Not enough votes to fire Platt on Thursday, city council member says. But it’s not over
A majority of the Kansas City Council wanted to fire Brian Platt as city manager Thursday, but that group didn’t have the votes to get rid of him immediately, Councilwoman Melissa Robinson said Friday.
Instead, the council voted 13-0 to continue Platt’s paid suspension, keeping him in limbo indefinitely while Robinson and others attempt to garner support to terminate him in what Robinson predicted will be a matter of days and not weeks.
She provided that previously unreported look inside the council’s deliberations on a sensitive personnel matter while participating in an online Zoom meeting with a group of civil rights leaders and their supporters.
While there was no vote taken in executive session, Robinson judged that Mayor Quinton Lucas and at least three other council members were unwilling to get rid of Platt on Thursday. And so the council went ahead with the process spelled out in the city charter that would allow Platt to request a public hearing on his future, Robinson acknowledged at the regular Friday morning meeting of the Urban Summit.
Earlier this week, members of that group and three other civil rights organizations urged the council to fire Platt immediately for alleged discrimination of Black city employees and misconduct, all of which Platt has denied. He has not responded to requests for comment since his suspension.
Two weeks ago, Lucas announced that Platt was put on leave. He did not disclose the reasons, saying only that he had done so with the consultation of his council colleagues.
Under the city charter, the council was obligated to ratify the suspension or decline to do so and reinstate Platt at its next meeting, which was on Thursday, Robinson said.
In a written statement, a spokesperson for Lucas said the city manager has a right to a hearing, if he requests one, under the city charter:
“Neither the mayor nor any councilmembers requested a pre-termination hearing for the manager. The City Charter provides the Manager a hearing by right following a suspension or termination. There was no vote taken behind closed doors as to the City Manager’s future and any action will be, as consistent with the City’s practice, in open session.”
Lucas suspended Platt on March 6, the day after a Jackson County jury awarded former city communications director Chris Hernandez nearly $930,000 in his whistleblower lawsuit against the city.
Hernandez alleged that Platt demoted him after Hernandez resisted Platt’s suggestion that it would be acceptable to lie to the news media about the city’s activities and accomplishments. Two other other former members of the communications staff backed up Hernandez’s account with their testimony during an eight-day trial.
Platt denied suggesting that city officials lie to the public. He became city manager in December 2020 after Lucas and the previous city council conducted a nationwide search.
Takes nine votes
Once the suspension was ratified Thursday, the council could have moved to fire Platt. But that didn’t happen, Robinson said, because there was not enough support.
By charter, it takes a simple majority vote to fire a city manager, as long as the mayor is part of that 7-6 majority. But it takes nine of the council’s 13 members to fire a city manager without the mayor’s support.
The latter is the situation the council found itself in Thursday, as Robinson outlined things in response to questions Friday from Urban League of Greater Kansas City President Gwen Grant and the Rev. Vernon Howard, who leads the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Robinson was hesitant at first to discuss what occurred during the 90-minute closed-door meeting that preceded the vote to uphold Platt’s suspension.
“It requires nine votes for passage,” Robinson said as an audience of more than 70 listened in. “And so obviously there could have been a motion. We would have needed a second and all of that. That was my recommendation.”
Grant: “Then you didn’t have the votes.”.
Howard: “You didn’t have nine votes? What is it, councilwoman? Be clear, please. You didn’t have the nine votes, correct?”
To which Robinson replied: “There was not enough support to terminate the city manager yesterday.”
But Robinson said she plans to work toward bringing about Platt’s termination in what she said would be a matter of days and not weeks, while acknowledging that the next regular meeting of the council is not until April 3.
Opposition to Platt
Four years ago, Robinson voted against hiring Platt. And she has since attempted on other occasions to convince the council to remove him from his job.
After Thursday’s meeting, Lucas also said that he expected a permanent resolution soon but declined to speculate on how things might turn out.
Other council members were reluctant to discuss Platt’s future after voting unanimously to ratify the suspension with no end date specified.
Platt has 10 days in which to request a public hearing to make his case before Kansas Citians to remain city manager, according to the city charter. If he chose to do that, the City Council would vote again after the hearing.
Should he not request a hearing, he could resign after negotiating a separation agreement.
Theoretically, the situation could remain unresolved until his contract runs out more, but Lucas told The Star that he does not anticipate that happening.
Platt’s contract, which pays him $308,000 a year, does not expire until August 2027. If he is fired for anything other than cause, the contract guarantees him severance equal to his annual salary.
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM.
