we go. Yeah. So I think
all of it just culminates into just looking at
things differently. That's what I'm very good
at. Problem solving, looking at things differently
from all sides. And that's what I think has gotten
me very far in life. Nice. Okay. I can keep buying
questions. But Jeff has some prepared questions.
Well, not prepared. I was going to ask Anne about
her personal life. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah.
Tell us about your family. There you go. I have
a great family. My husband is Thor, who I sold.
He's an educator. He teaches AP Physics and AP
Physics C at Frisco High School. Nice. He used
to work with me, and he said he loves me, and
he loves working with me, but he misses teaching.
Guys like that should be in the classroom. So
he is. He's very happy there. And that's my husband.
He used to jump out of airplanes. So this is
what I always say. When we met, he was driving
a motorcycle, jumping out of airplanes. It was
super cool. And now he is one step away from
a pocket protector. So AP Physics, does he do
experiments at home or anything? Does he practice?
Any mini explosions? Yeah, you don't have any
burned walls or holes in the ceiling? No. No.
So he's good at what he does then. He's very
good at what he does, but don't ask him a science
question. Like if I'll say, I don't understand
why this is whatever. Why is the sky blue? I
don't know. And he'll explain it to you. Right.
Very clearly and concisely. Does he mansplain?
Uh -oh. You put a stop to that. Sometimes. I
think in her world they call it husbandsplaining.
Husbandsplaining. Right. And kids? And kids.
I have a 27 -year -old daughter and a 24 -year
-old son. Our daughter is a graduate of Texas
Tech. Nice. Yeah. And you've been here 20 years,
so they went through the school system here.
Frisco ISD kids. Very nice. And our son is on
the spectrum, the autism spectrum, and he has
associates from Collin College. And, you know,
he's just figuring things out at his own pace.
That's all right. Nice. Because that's what happens.
We all have some of those. We all have some of
those. Some of them aren't even diagnosed. Right.
Probably one of them. You are one of them. My
mom overdosed on Tylenol all the time. Oh, nice.
Your friends will tell you. No, that's our family.
And probably the people that really run the roost
are our two dogs. There you go. No pets? Tula
and Sophie. I had about... I had maybe 12 inches
of our bed last night. Are they big dogs? No,
they're little dogs. But they can spread out.
Very inclusive. They definitely control things.
And last night I was the last one in bed. Got
to get a little dog hammock and suspend them
over the bed. There you go. Nice. I feel like
that would not be successful. No. Your husband
can figure it out. So how'd the family feel about
you making this decision? Oh, big. Well, they
had to be really supportive because they will.
They don't see me much right now. Matter of fact,
you guys did not notice that my phone was ringing
because that was the family calling. You have
a huge commitment. You do, but also they should
be looking at my calendar. If we need to stop,
all we do is hit pause. No, y 'all are good.
So they're very supportive. Their friends are
supportive. They think that this is the right
thing to do. We all have a lot of... peace and
confidence that it's what I'm supposed to be
doing right now in my life. Has there been any
nastiness yet? Not really. I mean, I hope not.
There was a little, I kind of overlooked something.
Um, I honestly made a kind of a stupid mistake
and I was really mad at myself actually about
it. And, uh, I fixed it this morning. First thing,
because when you're in leadership, you, if you,
someone points out, you may, maybe you made a
mistake. What you should do is investigate it,
verify, and then fix it, and that's what I did.
Own it, yeah. I owned it, and I fixed it. Good
for you. That's a rare character trait nowadays,
it seems like. She's correct. That's what I used
to tell my team all the time. If we make a mistake,
we own it, we figure out what we did wrong, and
we try not to do it again. I tell my team, it's
going to come on you. It's not going to come
on me. I had nothing to do with this. Yeah, the
shit rolls downstairs, not upstairs, or whatever
they say. But don't say it. But by the way, this
is what we're drinking that we'll talk about
eventually in the podcast if you want to pick
it up at any point. So how involved is city council
in the school district? They shouldn't be. I
mean, the school district runs itself. The city
runs itself. They're two different entities.
Okay. So there's no – city council has no say
in schools opening, closing, or anything like
that? No. Just funding -wise, they do. No, not
funding. The city does not fund the school district.
The school district funds itself. Oh, that's
true. Because, as you know, my wife's a teacher,
and one of the things that I've been reading
and seeing is the attendance is dropping in Frisco,
like dramatically in the early, because Frisco
has become an expensive place to move into. If
you weren't already here 15, 20 years, it's very
expensive to buy. So starting families can't
really buy in, which means there's no little
kids to go to schools. What about the finite
amount of people that actually live here? I don't
have kids that are going to die in school. That's
what it is. All our kids have grown up and moved
on. Right. And young families are not replacing
them. And they're not replacing them. So what's
your thought there? Well, she said that they
don't have much say in it, but I was going to
ask, what's the kind of vision is, how does that
correct it, kind of, or can it be? That's a tough
one, isn't it? Because they're going to still
want that money. It is. I mean, meaning home
values are still going to stay high. They want
the assessed value. They're still going to have
$30 million SISD. buildings being constructed.
I don't think they're going to be building any
soon. I think they're going to be closing some
soon. My point is that they've got to allocate
the money for something. Who knows? We'll probably
have $105 million football stadiums being proposed
like they did out in Allen. We actually have
that taken care of because we have the star.
We have a dome. It's not retractable. I was there.
It should have been retractable. All right, so
is that one of the concerns that the city council
is not really that special? It's not their focus,
but is it a concern? I think that what you're
talking about is the housing situation. It's
a national problem, right? Right. So my husband's
from Bismarck, North Dakota. You would think
that housing would be very affordable, very not,
you know, who's moving there, right? Right. It's
really cold there right now. Why would you want
to live there? But last time I was there, I was
surprised to see the housing values have gone
up. exponentially from what they were in a few
years before. So this was in like four years
ago compared to two years ago. So I would, it
is a national, it's a national situation. I have
a lot of thoughts around, you know, what could
have caused it or, you know, was it that the
interest rates were so low and it caused the
market to be depleted of houses? Is it, you know,
people were buying more house than they, you
know, than what they normally would have been
able to afford? I was talking to a mortgage guy
and I said, what do you think the perfect rate
is? And he says somewhere around six and a half.
And I thought, you know. Really? Well, when I
bought my first house, it was six and a half
percent. I'll never forget it. My parents paid
double digits interest rates in the 70s. I know
it. I clearly remember that. Insane. It was insane,
right? Yeah, but the house was $30 ,000. Right.
Exactly. But the salary was $1 .70 an hour. Right.
That's all my dad's check. Right. I was in the
50s. He showed us his father's very first paycheck.
Oh, my goodness. It was insane. It was at General
Electric. It was $1 .70 an hour. Oh, my goodness.
