Brian Platt has been fired as the Kansas City manager. The city council voted unanimously today to fire him at a special session.
Council members spent nearly two hours in a closed meeting to discuss Platt’s employment. His firing comes three weeks after he was suspended with pay, just after the city lost a whistleblower lawsuit that cost it nearly $1 million.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said the whistleblower case, as well as other lawsuits, damaged the city's reputation. He said Platt was ineffective at handling personnel matters and supervising employees.
Lucas also said the city council lost confidence in Platt’s leadership abilities. He said Platt failed to accept constructive criticism and did not communicate well with city staff and elected officials.
“No one enjoys this moment,” Lucas said. “It is with great disappointment that this step was taken. It was unanimous action, however, from city council, and I think it goes to show the magnitude of concerns and in many ways the breaking of confidence from all of us in connection with what we've had on the administrative side of late.”
Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw said she and her colleagues lost confidence in Platt’s ability to move the city forward. She thinks he lost the confidence of city staff and the community as well.
“We want transparency in our government and the concerns that arose recently was a major concern,” Parks-Shaw said.
Platt couldn't be reached for comment after the meeting.
City officials also provided no information about possible severance packages for Platt.
A city manager was last fired in 2009, when then-Mayor Mark Funkhouser and city council fired Wayne Cauthen.
Kimiko Gilmore will remain the acting city manager, the mayor said.
Last week, the city council voted unanimously to ratify Lucas’ suspension of Platt, a procedural move necessary in the city charter. Platt still has a few days to request a written statement of the reasons he was suspended and a hearing before council.
During Platt’s tenure, Kansas City’s population increased, and the city has received more international recognition by hosting events such as the NFL draft and upcoming World Cup matches.
Platt oversaw the execution of the Vision Zero program to end traffic fatalities, which has completed more than 400 projects to make roads safer. He also strengthened the city’s winter weather response, prioritized repairing city roads and spearheaded a tree planting program.
In a statement released to KCUR prior to today's meeting, Platt said during his tenure the city assembled the “most diverse leadership team in our city’s history and found ways to support so many marginalized communities that have been left behind.”
“I'm extremely proud of the work we have done over the last four years to elevate the quality of life for all Kansas Citians,” Platt said. “City government is more responsive and more inclusive, and we have unquestionably improved delivery (of) city services.”
Council member Crispin Rea said firing Platt was not “a matter of performance” regarding city services like snow plowing, but instead about how Platt treated city employees. He said the whistleblower jury trial highlighted that pattern of behavior.
“There was a direct finding by the jury that there was retaliation,” Rea said. “To overlook that as city council members would be an abdication of our responsibility to hold folks accountable and to do everything we can to ensure that city hall operates with integrity and maintains the trust of the public.”
Platt's support and opposition behind the scenes
Platt’s suspension and firing divided the community.
In an open letter, a coalition of civil rights organizations called for Mayor Quinton Lucas and the council to fire Platt immediately after the suspension. The Urban Council said Platt has a “well-documented pattern of racism, sexism, mendacity, and retaliation against Black, Latino, and female employees.”
The letter was signed by the Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard, who leads Kansas City’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Bishop James Tindall from the Urban Summit of Kansas City, Gwen Grant from the Urban League of Kansas City and Nimrod Chapel from Missouri’s chapter of the NAACP.
According to the city communications office, city council members received five letters of support for Platt from developers and groups like SpraySeeMO, a mural festival; and People with Lived Experience, Advocates, and Allies, an LGBTQIA+ advocacy group.
In its letter, that group wrote that “accountability is not the same as disposal,” and added that Platt has helped multiple efforts to support LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants and people of color.
“His leadership has not been performative,” the organization wrote in the letter. “It has been actionable, consistent, and deeply rooted in community care.”
Platt, the former city manager of Jersey City, was appointed the Kansas city position in 2020. In March of last year, city council extended Platt’s contract to August 2027 and gave him a raise from $265,000 to $308,000, making him the city’s highest-paid employee.
The move came after he was named one of the finalists for a city manager search in Austin, Texas. His contract extension hinged on him dropping out of that process.
“I turned down an opportunity to be the City Manager in Austin because I care deeply about this city and this community and we have momentum here unlike anything we've seen before,” Platt told KCUR in a statement. “Being city manager for Kansas City has been an incredible honor and privilege and I poured my heart into helping as many people as possible here each and every day.
Melissa Robinson was the only council member to vote against Platt’s contract extension. She cited the short amount of time council had to review related documents, and Platt’s lack of an employee evaluation, which would be a responsibility of the city council.
Platt’s original appointment to the job divided city council along racial lines. At the time, Platt was among the subjects of a lawsuit, which was later dismissed, filed by Black employees of Jersey City claiming discrimination based on race and age.
