Kansas City Mayor, City Council vote to remove City Manager Brian Platt
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - On Thursday morning, Mayor Quinton Lucas and of the Kansas City City Council voted to fire City Manager Brian Platt. The vote happened in Council Chambers after an hour and a half of closed session
The decision was unanimous by the Mayor and Council.
After the decision, Mayor Quinton Lucas said there were multiple reasons that led up to Platt’s removal:
- The Jury’s finding of Platt encouraging staff to lie to the media after recent action of Chris Hernandez’s lawsuit against the City and subsequent damage to the city’s reputation, that action and others within the lawsuit
- Ineffectiveness in handling personnel matters relating to the supervision of employees and resolutions of certain issues
- Failure to effectively establish goals for departments and divisions and a failure to adapt to evolving risks
- Failure to engage in or implement risk mitigation strategies
- Loss of confidence in leadership abilities both from staff and the elected official level
- Messaging City Employees on values important to the City and Council
- Unresponsiveness to elected officials as to certain issues
- Failure to accept constructive criticism and inability at times to make substantial changes
The firing comes three weeks after the Mayor and City Council voted to suspend Platt, with pay. Last week, the same leaders voted to extend that suspension indefinitely.
Deputy City Manager Kimiko Gilmore continues as interim City Manager.
Last month, a Jackson County Jury sided with a former city employee, who sued after he said Platt forced him out of his job.
The days-long trial ended with the jury taking the side of former Kansas City Communications Director Chris Hernandez and awarded him more than $900,000.
The lawsuit centered on whether City Manager Brian Platt told staff to lie to the media in 2022. Hernandez said he was eventually demoted when he pushed back and felt he needed to leave.
Platt started working as the Kansas City manager in December 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. He came from Jersey City, New Jersey, where he’d served as City Manager for less than five years.
In March 2024, Platt signed a nearly 4.5-year contract extension after he dropped out of the race for Austin, Texas, City Manager. His new salary was $308,000 annually. The lawsuit was filed before leaders offered Platt the contract extension.
Platt did not return KCTV5’s request for comment as of Noon Thursday.
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