You could buy a whole case of beer. Yeah. But
ice cream was a penny. Yeah. And a movie was
a nickel. Right. So we can't rewind the clock
and go backwards, right? No. And everyone talks
about the cost of housing. I saw an interesting
city council meeting for one of our neighboring
cities. And a council person, a developer was
presenting and the council person challenged
them on what they were building. And he said,
I'm going to vote no on this project. And the
whole city council voted no because the largest
employer in that city is a school district. And
none of their employees could afford what this
person was going to build. Now, we live in a,
and people have the right to sell their land
for what they want to and the developers can
build what they want. sell their homes for what
they want. You and I can sell our homes for what
we want. Sure. We can try to at least. Right.
But move where? And buy what? Exactly. It's not
reciprocal. Because I guarantee it, whatever
we move into is going to be more expensive. Well,
that's part of the challenge is everyone is sitting
on their homes right now because we have 2 %
APR right now on this house. Why am I going to
go sell this to go pay, I don't even know what
it is now, 6%, 7 % now? It might be the 6 .5%.
It might be the 6 .5 % now, right. Yeah, and
that's a dramatic increase in your mortgage payment.
So when you're looking at four points. When you
talk to mortgage people and realtors and they
talk about the market adjusting itself, right?
So I saw a house listed that has been dropped
$100 ,000 here in Frisco. Yeah. So that's what
we're talking about, market adjustments. We lived
in California, like I referred to earlier. It
was 37 years ago. It was before we had children,
a long time ago. And we saw two market adjustments.
In the time that we lived there, we lived there
eight years. And there's been multiple since
then. But in the end of the day, my brother -in
-law has lived in his house for almost 40 years.
And it's certainly worth a heck of a lot more
now than it was when he bought it, right? So
it still is that good investment, but the market
adjusts. And when we say, how can people afford
homes? But I have two nieces who just bought
houses out there. That's $600 ,000. So they make
more. But you figure it out. So is it longer?
Is it more years on a mortgage? Is it interest
rate? It is a big problem. What percentage of
that do you think, and this is kind of a general
question, not necessarily aimed at you, but what
percentage of the increase of that interest do
you think is because these large conglomerates
are gobbling up houses just to lease out as opposed
to selling? It causes scarcity in the market
for certain, right? It does. It's about supply
and demand. It is supply and demand. And I don't
like it. I'll tell you that. I am a conservative
person. I believe that business owners and the
right to earn money and make money. But I think
that when these large conglomerates come in and
buy up all the houses and cause scarcity. I know
we've talked about that before. How real is that
problem? I mean, is that really what's happening?
I don't know in Frisco. There's a lot of B &Bs.
I think it's more prevalent than we think it
is. I've talked to realtors who've talked about
conglomerates buying up houses in Frisco. Maybe
not so much now that our houses are... I get
phone calls at least once a month. And I think
the way they're battling it is like our HOA just
had a meeting where they are now restricting
B &Bs and rentals. Yeah, we can't have them in
this neighborhood either. That's right. So I
think that's the way they're fighting back against
these conglomerates. Because if you have those
rules in, they can't buy in your neighborhood.
They're not going to get the return. If you can
get control over that HOA, those bylaws, we got
to change that. Shoot, you have what, 83, 88
% of your folks to vote in? I know we were able
to. Yeah, we were in the middle of it. I think
we were devoting. We were not. We've unsuccessfully
tried two, three times. Is that right, Chuck?
Have you picked up that ball and tried running
with it again? We tried, and I don't think it
was... We got advised to not even try. Who advised
you? It was Jesse. Because he wanted to sell
his house to rent it. There we go. You know what?
We'll have this conversation later. Sidebar.
Sidebar, yeah. Cool. All right, so pivoting back
to the city council. So what are the top priorities?
Not the priorities because it doesn't necessarily
relate to problems. What are the biggest challenges
that the city council faces in general? Currently.
For the city. That you see. From your perspective.
I think it's growth, the fast growth and finishing
the build out of the city. You know, we've had
the huge increase, right? I moved here 20 years
ago. So I remember like piles of dirt and I looked
at Thorne like, really, we're doing this again.
We moved to cities that we're just building out.
Right. So we have the massive growth. We have
a huge influx of new residents who don't really
know the history of the city. They're just new.
They don't know how to drive. Just a place to
live. I'm not going to touch the driving. I'm
an insurance agent. I don't remember reading
that sticker. But I think that being very responsible
to the last bit of the city as it gets built
out, I think also as we reinvest into the city,
that's going to be something that we have to
pay attention to. And when you talk about reinvestment,
you have to think, I always give the example
in Back to the Future, the first one, when Michael
J. Fox goes back in time, his neighborhood is
the place to be, right? Right. But the reality
in his current timeline is it's not the place
to be. Right. We need to make sure that that
doesn't happen to Frisco. Right. Protect the
city from becoming a ring city that's decrepit.
I mean, there's a lot of buildup. I mean, they've
got Universal Studios, which is going to be north
of us. They've got the Craig's Ranch golf course
with the Byron Nelson tournament. That's McKinney,
though, isn't it? It's close enough. Yeah. But
you mean the PGA, though? The PGA. The PGA, yeah.
Then you have the trails. up there that I think
is the biggest thing going in right now up there.
It's on the west side. It's up there by PGA.
Fields West. Fields West. That's what I'm thinking
of. Yeah. That thing's going to be dramatic.
Question. Do you know what percentage is still
open in Frisco? Undeveloped. Undeveloped. It's
less than 20%. I want to say it's running. It's
looking like 10. That's quick. It's really low.
Yeah. It was 20 a few years ago, but now it's...
So does Brickman Ranch account for a lot of that?
Yeah, oh yeah. It's the biggest piece. Because
Brinkman Ranch, you have the big ranch on the
other side of Preston as well. That is also Brinkman
though. That's Brinkman too. That's also Brinkman?
The one by the college? Yeah. There it is. So
who's having conversations with, who is Brinkman?
Is it just now just an entity? It's not a person
anymore, is it? I think it's the kids that own
Brinkman Ranch. Yeah. So it's what they want
to do. Little by little they're selling it, yes.
So that's what I've noticed is they're selling
off it piecemeal. Does that kind of continue
in what you're seeing or hearing? Remember, we
live in a country where the landowner can do
what they want. That's correct. It's a free enterprise.
If you don't want that land to be developed into
a neighborhood, you can buy it and do what you
want with it, right? I mean, that's what they
did. As soon as our podcast gets to number one
in the country, we're going to have that kind
of capital, I think. But until then, we might
have to wait a little bit longer. Just a little
shy of that. Yeah. Okay. But there's nothing
the city wants to guide, right? Because you guys
have the ability to, in the city, maybe not in
city council, but to approve zoning. So what's
their role? Yeah. So I mentioned before, I was
on comprehensive planning committee. And one
of the things that we spend a lot of time on
is what we call the FLUP, which is future land
use map or plan. And that really talks about
when the city is redeveloping. A good example
of this is Craig Hall at Hall Office Park. He
tore down perfectly good buildings and built
a giant, the beautiful apartment complex, the
Monarch, the park that they're expanding, right?
