Jury orders KC pay more than $900K to whistleblower who accused officials of lying to media
The former director of communications for Kansas City government on Wednesday won a whistleblower lawsuit he brought against the city in which he alleged he was forced out of his job because he resisted City Manager Brian Platt’s suggestions that it would be ok for city officials to lie to the news media.
Platt denied doing so during testimony last week.
But a Jackson County jury believed Chris Hernandez instead. In a unanimous verdict, jurors recommended on Wednesday evening that Hernandez receive $928,829 in damages.
Of that, $228,828 was due to his demotion from the communications job he’d held for nine years after a long career as a television news reporter. And the jury awarded him $700,000 because Hernandez felt he had no other choice but to retire early from the city at age 58 a year after his demotion because he had transferred to another city job with far fewer responsibilities and no chance for advancement.
The city will also likely owe a substantial amount to pay his lawyers for their time and expenses, which will be determined by a judge at a later date.
City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday night.
Hernandez filed his lawsuit in the fall of 2022. He retired from the city at the end of September 2023.
The eight-day trial began last Monday and included testimony from a number of current and former city officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, who supported Platt’s decision to move Hernandez out of the communications job and replace him with someone who would be more loyal to Platt’s vision.
“This is a victory for the truth and transparency that Kansas City residents deserve,” Hernandez said in a written statement after the verdict. “During my whistleblower lawsuit we presented solid evidence of multiple times I pushed back when the City Manager wanted to inflate numbers, as well as when he suggested that we make lying to the media a part of our media relations strategy.
“Kansas City taxpayers who believe that City Hall should be more transparent and truthful should express their opinion to the City Manager’s bosses - all of the City Council members and Mayor.”
‘Just sickened me’
Hernandez claimed in his lawsuit that he was demoted in August 2022 because he challenged Platt on several occasions when he felt Platt had crossed ethical lines.
In his testimony on Monday, Hernandez said Platt once ordered his communications team to erase critical comments from the city’s social media accounts after it faced backlash for suggesting homeless people could store their belongings in city-branded trash cans.
The jury also heard repeated testimony about a Jan. 3, 2022, meeting between Platt, Hernandez and three other communications staffers in which Platt allegedly suggested that it was ok for city officials to lie to the news media and exaggerate the city’s accomplishments.
“Why can’t we just lie to the media?” Platt allegedly asked during that meeting, the lawsuit says.
To which Hernandez said, “That’s not a good idea. We shouldn’t do that.”
In his testimony last week, Platt denied suggesting that the communications staff lie to the news media but acknowledged that he told a story that day about the mayor of the city where he used to work in New Jersey. That mayor, who later went to prison for fraud, believed it was ok to lie to the news media, because there was a good chance reporters would never check him on his facts.
In his testimony on Wednesday and Thursday, Platt said he was merely telling a “sarcastic anecdote” to lighten the mood during “a tense conversation,” with a communications staff of whom Platt had been critical for not being more aggressive in promoting his initiatives.
But Hernandez said Monday that he believes Platt “was 100% serious.”
Hernandez alleges that Platt was clearly conveying that he had no problem exaggerating Kansas City’s accomplishments with inflated statistics on how many miles of road were repaved, for example.
That’s how others at the meeting understood his meaning, as well.
“Go ahead and make up numbers for the media,” is the message former city water department public information officer Brooke Givens took away from that meeting, she testified on Wednesday. “They won’t check it anyway. That’s what they did in Jersey City.”
Hernandez and two other former staffers who attended that meeting testified that they were shocked and demoralized by Platt’s attitude.
“It revealed something about his character that just sickened me,” Hernandez said.
Evidence and testimony show Platt began the process to get rid of Hernandez around the time of that meeting.
‘A different philosophy’
Platt had ordered a restructuring of the city’s communications staff, putting a higher emphasis than his predecessors on promoting his and the city’s accomplishments, rather than simply providing unadorned factual information, Hernandez said.
“Mr. Platt came in with a different philosophy,” Hernandez said. “...more in the direction of less information and more fluffy stuff, more promotional.”
Instead of having a spokesperson for every city department, there would be one for all of city government. Both Platt and the top aide who followed him here from Jersey City in May of 2021, Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz, agreed. And they felt Hernandez and his staff fell short of expectations of executing their vision.
“It wasn’t a right fit,” Platt said of Hernandez in the communications director role. “We were always disagreeing on things.”
Hernandez kept his salary and benefits, but transferred to another city job with fewer responsibilities and filed for early retirement in the fall of 2023. He sought damages for lost income, emotional distress and harm to his career, among other things.
The jury ruled unanimously in his favor Wednesday evening. He was represented by attorneys Erin Vernon and Lynne Bratcher of the Bratcher Gockel law firm in Independence.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM.
