During his 16 years spent helping to lead the city – first as a member of the Frisco City Council, followed by three terms as mayor – Mr. Maso worked alongside other civic and government leaders, educators and public- and private-industry professionals from around the globe to show the owners and developers of multi-million-dollar sports franchises, state-of-the-art medical centers and sprawling office, residential and retail complexes, among others, why building in Frisco and becoming part of the community was a smart idea.
In the late ‘90s, he says fellow Frisco residents came to him requesting that he run for city council. He entered the 1996 council race and was defeated. Four years later, he was elected to the Frisco City Council. From 2002-2003, he was deputy mayor pro tem before serving as mayor pro tem from 2003-2007. However, the decision to run for mayor in 2008 was not an easy one, Mr. Maso says. He threw his hat into the ring and was elected – in the midst of a national recession – for the first of his three terms.
Being Frisco’s mayor is “the best job in the world,” he contends, “because it’s local. You know the people you’re impacting and can see the impact you’re making. It’s so satisfying.”
Since leaving office four years ago due to term limits, Mr. Maso has continued to serve unofficially as an ambassador for Frisco. “It’s satisfying to give back to the community I love Frisco. … It’s a great community. If I were to walk away from Frisco, it’d be like walking away from my family and friends,” he says. “I built relationships, and you don’t drop them. … Those relationships didn’t die when I stopped being mayor, and the more successful Frisco is, the more those relationships prosper.”