That's reinvestment into the city, making it
new, making it different. So when you look at
the future land use, we look at different areas
and we think, well, what's going to happen here
potentially? Or as Preston goes north, What do
we want zoned along Preston Road? But what do
we want zoned just off of Preston Road? Or like
when we go off of Panther Creek, do you want
neighborhoods there? Do you want retail? Do you
want, you know, mixed use? So those are all the
things you look at. So the city does have some
control, right? Right. We even had somebody in
our group that was saying the population is going
to be X. And there were a number of us, including
myself, who said, no, we can control the population
based on the zoning, right? We can control density
based on zoning. So, you know. I mean, Addison
did that. Yeah. I mean, Addison is, they don't
have anything. It's all business. Most of it.
Yes. I used to work in Addison and I always thought
that was, they have very few residential, right?
Yeah. It's very commercial heavy. There's a good
balance in a city between commercial and residential
development that makes, that helps with taxes,
that helps with amenities in the city and things
that we expect like good roads, water, sewer.
That's an interesting dynamic because you got
to balance it the whole way. You don't want us
turning into the hood. No. You know, and it's
just. I mean, of course not. It's redundant,
but I mean, it's rhetorical. What are we going
to do, though? What is going on? You said reinvestment.
What does that look like for older neighborhoods?
Okay, so reinvestment on our side of town. We
all live on the east side, which I feel like
this is the hidden gem. Don't tell everyone,
but we've got... La Hacienda and Ikea. Come on.
There we go. I think we're winning. You nailed
it. Yeah. I'm telling you. So, okay, that was
a joke. And three stacks. And three stacks. I
mean, come on. Hooters. All right. That is a
story all by itself. I knew that was coming.
But you know what was funny? When Hooters first
came around, and you lived here, and they couldn't
do any advertising. And Jeff, you probably know
more about this story, but they didn't put themselves
out there as a Hooters. Really? It was their
parent name of the company. It was like Texas
Wings Incorporated. Yeah. So I think they duped
the city council when they got their license.
Not when they got their approval to build, but
they withheld the liquor license. Oh. I remember
that. And they gave us complimentary beers when
we went in there. And do you remember when they
got it? No, I don't know. They flew an airplane
over Frisco with a gigantic orange banner saying,
we got it. That's all it said. We got it. It
didn't even have the logo on it. That's funny.
I got to be honest. Hooters may have been kind
of a cool thing, shoot, such a long time ago.
In the 90s? 2000s? I don't care about any of
that crap. None of that makes a difference to
me. In fact, I don't go to those places because
the food is horrible. It's healthy. It's chicken.
So it's time to tear it down and build something
nicer. That's the reinvestment strategy. So you're
getting on to the east side. What are some potential
reinvestments on the east side? I think you can
look at roads that are aging, infrastructure
that's aging. Parks. That's specifically parks
that need investment. Well, look at Shepherd's
Hill. They're just reinvesting on that. Re -looking
at parks and art that's been invested. What part
of Shepherd's Hill? Is that where the - That
little water park was? Oh, okay, yes. Behind
Gunstream. Yeah. Where the sheep were. Yeah,
they've got some cool things that are happening
over there. Yeah. I've got to tell you, I've
got some concerns about that rather large concrete
circle sign that they have. It seems very unstable.
I haven't seen that. Like it's going to roll
down the street? Well, like it could fall on
somebody. It just appears to be precarious. If
that thing is really solid concrete, because
it's part of my path that I walk and do my little
exercise path. And I walk back and I'm like,
that doesn't... That doesn't look safe at all.
So, Chuck, you're a civil engineer. Can you take
a look at it? Yeah. I'll get right on it. Okay,
cool. Take a couple measurements? Sure. All right,
cool. Make sure it's securely attached. Did you
T -square out? So, okay, so basically aging neighborhoods,
you're looking to kind of reinvest in the parks,
maybe clean those up, make them nicer, roads.
Roads, definitely. The things that people that
we use every day, right? Right. Sidewalks. Sidewalks,
you see it, right? You see them tearing up the
street and you're like, why are they tearing
up the street? Well, it could be that they're
- Falling apart. Either the street or what's
under the street. Yep. Yeah, like Hillcrest is
an example. They're ripping up left and right
over there. What are they running under there?
I could look into that for you. Hillcrest is
getting repaved or whatever. The original Hillcrest
was two lanes on the right and that's getting
to be 30 years old. It's time to redo it. I tell
you what, it's a lot of money that they're going
to need to reinvest. There's a lot of population,
man. I'm saying, like you said, 30 years old
stuff. It needs work. One of the things that
I think... pay attention to things and then I
kind of go down rabbit holes. But Plano has resurfaced
Coit. Have you guys driven down? Blacktop. Yeah,
that Blacktop, right? It's nice. But it's a new
material. And so they're kind of seeing how it
holds up. And Frisco's paying attention because
if it holds up really well, we could be using
that in the future. Well, I remember when they
laid it, I told my wife, I was like, we have
Blacktop up north. But I was like, it's not going
to last down here. Because of the heat. But it's
not the regular. I didn't know that. It spontaneously
combusts. And I was like, this is not going to
last down here. It's made of strontium. Yes,
strontium. And it has. And it has. They've done
Coit, and they've done Independence. And Legacy.
And Legacy. And it's held up really well every
day. And it's smooth. It's very smooth. How long
has it been there, though? three four years yeah
yeah it's nice yeah so we're paying attention
so those are one of the things that you have
to look at when you're reinvesting right you
don't want to do the same old thing you have
to look at what technology is telling us is a
better investment for the city going forward
longevity right right so whether it's roads or
it's the pipes that run under the roads i'm kind
of curious uh does this play in a role this and
again a general question here i mean we have
our roads the roads are designed for vehicles
but they weren't really designed for those heavy
Battery -operated cars. Especially trucks. EV
trucks. Is that playing a role into that? Did
they have... I mean, this is just kind of a general...
Did that topic come up at all? I don't know that
it necessarily comes up in the city because we
don't control gas tax and stuff like that. I
meant like the wear and tear of the streets.
Certainly, that's a concern because those vehicles
are very heavy and they do have wear and tear
and they don't buy gas, so they don't pay gas
tax, which helps to pay for roads. So, you know...
There's always a lot of chatter about do they
pay a different registration fee, like a tax
or a use fee when they register the vehicle.
I like that idea. But that comes from who do
we pay our fees to, the county, the state. If
we buy a gallon of gas and X amount of taxes,
they get divvied up, who distributes that? The
gas company? The gas tax? Yeah. I think that
goes to the state. The state? Yeah. So would
that same thing go with the EV cars? I mean,
when you register your vehicle, is that what
was proposed? When we register our cars, we register
with the county. Yeah, just the county. That's
the state. That's my point. How would you cross
those lanes? Yeah, you would charge more registration
for the EVs, right? And the county gets additional
revenue. But I don't know if the revenue is shared
from the county. Yeah, that's my point. Because
the county doesn't pay for those roads inside
the city. They pay for the roads outside of the
city within their county. It almost be like an
extra bill from the state that they would get
every year. You have an AV here is a bill for
whatever, 200 bucks. Maybe it'd be based on actual
mileage that they do. Well, then you're tracking
people. I think they do that in California, actually.
