Frisco residents to hear from fire chief candidates at Thursday event

File photo
Courtesy of Frisco Fire Department

Frisco Enterprise
By Audrey Henvey | Star Local Media
June 1, 2023

The city of Frisco has scheduled a Thursday, June 1 event that will allow local residents to interact with five candidates who are vying for the role of Frisco Fire Chief. 

The meeting, scheduled for 6-8 p.m., will take place at the George Purefoy Municipal Center (6101 Frisco Square Blvd.) on the fourth floor, where the Frisco Public Library was previously located. 

Residents will get a chance to get to know the following five candidates: 

• Rob Bergersen - Executive Deputy Fire Chief with the Waco Fire Department. 

• Richard Davis - Assistant Fire Chief with the Austin Fire Department. 

• Lee Glover - Interim Fire Chief with the Frisco Police Department. 

• Kenneth Johnson - Fire Chief for the Lancaster Fire Department.

• Marc Pate - Deputy ChiefTraining/Health and Safety with Plano Fire-Rescue.

The event comes as Frisco seeks to fill the vacant position for fire chief, which was left open when former Fire Chief Mark Piland resigned in September 2022. Since Piland's resignation in 2022, Assistant Chief Lee Glover has been serving as interim fire chief. 

Piland ran for Frisco mayor this year against incumbent Jeff Cheney, who ultimately was re-elected on May 6. On April 4, the Frisco City Council voted to release a September 2022 investigative report regarding Piland, which is available at tinyurl.com/2h8hkhsv. Cheney recused himself from the vote and said he had recused himself from the discussions. 

The next day, The Dallas Morning News reported that Piland had to retire or be fired from his duties as fire chief, according to public record documents obtained by the newspaper that detail an outside investigation into a mayday report concerning a Frisco apartment fire that lasted more than 36 hours during the February 2021 ice storm.