Black leaders urge Kansas City Council to fire suspended City Manager Brian Platt
A coalition of civil rights groups is calling on Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and the City Council to fire City Manager Brian Platt immediately.
The open letter from member organizations of the Urban Council comes a day before the council is scheduled to decide whether Platt will continue as the administrative head of Kansas City government. With the support of the council, Lucas suspended Platt with pay two weeks ago and said the council would decide at Thursday’s regular meeting whether he would keep the job he’s held since late 2020.
Platt was suspended the day after a Jackson County jury verdict awarded former city communications director Chris Hernandez nearly $930,000 in damages in his whistleblower lawsuit against the city. Hernandez had alleged that Platt demoted him after Hernandez resisted what he said was Platt’s suggestion that it would be acceptable to lie to the news media about the city’s activities and accomplishments.
Platt denied having made that suggestion, but two other former members of the communications staff backed up Hernandez’s account with their testimony during the eight-day trial. The jury also heard testimony from a former assistant city manager who also claimed that Platt demoted her for refusing to engage in what she says was unethical behavior.
“Brian Platt has a well-documented pattern of racism, sexism, mendacity, and retaliation against Black, Latino, and female employees,” the Urban Council letter said. “The evidence is undeniable. He has orchestrated forced resignations, fostered a toxic and racially hostile workplace, and cost taxpayers over $7 million in civil rights, wrongful termination, and whistleblower lawsuit payouts.”
The letter was signed by the Rev. Vernon Howard, who leads the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Bishop James Tindall or the Urban Summit Kansas City Inc.; Urban League of Greater Kansas City President Gwen Grant; and Nimrod Chapel at the Missouri chapter of the NAACP.
Howard and Tindall were part of a group that held a news conference at City Hall in May of 2023 and called for Platt’s ouster. Weeks earlier, Platt had called for the resignation of the city’s director of civil rights and equal opportunity, who officials claimed had violated the rule that requires city employees to reside within the city limits.
But Andrea Dorch alleges in an employment discrimination lawsuit that the real reason she was forced to resign because she had insisted that Platt and other city officials comply with minority contracting requirements that they did not want to follow.
Platt was hired in the fall of 2020. The council voted 9-4 along mostly racial lines. Lucas was the only Black member of the council to vote in favor of his selection.
The four other Black council members were opposed, as Platt was the lone white person and had the least experience among the finalists for the job.
City manager denies bias
Platt did not immediately respond to a text message requesting comment. Previously he has denied racial bias and has tried to build trust with the city’s Black community ever since.
Platte County Administrator Wes Minder, who before taking that job was head of the water department under Platt, defended his former boss in a social media post on X Wednesday morning.
“Completely untrue,” Minder wrote in response to the letter writers’ assertion that Platt had “a well-documented pattern of racism, sexism, mendacity and retaliation against Black, Latino, and female employees.”
On Tuesday, Minder also commented on X about talk radio host Pete Mundo’s on-air assertions that the attacks on Platt, who is white, have been racially motivated.
“So @PeteMundo nailed the Brian Platt issue this AM. What he didn’t point out is that he never had a fair shot in this town with some folks because of his ancestry,” Minder wrote.
Mundo’s reply: “City manager @BrianDavidPlatt was not given a fair shot by some very prominent people in Kansas City because of one reason: his skin color.”
Urban Council members have been critical throughout Platt’s four years overseeing city operations and the more than 4,000 employees who work for city government. Last year, when the council voted to give Platt a raise and extend his contract through August 2027, Grant was part of a group that began circulating a petition aimed at rescinding the pay hike and extension of his employment agreement.
It failed to garner enough signatures to force the council to reverse itself or put the measure up for a citywide election.
In their letter, leaders of the Urban Council criticized Lucas for his “unwavering support” of Platt and “complicity in Platt’s disastrous tenure.”
Lucas had no immediate comment in response to the letter. His press secretary later provided a written statement listing some of his accomplishments since becoming mayor in 2019, including hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in the city’s historically Black neighborhoods.
“He takes pride in his efforts that have helped Kansas City thrive,” the statement said.
As for the letter calling for Platt’s firing, the statement said: “The Mayor always looks closely at public comments that come his way, and will do so here, as he continues to review letters received in recent days in support of and opposition to the City Manager. The Mayor will do what’s right for Kansas City, our residents, our employees, and our future, and will share more about next steps on the administrative side of City operations tomorrow.”
Previously, Lucas has declined to comment on why Platt suddenly lost support of the council, when the broad allegations lodged against him during the Hernandez trial were already widely known.
“Myself and the City Council had a conversation about a number of issues. I’d never say it’s just one thing,” Lucas told The Star’s Melinda Henneberger last Friday. Lucas said the suspension was based on a “totality of issues.”
Councilman Kevin O’Neill concurred in a separate interview with The Star.
“I believe it was a series of public events including lawsuits, as well as several internal issues involving staff and council,” he said in a text message.
But O’Neill also noted Platt’s “inability to strengthen relationships in the urban core….He struggled in the “urban core.”
If Platt is fired for anything other than an illegal act, the city is obligated under his contract to pay severance equal to his annual salary of $308,000.
Since his suspension, Assistant City Manager Kimiko Gilmore has been filing in as interim city manager.
This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM.