Yeah, because there's so many EVs there. They
had the gas problem. Gas taxes were dropping.
So they did something that infuriated the EV
owners, right? Because it's a problem. You're
losing all that tax money. It's a big problem.
It's a national problem. Again, it's a national
problem. It's not just unique to Frisco. It's
all over. And I think it's an unintended consequence,
right? Nobody thought that was going to happen.
Nobody thought about it. And then all of a sudden,
it's here. There you go. I'm kind of curious
what the ratio is from Frisco to other cities
regarding Teslas and EV cars. Do you think Frisco
has more on the average than a general city here
in Texas? Here in Texas? I think so, yes. I think
so, yes. We have a lot of Teslas in Frisco. We
have two. A lot. I sometimes, I'll count the
Teslas in front of houses. And they all have
the same stickers. Can I pivot back to your story?
Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. What's your
other question? Okay, so one thing that I always
notice, when people want to get into politics
after having a very successful career, and maybe
they want to become a career politician, I know,
I'm giving you an opportunity to tell us where
you're, and so what they normally do is they
go into city council first. as a stepping stone,
really, to get them to state or maybe federal.
What's your ambition? So not state or federal.
I will tell you that that's something that actually
annoys me when people use our city as a stepping
stone to something else because it's disingenuine
and it's not honest to the voters and the citizens
of Frisco. So I don't have any ambition beyond
the city of Frisco. I just want to do what's
right by them. By our constituents, by the cities.
Let's spin it then. Let's say you get the seat.
And let's say you are, and I anticipate you're
going to be fantastic. Yeah, you're a rock star.
And let's say they're like, God bless it. You
know what? We think you need to be mayor. And
then you do fantastic with that. I mean, personally,
let's say you're successful every step you take.
Is there, would you entertain the idea if all
of a sudden you've got a lot of support and a
lot of... I mean, who's behind you? That is a
whole nother level of a headache. I mean, you
got to dream a little bit. I'm sure there's some
sort of secret dreams down there. And would you
credit the Dudes Like Us podcast for getting
you this? A hundred percent. That's absolutely
what we wanted. We don't care about your answer.
That's all we really wanted to hear. That's it.
Yeah. All right. No, go. No, I haven't thought
about it. I'll be honest. I just want to do what
I really want to get elected. I want to do what's
best. Be honest. be a different voice different
set of eyes on city council and be true to frisco
right that's that's it i can't tell the future
but i don't know i may or i mean i have a business
to run too i eventually want to retire right
so so you're thinking three years at a time at
the moment yeah i think i'm thinking three years
at a time well this election is one year and
i still just four years you're gonna run it again
in a year yes because you yeah that's the That's
the challenge. When you run an unexpired term,
you finish the term, and then you run for election
on the regular cycle, which is next year. But
you would be the incumbent. Incumbent. And that
matters. Yeah. So you've mentioned a few times
thinking differently than the current city council.
What are some of those differences that you have
from what they're currently doing? Yeah. I think
that I look forward. So I lived in the Northwest
when I was younger. Any of you been to the Seattle
-Tacoma area? Okay, so it is basically a city
from just north of Olympia all the way to north
of Seattle. It's just a big city. That's what's
coming here. And we can pretend it's not going
to happen or we can plan strategically for it
and be a good partner to the cities around us
and the cities that are growing around us, right?
I think that's something that we should be talking
about. I think that... I've, it's in my priorities.
I think that we have to pay attention. A good,
healthy city pays attention to all the citizens.
And I've talked to a number of retirees and parents
and, you know, and I've said my son is on the
spectrum. I think that there, I was at a workforce
meeting in March at UNT and they talked about
how employers have this huge job gap. And as
I sat there, I thought, well, we have all these
underemployed adults who could maybe fill that
job gap. But it's going to take somebody starting
the conversation, right? And we have to educate
the employers and we need to also educate the
young adults. They still have social skills to
learn. They have life skills to learn. They have
job skills to learn. Their executive function
may not be quite where it should be at the age,
the chronological age that they are. But they
deserve a future just like all of us. And they
all want a future. I can promise you my son wants
to have a family. He wants to live independently.
Nice. But he's just not there yet, right? Right.
But wouldn't it be great if we... found some
of these nonprofits that actually work in that
space. And we gave them a place to meet and a
place to offer their services. And all of a sudden
we started meeting the needs of the employers
because I'm business minded and also filling
the needs with those employees. And now we don't
have these underemployed adults. We actually
have them on a path to a future. So things like
that don't get talked about, right? And maybe
it's because of my son. Maybe it's because I
go to workforce meetings and I've been in that
space my whole life. But I think that there's
an opportunity there. I think that the other
thing is water, which I touched on. I think we
should be talking about it. We can't wait 10
years from now. There's going to be so many people
here. Water is a finite resource in North Texas,
and people move here by the droves every year.
So how do we solve that problem? What exactly
is the problem? No, we have plenty of water now,
but you're saying if we keep growing at this
rate, I'm sure they are doing math based on forecasted
rainfall. number of people and how much water
consumption and the rate of consumption they
know we're going to run out at some point or
what where is it going i don't think it's the
running out there and they are taking steps to
um recycle and reclaim water um i actually had
a saw a wonderful presentation that was made
um and talking about the there's a um oh it's
the and my mind just went blank it's a like a
nature preserve area that reclaims water at a
massive amount and it was kind of a test it's
um over oh gosh to the to the east of us um i
can't think of the name of the lake but it's
a wetland area and it's a museum area Uh, no,
no, it's more, it's, it's farther South into
these. What's the lake that goes across over
to maybe Roy Hubbard, that lake, but on the other
side of it. So there's a wetland area and they
were sharing the amount of water that's reclaimed
through there naturally, which was a huge amount.
And I can't tell you the number, so don't like,
but, um, you know, it's just looking at that.
It's the conservation efforts that we make. Um,
you know, we, we have. that are online now. Bodark
Lake is online. We're drinking water from there
now. But, you know, I lived in California. I've
talked about that, right? Where does California
get water from? Their neighboring states. Is
that something we have to look at? I don't know.
I know. I don't know. They shut off the spigot
from the north to south because it was saving
a certain insect or worm. A little fish. A fish,
that's what it was. In California. Well, they
don't collect their snow melt either. It all
rushes into the ocean. Yeah, but I understood
that they directed it to the ocean, but they
can redirect it back to where it originally came
from. Yes, yes. I don't know that, but they do
like to do things like that. Now, on the southeast
side of Lebanon in the North Dallas Tollway,
there is a large pool of water that was abandoned.
