Is Brian Platt leaving KC? City manager is finalist for position in Austin, Texas
Kansas City’s city manager, Brian Platt, is one of three finalists for the job of city manager in Austin, Texas, that city’s mayor announced Tuesday afternoon.
Platt, who was appointed to his current position a little more than three years ago, is up against the current city managers of Dallas and Denton, Texas, for the position, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson announced on the city council message board Tuesday.
Watson said Platt and the others would meet with city staff on March 25, and sit for interviews with him and the council the next day. Watson said one or more of the finalists would return for additional discussion on April 1 and that on April 2 they would direct the city’s executive search firm to begin contract negotiations.
Platt did not immediately respond to a phone message requesting comment.
With a population of nearly 1 million, Austin has about twice as many residents as Kansas City does in a fast-growing metro area that is slightly more populous than greater Kansas City.
Prior to starting work at City Hall in December 2020, Platt held an equivalent position leading city government in Jersey City, New Jersey. Of the four finalists to replace long-time city manager Troy Schulte, the then 35-year-old Platt was the youngest candidate for the job, had the least experience and was the only finalist who was white.
But he was Lucas’ top pick, and the City Council ratified Platt’s selection by a vote of 9-4, albeit along racial lines. Of the five Black members of the council at the time, Lucas alone wanted Platt to have the job.
Platt worked hard to build bridges with the Black community in the years since, focusing his attention on the needs of the predominantly minority 3rd and 5th districts. But last spring, leaders of local civil rights groups accused him of overseeing a City Hall rife with employment discrimination lawsuits and asked for his resignation. In a closed door meeting, Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, however, was unsuccessful in getting her colleagues to slap him with a vote of no confidence, and the controversy subsided.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, after the announcement out of Austin, Lucas said he was proud to have recommended Platt for his current job and will work hard to keep him in Kansas City.
“We appreciate Austin’s recognition of the success of Kansas City and its government over the past four years and our top administrator, Brian Platt,” he wrote.
Before becoming Jersey City’s top administrator, he was that city’s chief innovation officer. He attempted to apply those skills and that ethic to his job in Kansas City, sometimes irking long-time employees who were resistant to change.
“I think that creating change always creates some kind of pushback and resistance, no matter what you’re trying to do,” he said in a previously unpublished interview with The Star last summer. “If you’re altering the course of the way things were, there will be some sort of resistance and some sort of pushback. And the hardest part of the job is understanding what it is and where it’s coming from and how to resolve it.”
Platt has been especially proud of improving snow removal, sometimes driving a snow plow himself. He has also moved to revamp the city’s trash and recycling services and is in process of negotiating a contract for a large solar energy project at Kansas City International Airport.
Platt makes $265,000 a year as city manager. Austin has been searching for a new city manager since February 2023 when, according to the Texas Tribune, the previous one was fired due to what City Council members perceived as his flawed response to a major winter storm.
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 4:03 PM.
