Kansas City Manager Brian Platt suspended after $900K verdict in whistleblower lawsuit
Brian Platt has been suspended from his role as city manager, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced Thursday night.
Platt has been suspended with pay effective Thursday, according to Lucas. His suspension comes one day after the former director of communications for the Kansas City government won a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, alleging that Platt demoted him in 2022 because he resisted Platt’s encouragement to lie to the news media.
In a letter to Platt shared with members of the media Thursday night, Lucas wrote that the Kansas City Council will make a decision on Platt’s employment status during the council’s March 20 meeting.
In the meantime, Deputy City Manager Kimiko Gilmore has been promoted to Interim City Manager effective Thursday.
“Kansas City respects the leadership of the Mayor and City Council as they navigate this decision,” city press secretary Sherae Honeycutt wrote in a statement Thursday night.
The lawsuit, tried by a Kansas City jury this week, was filed against Platt by former city communications director Chris Hernandez in the fall of 2022. In August 2022, Platt removed Hernandez, a former TV news reporter, from his nine-year role overseeing a 20-member staff that supplied public information to reporters and the public. Hernandez retired from the city in 2023.
In the lawsuit, Hernandez alleged that he was forced out because of his unwillingness to lie to the press, which he says Platt suggested during a meeting just before Hernandez’s removal.
During the trial, Platt denied that he had proposed lying to the media, saying that he was trying to “lighten the mood” during a “tense” conversation with city communications staff.
At the end of the eight-day trial, jurors awarded Hernandez $928,829 in damages.
Platt became city manager in 2020. In March 2024, his contract with the city was extended through August 2027 - with a 16% raise - after Platt became a finalist for a city manager role in Austin, Texas.
In 2023, five civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and Urban Summit, called for Platt’s resignation after the forced resignation of Andrea Dortch, the city’s director of civil rights and equal opportunity.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 8:08 PM.