The pit? The pit. I mean, what are we talking
about here? I'm just saying. The mix. We're talking
about the mix. Wade Park, whatever. That's the
new man -made reservoir. They have a new developer
that's moving forward. I saw that. So what is
going on with that? It's back online. They're
moving dirt. They're going to have retail shops
in there. Are they going to have to fill that
hole? Oh, you're talking about that bankruptcy,
that large plot that had a... There it is right
there. That lawsuit went on forever. It went
on for a long time. They can't functionally use
that. It's decayed to the point where it's structurally
not sound anymore. Honestly, I cannot tell you
that I know what they're doing with that. I don't
know if they're going to make a water park. I
don't know what they're doing. Maybe it's going
to be an underground parking. Maybe they're going
to fix it. It was supposed to be underground
parking. Maybe they're going to retrofit it.
I don't know, though. I don't know the answer
to it. I'm sorry. No, that's all right. It could
be a scuba park. It could be. What do you say?
Hey, came here first. You heard it on Dudes Like
Us first. Scuba park. Scuba park. We need a scuba
park. Water ski thing? No, they'll put like a
boat down there and a wrecked helicopter and
a bunch of mermaid statues. You better clean
up that water first because it's pretty gross
water. The city will do that for us. You shared
that you were born over in Europe. I was born
in West Germany, yes. West Germany. And that
must have been like what, like 25 years ago?
Sure. 35 years ago? Well, it was West Germany.
So I always say that that's a hint that I'm older
than I look, maybe. So my dad was an intelligence
analyst during the Cold War. He spoke about 12
languages. So we lived a very interesting life.
He never talked about work. He never shared anything
about his work because it was all secret. I have
no complaints. I have no complaints of my childhood.
I had a great childhood. How long did you live
over there? I was probably three and a half,
four. My first plane ride was coming back to
the States. And then most of his tours after
we got back were not accompanied when he went
over to Europe in areas that he went. We just
weren't invited. So we lived, oh gosh, we lived
in Indiana and Maryland and Texas a lot and Monterey.
Oh, this all post. West Germany. What branch
was that? Air Force. Air Force. Okay. Yeah. But
that's fascinating because you lived there during
a time when there was an East Germany. Yes. And
there was a Berlin that had a wall going through
it. So my dad's first tour was when they built
the wall. Wow. Wow. That's fascinating. It is
fascinating. So he said that, he told us this
actually just a few years ago and he's no longer
with us, but he said, you know. Your mom's job
was to get the women to the airport because she
had a German license. But the reality was they'd
never make it. It was kind of sad. So you think
about it. They were in their 20s. It was a different
era and a different type of person. Because I
used to say, Dad, you weren't Vietnam when I
was young and foolish. But he told his wife.
something to make her feel good sure because
my mom was a very independent driven person she
was a businesswoman um but he knew that it that
it was not true and that was what they did to
get through the day and and they were in a situation
they were like you know the russian if soviets
come across we're we're done or you know so it
was just a different time in our country and
you know that it i just thought it was so interesting
he was in his 20s in his late 20s It's crazy.
But being a military brat itself, and I can use
that term because I was a military brat as well.
Yep. I think military brats are a different breed
of folks because when you move around a lot,
you're forced to learn how to meet people. Because
I'm an introvert, but I'm a very extroverted
introvert. I don't know how that works. Maybe
it's something alcohol has to do with it. I don't
know exactly. But I am an introvert. I get extremely
shy. Maybe that's just normal human characteristic.
But my point is that you're perfect for the job
that you're running for. Because being a military
brat, it's part of you now. Military brat kind
of groomed you into this position a little bit.
On top of, of course, your experiences. So you're
always the new kid, right? You're always trying
to figure things out. You're always looking at
things differently because your experiences are
different than everybody around you. When my
dad retired, he had told my mom, you gave me
20 years. I'm going to give you 20 years with
your family. So he moved to the Northwest. That's
how we ended up there. And I was surrounded by
people who had never lived outside of the city
they lived in. Right. Wow. It was like being
surrounded by aliens. Truly. And I was this weird
kid with a funny accent because I was moving
from San Angelo, Texas. You just learn to adapt,
I think. And we were, of course, because of what
my dad did, he was a very critical thinker. And
he taught us to be very critical thinkers. We
don't look at things black and white. We always
are trying to solve. Like I said, I'm a problem
solver. We're always trying to solve the problem.
Think of it like that can't be the only solution.
There might be another solution. We just haven't
thought of it yet. And part of his job was to
sit in rooms with other people to analyze what
could be the next bad thing that happens to our
country. you know that's something he just tried
to pass on to us without giving away secrets
but he would he would always ask those questions
always kind of poke at us so um yeah i mean i
think that it does it prepares you differently
yeah you're and i think that mindset different
mindset and i think that it serves you very well
if you adapt to it and you and you capitalize
on it Even being in the United States, some of
these areas that military brats move to, it's
a different culture even. I'll give you an example.
Living in El Paso is a different culture. Living
in the Northwest is a different culture, especially
with folks that haven't even left. It's a completely
different culture. It was very weird. It makes
you extremely diverse. It does. And you appreciate
it. I think you appreciate the diversity because
you... I mean, I have friends from all... from
all nationalities and all walks of life sometimes
when we lived in maryland all of our friends
were military because we lived on on base housing
and i don't think that any of my friends were
not from base housing and i was quite young but
we all i mean we just all all of our parents
were kind of doing the same job right and we
actually it was kind of funny because we were
all supposed to be deploying to crete a lot of
us were going to the same duty assignment Nice.
And we all looked. Matter of fact, when one would
move, we'd say, oh, I'll see you in like three
months. I'll be there. Right. So my dad and my
mom, I'll never forget it. We all got our shots.
We all got packed up. We went to visit family
and say goodbye. We'll see you in three years.
And we got to San Angelo. The Air Force changed
his orders and all of our things were on a boat.
Going to Crete. Oh, and you stayed in San Angelo.
We stayed in San Angelo. And you were like, turn
it around. Crete or San Angelo? I got to tell
you, about six months ago. A little bit of disappointment
there. I was in San Angelo about six months ago.
Were you? And I saw the old Air Force Base. Yeah,
good fellow. The remnants of it. You know, just
old housing that they had. Right. They didn't
make any reinvestment decisions. No, they did
not. Actually, the materials that they used was
like old school shiplap. I mean, just stuff that's
super resilient. It was amazing to see. I love
seeing stuff like that. It's really cool. When
all of our stuff was in Crete, so talking about
resilience, so my mom had like four suitcases
and a family of four children, and we needed
to get to school. She had nothing, no furniture.
I mean, she just had the suitcases. I don't remember
hardship at all that year. What I remember of
that year is that we lived in the country. We
had chickens. We lived in this really cool house.
You adapted. We adapted. It was a great adventure.
