KC civil rights groups blast Brian Platt, Quinton Lucas over firing and City Hall culture
Five civil rights groups said Thursday they have no confidence in City Manager Brian Platt’s leadership on matters of racial inclusion at City Hall and condemned Mayor Quinton Lucas for what they called his “complicity” in those alleged racist actions and policies.
A statement from the local chapters of the Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, Urban Summit and National Black United Front was sparked, in part, by the recent forced resignation of Andrea Dorch, the city’s director of civil rights and equal opportunity.
Bishop James Tindall Sr., president and founder of the Urban Summit, called for Platt’s resignation at a nearly 30-minute news conference Thursday afternoon outside City Council chambers prior to the council’s regular weekly meeting.
“He’s from New Jersey. I suggest he go back there,” said Tindall, a former Jackson County legislator, who was flanked by about 30 supporters.
Neither Platt nor Lucas was at the 3 p.m. council meeting.
Assistant city manager Melissa Kozakiewicz said Platt was previously scheduled to be out of town Thursday and Friday. Lucas was in Chicago for a speaking engagement, according to his chief of staff, Morgan Said.
In a brief statement from his press secretary, Lucas defended his record on race and said he hoped to meet with the civil rights leaders who called him out. A Platt spokeswoman issued a statement Thursday night defending his record.
Dorch claims the loss of her $182,000-a-year job was tied to her complaints about the lack of goals being set for the level of minority and women business participation on the $800 million Meta data processing project in the Northland. She said Platt and others in city government had grown annoyed with her attempts to monitor the voluntary goals that the project contractors agreed to.
Platt says there was no connection and that Dorch was forced out for violating the city rule that all employees live within the city limits. The city paid a private detective firm $11,000 this year for its surveillance of Dorch outside the house she owns in Lee’s Summit.
In their statement, the civil rights groups criticized that expenditure and called on Platt to reinstate Dorch. They also demanded that the city’s agreement on the Meta project be amended to include minority and women subcontracting goals.
Plans to do just that have been in the works for weeks, a spokeswoman for Platt said earlier this week. At Thursday’s council meeting, an addendum to the development agreement was introduced for council consideration. It included a provision very much like the one Dorch had been advocating for months.
It requires the Meta project’s contractors and subcontractors to “collectively meet, or make a good faith effort to meet” the goal of awarding 14.7% of the work to minority business enterprises and 14.4% to women business enterprises.
Members of the city council have previously said that it was an oversight on their part that no goals were attached to this project, despite city policies that demand that women and minority business enterprises get their fair share of the work on projects receiving tax incentives.
The civil rights groups, however, laid the blame on Platt and said it was “appalling that the City Manager would allow a major development project to be approved and go forward without the proper guarantees of Black and minority participation.”
But some of the groups’ harshest criticism was directed at Lucas, Kansas City’s third Black mayor. Lucas broke with other Black members of the council, who opposed Platt’s hiring two years ago, and not only voted to make him the city’s top administrator but has been one of his biggest supporters ever since.
“Mayor Lucas’ action and inaction related to these issues, display the mayor’s lack of commitment to socioeconomic justice for African Americans here in Kansas City,” the statement said. “The mayor has been complicit with racism against Blacks in city government, is overseeing a culture of racism against Black women at City Hall and has betrayed his responsibility to protect the Civil rights of Black people at City Hall.”
Lucas’ office responded by saying that under his leadership, a record number of Black women and Black people have been been appointed to positions of leadership at City Hall, that workers’ pay had increased, and more investment has come to the Black community than ever before.
“The Mayor has great respect for the organizations speaking today,” the statement said. “He already has contacted leaders from the organizations to meet to discuss their concerns. Kansas City can only be successful if all can benefit from our rise. The Mayor remains committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure Kansas City can be a national leader in increasing opportunities for all.”
Platt’s press secretary emailed a statement Thursday night concerning his proposal to amend the Meta project agreement.
“Thursday afternoon two ordinances were introduced to the City Council in part by City Manager Brian Platt to address concerns about working conditions through Project Velvet,” the statement began. Project Velvet was the code name for the Meta project before Meta, the parent company of Facebook, revealed its involvement last year.
“If approved, these ordinances will help the City work with Meta to ensure fair and equitable working conditions are met throughout the construction of the data center. We hope the City Council will discuss and approve these ordinances to negotiate equitable goals on this project and those to come. City Manager Platt is committed to an equitable workplace free of discrimination for both employees and contractors.”
The civil rights groups also called on the city council to direct Platt to “expeditiously” address racism within the fire department by implementing the recommendations of an external review completed earlier this year.
Platt has said previously that he is doing just that. Prior to the report being issued, he hired LaDonna McCullough, who is Black, as the city’s chief equity officer to ensure that the report’s recommendations are followed.
The city council commissioned the report in early 2021, hiring an outside consultant to examine the racist culture within the fire department in response to a series of articles that appeared in The Star in late 2020.
This story was originally published May 4, 2023 at 3:32 PM.