In a contentious 9-4 vote, all four of the Black council members at the time — Robinson, Brandon Ellington, Lee Barnes and Ryana Parks-Shaw — voted against him.
That may be grounds for Platt to sue the city.
Feuds inside city hall may be grounds for litigation
Platt has retained attorney Joanna Trachtenberg of TGH Litigation. The law firm specializes in employment discrimination and civil rights cases in Missouri.
Though no lawsuit has been filed, it appears Platt may be preparing to sue for employment discrimination. In an email to KCUR, Trachtenberg said Robinson admitted to making a racially motivated hiring decision about Platt in her opposition to his nomination.
In the lengthy email, Robinson told Lucas that his decision to hire Platt over other finalists who were Black made him “complicit in workplace bias and racism.”
“What happened to your commitment to seeing a Black female City Manager — That was a public commitment and there was no reflection of that commitment,” Robinson wrote in the Oct. 31, 2020, email. “Going from that statement to choosing a White male is unconscionable. If he were Black with these credentials YOU know there is no way he would have the supermajority vote so don't play the best choice card.”
Trachtenberg said Robinson also “carelessly and inaccurately shared confidential personnel information” regarding Platt over a Zoom call with the Urban Summit, as reported by the Kansas City Star.
“This Councilwoman along with others on City Council have continued since the beginning of his tenure with Kansas City to attack, harass, bully, and publicly defame my client,” Trachtenberg said. “This (Zoom call) is not only likely a violation of ethical standards but is also yet another example of the hostility, discrimination, and toxicity that the City has allowed to perpetuate for years towards the City Manager and his team.”
In emails sent to KCUR by Trachtenberg, Platt alerted Lucas and then-Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McManus about what he considered “inappropriate and unacceptable behavior” toward him and city staff.
Platt told Lucas and McManus that Robinson “publicly berated, harassed and personally insulted” Tammy Queen and Krista Morrison, the city’s finance directors, at a committee meeting. He also said Robinson issued directives to staff without his consent, which is against city code. He said that the discord between him and Robinson was making it hard to attract and retain employees.
Robinson denied that Trachtenberg’s allegations were grounds for a potential lawsuit over employment discrimination.
“This is an attempt to strong arm the City into giving more taxpayer dollars than what is deserved,” Robinson told KCUR in an email. “In this moment, it is important for us to not be distracted by unfounded claims and focus on the testimony of City employees who shared that they were told to lie to the media and the substantial verdict rendered by the jury.”
Lucas said after the council fired Platt that he and city council members “will always do what’s right for the people of Kansas City,” even if that brings legal repercussions. He said he’s not scared of any litigation Platt may bring.
“I have confidence in the employment decisions we made of Mr. Platt,” Lucas said. “I'm a Black mayor who hired him some years ago who has voted to renew him, and today we elected to take a different action. I believe that we have always been fair. We have always been objective, and it is my belief that any jury that were to hear that discussion would agree with us as well.”
Controversies during Platt’s time in office
Platt’s suspension three weeks ago came a day after a jury unanimously ordered Kansas City to pay more than $900,000 to Chris Hernandez, the city’s former director of communications. He alleged he was forced out of his job after he resisted Platt’s suggestions that it’s OK for city officials to lie to the media.
Lucas said Hernandez’s case against the city gave them more reason to suspend Platt.
In the lawsuit, Hernandez alleges Platt asked, “Why can’t we just lie to the media?” Platt later denied suggesting that the communications department lie to the news media, but he acknowledged telling a story about a former mayor in Jersey City, New Jersey — where he formerly served as city manager — who believed it was OK to lie to the media. That mayor was later convicted of fraud.
Platt said he told the story to lighten the mood, but multiple city employees testified they were afraid of retaliation if they did not go along with Platt’s media strategies.
But even before that lawsuit, Platt’s tenure as city manager was controversial.
Around the time that city council nearly unanimously voted to extend Platt’s contract, Andrea Dorch, former head of the city’s Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Office, alleged that Platt forced her to resign because she had said Meta, Facebook’s parent company, was evading the city’s minority hiring rules for its data campus in the Northland.
In an interview with The Kansas City Star, Platt said Lucas and city council knew about his actions cited in the lawsuits at the time they happened. He added, “Nothing referenced in the lawsuits was unknown to the council.”
The city hired a private investigator to follow and surveil Dorch, who they said was living in Lee’s Summit, which would violate a residency requirement for city employees. Dorch said the Lee’s Summit house was an investment property.
Several civil rights organizations in the city — led by Howard and Tindall, who signed the open letter calling for city council to fire Platt — called for Platt to resign in 2023 over Dorch’s ouster. They said Platt, as well as Lucas, were responsible for creating a culture of racism inside city hall.
Around the same time, Robinson attempted to hold a no-confidence vote for Platt. But after a closed meeting between council members and Lucas, Robinson — who was the only council member to vote against extending Platt’s contract — dropped the effort.