We lived in very best Texas. It's the smallest
town. Try and find it, Chuck. You'll not find
it. What's it called? Very best. Very best. V
-E -R -I -B -E -S -T. I always joke that the
town was literally the school that was grades
one through or K through eight. The school bus
driver lived next door and there was a John Deere
tractor barn across the street. That was it.
And that's it. Wow. It does look like there's
much there now. Yeah. We've talked. Oh, it's
got a football field. That's crazy. Look, they
built a field. That school is like twice as big
as it was. We've talked about on this podcast
how our parents were just a different breed,
a different generation. So much respect for what
they dealt with and how they dealt with it. No
complaining. Blah, blah, blah. Just moved on.
And I guess that's what they taught us, right?
So I always say, we moved to Frisco. This is
the, like I said, we put roots down here, right?
It's the longest place I've ever lived anywhere.
And I love this city. It's a great place to be.
I am so thankful. You know, with our son, I cannot
believe how fortunate we were that he was in
Frisco ISD and the special ed program that we
have there, our special needs program. I never
thought he would have graduated when he was at
Western. When they gave him honors scores at
Frisco High, I was like, I think you made a mistake.
And they were like, no, your son's really smart.
He's done great. You know, but that's a testament
to the school district, right? They did a great
job and we're very fortunate. So I'm kind of
passionate. My sister says I'm the biggest cheerleader
of the city I live in, but I just think it's
a great city. I think it's something that we
need to preserve and protect. We have to respect
the past. It didn't come here by accident. It
was strategically planned. So we're very fortunate.
So I thought of another question while you were
talking about your upbringing and you guys were
talking about military brats and it prepares
you, right? So what you're doing now, what you're
embarking on now, you've never done before. So
what have you gone to? Who have you leaned on?
How are you preparing for this? So it's not something
I did overnight. You're like, I'm going to run
for city council and I'm ready. So for the years
leading up to this, What I've done previously
is just what was modeled to me. My parents always
engaged. We always had people at it. I can't
tell you a holiday we didn't have a house full
of servicemen and women, right? Okay, nice. Always
giving back, always being involved. So that's
how I live my life. From when I was a JC back
in the California days, which is Junior Chamber
of Commerce, they're not really around anymore,
not as prevalent as they were, but it's a leadership
development and philanthropic group. We did a
lot of volunteering. Here in Frisco, I was on
PTA, here again, stream. I started volunteering
as soon as I possibly could, whether it was with
our church or with the city, with Women's League,
with Rotary, with, you know, the list goes on
and on, right? But part of it is also, you know,
from Leadership Frisco, being involved with the
chamber because I'm a small business owner. But
don't downplay it. I got a list here. Because
I'm not going to go down over the list. But what
I'm going to say is that you're talking board
of directors, board of directors, vice president,
past president. I mean, look, you weren't just
a member. I mean, you went right for the top.
So that's kudos. And that kind of sets the tone.
So I think it's kind of funny that it's not funny.
I have a really hard time just sitting back.
I've always been, I always kind of take the lead.
Or people say, Ann, you can. And I just don't
say no, but leaders lead. I think it's in our
genes. I'm self -employed. My brother's self
-employed. He's very driven, the same. Anyway,
yeah, you're right. I'm a vice president. I'm
past president. I'm chair of the board. I'm secretary
of the board, whatever. I get involved. I get
in leadership positions. But I love it. I can't
imagine not doing those things. So somebody commented
recently. They said, you're running for city
council. And it seems like you're just doing
all the things you regularly do. You just have
added a layer of, you know, you're still involved.
You're still going to see people. You're still,
today I was at the CT center talking to the gay
kids about insurance. And the city council is
another business to run, right? I mean, you run
it like a business. You should run it like a
business, in my opinion. Yeah, well, I mean,
it's like the board of directors for the city
if you want to. Take it in corporate terms. And
that seems to be a response. As I mentioned before
the podcast, we did an AI, a why should I not
vote for Ann Anderson? And one of the things
was just your lack of experience. And I think
that the list that we just mentioned kind of
defeats that whole thought process. Yeah. I think
that just kind of squashes it. Well, lack of
experience. Who really has experience in politics
for the first time? That's right. That's true.
But that seems to be what your opponent, based
on what I was reading, was one of the things.
But does he have any experience either? Or I
should say he, but does the person you're running
against have any experience? I mean, his experience
is all in one area. That was what he did. So
his experience is there, and it was as a city
department. So he has experience there, but I
guess you could also say, In all respect to what
he did. But you could say, well, my corporate
experience is very similar. You know, what I've
done as a business owner. And it's more diverse,
frankly. I mean, his rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.
Yours is, I'm thrown into this and I mastered
it. I've thrown it to, I mean, the list goes
on. You've been given plenty of challenges. I
think the right person in the city council is
somebody who has new ideas. New ideas. If you
don't have new ideas, a new way to approach things,
a solution to a problem, being able to identify
problems, I mean, these are all part of, and
you have to be in a situation where you've been
exposed to lots of different things, lots of
different problems, and you're able to kind of
kick around with a team showing leadership how
to solve those problems. So, I mean, that's kind
of where you've been. Sort of my life story right
there. Right? I mean, no, I'm not. I mean, it
really is. I don't want to downplay it. I shouldn't
downplay it. I think I'm very humble naturally.
So sometimes all this like self edification is
challenging for me. But I have had a lot of like
corporately I've had challenges. There's been
time, you know, when we opened the title company
here for a time, I was the only, you know, the
EVP was female, but I was the only female vice
president. Right. So certainly butting heads
against people. was something that I had to get
used to. And I had to stand up and speak up for
my departments, right? When we decided to offshore
some of our team and some of the function that
we did, it was my departments that I had to lead
that. And I had to send people to a foreign country.
And they came back and said, never do that to
me again. They're like, never ask us to do that
again. But, you know, it's the diversity. I think
it's the experiences of my life that made me
the... the perfect person at that time to have
that relationship with our offshore partners
and have it successfully. And we didn't have
to let anybody go. There was some natural attrition
in the company. I just didn't replace staff.
But you can do things differently, right? Right.
When people hear offshore, they think, oh, I'm
going to lose my job. What's going to happen
next? But, you know, you can, we can. laterally
move somebody to another department that they
maybe have been looking at or if somebody leaves,
we just don't replace a position. There's so
many things you can do if you can be creative
and think differently. And we did that when we
had that offshore experience. It's tough when
you get the bean counters that are pulling the
strings. I've had to go through that. I had to
offshore my team. But unfortunately, we didn't
replace. I wasn't able to move. I just had to
let everyone go. That's hard. Unfortunately.
So I was at a big corporation though. And yours
was? And your experience was horrific because
his took four years, from what I understood,
four years of this torture. You know, well, we're
letting this team go. We're letting this team
go. And Jeff's kind of like, oh, my God. Yeah,
I'm next. I'm next. I'm next. It was difficult.
it's hard i think the worst day of that job and
was when we did eventually well it was we were
a title company right national talk company 0708
everything fell apart um we had to let pretty
much everybody go and then we had to unwind the
business and that was the that was the plan but
we reworked the business and we're actually able
to hire some people back we did we just changed
what we were doing but walking into an office
that had been full of 100 plus people. And I
had 80 that reported to me and multiple departments.
