On Monday, the city of Frisco made an announcement that the community has been anticipating for about a year: it named a new city manager. The announcement comes after George Purefoy, Frisco's current and only city manager to serve, announced his impending retirement last June. 

After a roughly six-month process that involved a national search for candidates, the city named Wes Pierson, current city manager for the nearby town of Addison, as the next person to carry the torch of Frisco's future.   

Mayor Jeff Cheney lists a few reasons why the City Council unanimously named Pierson as Frisco's second City Manager. He credits Pierson as a "rising star" in the profession, a visionary thinker and someone who approaches the role with a "CEO mentality." 

In addition, Cheney said, Pierson is looking at Frisco with a 2040 focus, something the city itself decided to do back in 2020.  

"I think a lot of people are going to see a little bit of George Purefoy in him in that he’s that humble, quiet type of servant leader," Cheney said. 

Inside the process

The process for hiring Frisco's next leader began in October, Cheney said, setting the wheels in motion for the City Council's most important role. 

The city hired consultant Affion Public to conduct a nation-wide search, collecting 55 applicants from 17 states during the month of March. A majority of the applicants were from Texas. The consultant narrowed the list to 10 candidates, Cheney said, with the goal of bringing in five or fewer to interview. Four candidates ended up being finalists: Majed Al-Ghafry of the city of Dallas, Tommy Gonzalez, El Paso's City Manager, Ron Patterson, deputy city manager with Frisco, and Pierson. 

Gonzalez reportedly withdrew from consideration after he was named a finalist. 

Cheney said the choice quickly narrowed down to being between Patterson and Pierson. Next steps included conducting city tours with both candidates, multiple rounds of interviews, including with city of Frisco directors, meetings with vested partners and community members, and a final full day of interviews.  

"Then we spent an hour to an hour and a half on other questions with each candidate, and I told council all along that if we trusted the process and we did the work that the answer would reveal itself to us," Cheney said. "And when we got finished, council was unanimous in the decision of supporting Wes as our next city manager." 

However, Cheney said, he asked the council members to take a couple of extra steps, including physically writing down why they would and would not select each candidate. 

"After that exercise, the decision was still the same," Cheney said. "And then I asked council to think about it over the weekend, absorb it, understand the ramifications of the decision, what it means, and come back the following Tuesday and have another discussion, and when we did that, for council, the answer was still the same, even after letting it sit and settle." 

He adds that the decision is an emotional one, both in that the city will be saying goodbye to the legend that is Purefoy, but also because one of its final candidates had been an internal member of city staff. 

"That was probably the toughest conversation I’ve ever had to make, was having the conversation with (Patterson) saying he was not selected for the job," Cheney said. "But he’s a professional and will continue to serve the residents of Frisco in a very professional and respectable manner."  

He later said the city did have two pathways it could have taken, adding that "neither would have been a wrong choice." 

"Ultimately the city kind of looked at who we are as a community, and you know the city took a risk 34 years ago with having the vision and foresight to hire George Purefoy, someone that was a big thinker, very strategic in his approach, did run the organization from very much a CEO mindset, and those were ultimately the biggest qualities, I think, we were looking for when we were evaluating everyone," Cheney said.   

A bit about Wes

Cheney describes Pierson's career as a "meteoric" rise through city manager ranks, adding that he intentionally went through different city experiences. 

Pierson was named assistant to the city manager with the city of Allen in 2009, according to the Texas Municipal League. He became an assistant city manager in Allen in 2011. He then began working as assistant city manager in Corpus Christi in 2012. He was named Addison's city manager in 2015. 

Cheney characterized Pierson as a developer of talent, someone who has a well-balanced approach to leadership, both internal and external, as well as being personable and a visionary thinker.

"So you pull all those elements together, and he checked every box that we had," Cheney said. "We could not find a weakness in his resume and in his approach, and he fit everything that we were looking for as a council." 

Next steps

Pierson's first day is scheduled for Aug. 2. Purefoy's last day is scheduled for June 30. During the month of July, Henry Hill, deputy city manager for the city of Frisco, will serve as interim city manager. 

"It was important for Wes and us also (...) that we don’t take away from the celebration of George’s retirement and us celebrating his legacy," Cheney said, "and so we’ll kind of work to get through some of that with him, and then we’ll work to start finding ways to introduce Wes to the public while he finishes up his last few months at Addison." 

Then, Cheney added, Pierson will hit the ground running. 

"I would say this is arguably the biggest decision the city’s had to make," Cheney said. "The city took a chance on George Purefoy, and it changed the trajectory of the city forever, and his work that he’s done here has built Frisco. And so it’s not easy to take over from a legend like George is."  

However, he adds, Pierson has experience with this type of change management: in taking on his role as Addison's city manager, he also had taken over for the previous city manager, who had been there for over 30 years. 

"We're all excited about writing the second half of Frisco's story, and Wes's leadership is going to lead us there," Cheney said.  

Audrey Henvey is the reporter for the Frisco Enterprise, McKinney Courier-Gazette and Celina Record. Email her with story suggestions at ahenvey@starlocalmedia.com.