And then I walked through all the big building
to get to my office. It was probably the most
depressing day of my life. I can imagine. Horrible.
Horrible. So I've got an odd question. Well,
it's not odd coming from me, but it's just odd
in general. It's Christmas season. So what do
you gravitate every single year? There's got
to be a specific... that you watch that just
brings in the charm. Die Hard. Die Hard is not
a Christmas movie. You already spoiled it. You
know she was going to say Die Hard. Now I've
got to pick another movie. Oh, great. Told you.
Okay, so we have, we always watch A Christmas
Story. We always watch The Vacation, the vacation
movie, Christmas Vacation. To me, that's my go
-to, the National Lampoons of Christmas. Keep
going, sorry. I've already watched it twice this
year. I know, so good. So good. White Christmas,
and that's an old movie. That's an old one. Bing
Crosby? Yep, one of my favorite Christmas movies.
Rosemary Clooney? Yep. I saw that there was a
new Christmas story movie, like The Kid is Now
the Dad. Yes, that came out a couple years ago.
Yeah, I didn't know that. And it was on the other
day, and I was like, this is weird. That's The
Kid. I never saw it. Okay. We didn't watch the
whole thing, but I mean, it was just kind of
weird. It was weird. And then I will tell you
that when we're really busy, we will have Hallmark
playing in the background of our show. Yes, yes,
yes. Painful. It's the most relaxing. You know
what's going to happen. And so if we're stressed
and we're having a baking frenzy, wrapping gifts,
whatever, we can just have that playing. Did
you say the Hallmark channel? Oh, yeah. Julie
pulls up the calendar. She goes to 30 Days of
Christmas. I have the app on my phone. So painful.
We watch a lot of them, and it's basically the
same movie, different people playing the parts.
They've mastered it. 725 this morning. I get
up. I'm downstairs already, but I turn on the
TV, and I go to YouTube, and I got very specific
channels that I go to for my morning stuff. And
for the last week, every morning, it's Christmas
stuff. So I play the channel that does nonstop
Christmas stuff on YouTube. Oh, wow. And I play
it. Like music? My wife, yes. Yeah, it's kind
of like, it's not necessarily, it's just live.
So it never stops. And, you know, my wife Tara
comes downstairs. She's like, really? Is that
loud? People are sleeping right now. I'm just
like, I didn't realize I was that loud. Oh, she's
all grouchy about Christmas music? She's not
grouchy. It's just early in the morning. Just
a little bit. Turn that Christmas music up. I'm
a little bit, you know, I can't hear. I need
to ease into the morning too, I'll just say.
But I love it. I so love it. It really, it cheers
me up. Oh yeah, I played Christmas music on my
high school run and we all bop and sing. The
ones who could sing definitely do it and 12 Days
of Christmas and all that stuff. All right, well,
look, we've only got a couple minutes left. So
what I want to do is I'm going to take a selfie
of us, but I'll do that when we're over. Do you
have any questions you want to ask? Don't you
want in the act with the headphones on? We can
fake it. Oh, we can stage it. Well, do we want
to allow Ann the opportunity to ask us any questions?
Or appeal to your... Yeah, just talk to the folks
out there, the millions of people. You're wanting
to be a politician. This is your stage. This
is my stage? Wow us. Wow us. Give us your pitch.
My pitch? Just go out and vote. I will tell you
what. Frisco, we always have low voter turnout.
It makes me sad. So young people, 19, 20 -year
-olds that complain about politics all the time
and the state of everything. or anything, go
out and vote. Make a choice. When we were young,
we had civics class. What do you mean we're not
young? I know, I'm sorry. What are you saying?
You need to look in the mirror. West Germany.
But I have these conversations. I talk to young
people a lot, I guess. And they get frustrated
with... what is happening and then they say well
we support a candidate and they don't win and
we get sad we don't want to vote again but that's
part of the process wow it's a one -shot deal
i mean you got to keep going at it because you
know what that's how we make change that's what
makes things better and and we don't want uh
we want to make sure that we groom our place
where we live to the things that we like And
that's driven by voting. I had to be very careful.
Yeah, well, that's driven by voting, 100 % by
voting. I told my kids, I was like, you don't
get to complain if you don't vote. That's correct.
That is correct. But that made me think of a
question real quick. So social media, are your
daughters, your daughter, well, she's 27, so
she... Yeah. But are they jumping in and helping
you with social media or do you have a team that's
doing social media? I have a team that's helping.
Okay. Kareem has a job that doesn't allow her
to get real overly involved with a campaign because
there could be conflict. So she stays a little
bit back and she's respectful and we don't have
a problem with that. That's on Facebook. Vote
and for Frisco. That's a fancy website. Well,
it's a good website. I have a nice web designer.
Very nice. Are you the web designer? No, as a
friend. Are you tooting your own horn here? Lord,
no. I could never do that. No, I have a wonderful
friend who owns a company. Can I give her a plug?
Of course. True Moxie Consulting. And she is
fantastic. And I've worked on campaigns where
people say, I need to make a change on my website.
And it takes a week. I call her up and Meredith's
on it. She makes a change within that same day.
Do they have the ability to take a podcast to
number one in the country? Do they have that
kind of skill? She could probably tell you how
to do that. We need help. She's amazing. We're
only number three right now. Only three. Did
we want to chat about the whiskey at all? We'll
hit it the next time. You got a couple minutes?
I stressed this out. Are you a bourbon drinker?
You're not really? Not generally. You know what
I really like is at Craftway Kitchen over on
Lebanon and Legacy. They have that, I think it's
a frozen old -fashioned. Yes, frozen old -fashioned.
That's what it is. I don't go there that often.
I probably not often enough, but it's extremely
good. Great on a hot summer day. It's like a
slushy. It's really good. When you're burned
out, you're kicking your feet up, I'm going to
have just one little beverage. What's your go
-to? It's usually going to be a glass of wine,
to be honest. Red, white, or pink? It's a red.
It's a pretty dry red. As I've gotten older,
I've decided that the calories need to be worth
it. My taste in wine is the price points of my
bottles are a little more than they used to be.
It's important, too. I'm the only wine drinker
in my house. Thor bought me this. It's kind of
what they use at wineries where it kind of puts
up. Oh, the nitrogen they're on? Yes. The aerator?
The argon. Yes. So you can pour, and it lasts
for like six months. Ah. I did one of those.
Yeah. So it's pretty great. It doesn't last very
long in my house. You probably wouldn't need
it, maybe. Is that what you're saying? No. I
love wine. So if the bottle's open, I just drink
it. There you go. There you go. That's the best
strategy. God bless. But we didn't finish your
pitch. Did you finish your pitch? I guess you
did. I think so. Just get out and vote. It's
the hardest thing in Frisco is to get voters
out to vote. So I just encourage people to get
out and vote. People always, I think they bank
on it. Yeah, I think people bank on people not
voting. Right. And it's sad. Yeah. Then you can
control the narrative, right? Right. And people
say the voters decided, well, the 10 ,000 people
that showed up decided, but, you know, that's
not all voters. People can't be frustrated when
they vote and their person that they want to
win doesn't win. I mean, it's... you just do
it anyways, because it's what you, it's what
you do. Yeah. It's part of your, it's your civic
duty. Yeah. It is your civic duty. So we take,
we vote as a family. Usually we go together and
we'll take a selfie. So my kids know we've got
to work around Thor wants to vote at seven at
when they open on the first day of voting. So
he has no surprise, right? But the rest of us
coordinate with mom's schedule and we'll go and
take a picture. I say one more time. When is
the vote? When does the voting happen? Early
voting starts January 14th. If you're in Collin
County, you can vote anywhere. Even on election
day, you can vote in any of the voting locations.
In Denton County, it's a little different. You
can vote at any of the polling locations during
early voting only. But on election day, you have
to go to your precinct location. So you have
to look that up on the website. But election
day is Thursday, Thursday. Fire station number
eight, number five. Also, lots of options. Also,
we have gotten away from electronic. It is now...
Filling in the bubbles. Filling in the bubbles
again. Oh, scantron. Hanging chads. I don't want
to go through that again. There's no chads. No
chads. No chads allowed. Scantrons. One sort
of bubbled and one sort of bubbled. I don't know.
The whole thing is kind of... That's a whole
different topic. It really is. We won't touch
on that. It's crazy because... it's difficult
because you have to trust. And then when you
find that there's some questionable things going
on, you're kind of like, it's difficult, but
you still got to do it. Yeah, you still got to
vote. You know what? You can hold your elected
officials accountable. You can show up to city
council. There's citizen input every time. They
can't respond back at that moment, but you can
start the conversation. You can absolutely go
to their work sessions. There's so many ways
you can get involved. The city is very transparent
with anything you can ask for, anything you want,
right? Make sure there's no Ethernet cables hanging
out of the back of your Scantron machine. So
you're saying if I went to city council and I
had a grievance or a point or a question, they
can't respond right there? Correct. No, not during
citizen input. They cannot. Oh. So I guess that
explains why I see all these videos where they're
just sitting there and not responding. And they're
like, this person should go away. I just thought
they were just being rude. Well, you know what?
That's perceived as being that. There probably
should be some sort of. I didn't know that. Maybe
they ought to say that. Yeah, we can't respond.
And maybe they should say that. Well, maybe they
do. A disclaimer at the beginning. Oh, sorry.
Yeah, I was going to say at the beginning, maybe
they do have a disclaimer. But, you know, the
videos you see, you don't see that disclaimer.
You just see the board sitting up there with
their hands. Yeah, being all obstinate and not
responding. Yeah. Hey, look, I want to take a
minute and a half to jump on our whiskey. That
way we can get it out of the way because it's
the first half whiskey. We got a Johnny Drum
whiskey. It's from Willett. It's a private stock.
It's 50 .5 alcohol content. It's a 101. This
is Kentucky bourbon. It's Bardstown. It's made
by Willett. I got to tell you, it's terrific.
It's light for one -on -one. It's light. It's
got a better taste than the Wild Turkey one -on
-one for sure. If you're a whiskey lover. Yeah.
This is the same folks who make Noah's Mill.
Yeah. Ooh. Yes. And you can tell, too. It's great.
So the nose, I'm going to read these out so we
don't have to go through this. The nose is a
sweetness, caramel, vanilla bean, butterscotch.
The palate is brown sugar, honey, vanilla, dark
cherry, stewed fruits. Finish is lingering cinnamon.
This is speed round. Pepper oak. This normally
takes 18 to 20 minutes. Honey, sweetness, caramel.
Look, so I'm going to give this thing, this is
a 101, so it's a lower proof. It's regular bourbon.
It's just not rye. It's just regular bourbon.
So I'm going to call this one a 7 .1 on the scale.
Oh, wow. That's very high. Yeah. Well, it's 101.
I like it. I like it a lot. It's got the sweetness
on there. It's easy to drink. Yeah, it's very
easy to drink. But it's also got a little bit
of spice. Yeah, a little bit. It's got some cinnamon
in there. So, I mean, I know you're not a bourbon
drinker. Did you take a little sip? I took a
sip. It was pleasant. Are you horrified by it?
I'm not horrified. It was pleasant. Okay. It
was very pleasant. Okay. Well, there we go. That's
a huge endorsement for somebody who doesn't drink
whiskey. I think we've turned into... Bourbon
snobs. We are totally bourbon snobs. Well, Jeff
has some Kirkland sparkling flavored strawberry
kiwi mix he could put in that bourbon. No, thank
you. That would not do. Yeah, it's all natural.
I'm going to give it a 6 .8, which is actually
high for me. I'll give it a 7. It's good for
the proof. Call your low. You know, the one thing
it doesn't do, it doesn't last very long, which
is good and bad. You know, I do like some of
those, I'm going to say pungent, just because
it kind of sees through the cloud. This one kind
of falls off and tapers into kind of almost a
bitter, kind of like a burnt sugar at the end,
which kind of makes it less as great. That's
why it's only a 7 .1 in my eyes. It's still high,
but I think it's good. Great. Well, thank you
so much for being on the podcast. Thank you for
having me. This was actually really fun. I wasn't
sure what to expect. You're thinking these guys
are probably doofuses. I listened to one of your
podcasts. I was like, come on. And you still
came on the podcast? How much time we got, Chuck?
Nope. Yeah, I did. What were we talking about
in that podcast? I don't remember. It was very
random, though. It was all over the board. That's
usually where we are. You see that board up there?
Sometimes we don't hit any of those topics. You
have a topic board? I didn't even notice it.
Well, but we knew we weren't going to talk about
any of the stuff because, you know, you had the
floor. Special guest. Thank you, thank you, thank
you. I really enjoyed it. So, vote for Anne Anderson.
Vote for Anne for Frisco. Yeah, vote for Anne
for Frisco. See, number one. If you can't remember
Anne Anderson, which is super easy, how could
you not remember Anne Anderson? Hey, and I'm
number one on the ballot, too. Number one. Whoa.
Yeah. Alphabetical, I guess, right? It's a shoo
-in. Nope, you have to choose. Perfect. It is
perfect. So, your name was really Wendy Washburn.
You changed it. Anne Anderson. I'm going to drop
a bombshell that I was born in Anderson and I
married and Anderson, we are not related prior
to marriage. I know you can do so much with that.
In your small town in Appalachia. Lord have mercy.
Okay. So there you have it. Thanks. I'm sorry,
go ahead. You can say something at the very end.
Chuck, thank you for staying on top of stuff.
Dudes Like Us, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff.
I'm Anne. And that was fun. Glad to have you.