KC will take a different approach in finding a new city manager. Here’s the plan
Kansas City will consider outside candidates to replace fired City Manager Brian Platt on a permanent basis. But the City Council but will not hire a consultant to conduct a time-consuming nationwide search, as it did when Platt was hired in 2020.
The process will take weeks, not months as it has in the past.
Some members of the City Council had wanted to limit the list of applicants to current city staffers. But after a more than hour-long closed session on Thursday, the council agreed privately to open the job to all who might want to apply, two sources with knowledge of those deliberations said on the condition that their names not be used in discussing those private talks.
The process, however, favors internal candidates. For anyone applying from outside city government, it would be with the knowledge that the mayor and half the city council will be out of office as of Aug. 1, 2027 due to term limits.
The new council might want to hire a different city manager.
The mayor’s office put out a notice that it was seeking applicant several hours after The Star reported on the city’s hiring plans. That notice said that applications for the job will be accepted through noon on April 16, after which Mayor Quinton Lucas and the council will consider their next steps. The city charter requires that the mayor announced his preferred candidate, which is then subject to council approval.
Platt was suspended and then fired last week after a jury awarded $930,000 to the city’s former communication’s director, who alleged that Platt said he saw no reason not to lie to the news media about the city’s accomplishments.
Lucas and members of the council cited that stain on the city’s reputation as one reason for voting unanimously to let him go.
KC city manager
When Platt was fired, city officials left two key questions unanswered. Would there be a national search for his permanent replacement? And what kind of severance package might Platt get for being discharged with nearly 2 ½ years left on his contract?
City officials avoided giving a straightforward answer to the first question as council members debated privately how to go about filling the job. And they have remained silent on the second.
Platt’s employment agreement guaranteed severance equal to one year’s salary unless he was dismissed for cause.
Deputy City Manager Kimiko Gilmore is acting city manager. In the motion to terminate Platt, the council said that she would remain in that role “until such further action.”
In response to a reporter’s questions earlier this week about plans to replace Platt on a permanent basis, a spokesperson for Lucas issued the following statement:
“Consistent with the City Charter, the Mayor currently plans to recommend a candidate for the permanent City Manager position following collaboration with City Council and community members. Until such time as the Mayor makes a final recommendation and Council approves, the Mayor has confidence in the work of Interim City Manager Kimiko Gilmore, whom the mayor welcomes and expects to consider applying for the permanent position along with other potential internal candidates.”
Kimiko Gilmore
Gilmore is being paid at the rate of $16,701 a month, which works out to an annual salary of $200,412, or about $108,000 a year less than Platt was making. The job posting the city announced on Friday afternoon says the salary range for the permanent city manager would be $250,000 to $325,000 a year.
“Though an “at-will” position, the initial contract is anticipated to run at least through the end of the current Mayor and Council term ending on August 1, 2027. Upon contract expiration, the City Manager will continue to serve subject to future action of the City Council,” the job posting said.
Gilmore began her City Hall career in 2000 as an aide to Councilman Terry Riley, who won a special election that year to fill an unexpired term to represent the 5th District.
In 2006, she formed a campaign committee to run for the 5th District At Large seat that was up in 2007, but withdrew before the primary in a race that Cindy Circo later won. At the time, Gilmore was community relations director for the nonprofit corporation now known as Community Builders of Kansas City, which specializes in real estate development on the city’s East Side.
For two years during Claire McCaskill’s first term in the U.S. Senate, Gilmore was McCaskill’s deputy regional director. She left that job in 2009 to become assistant to then-Kansas City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Cauthen was fired later that year, but Gilmore stayed on and was promoted by Cauthen’s successor, Troy Schulte, to become assistant city manager in 2012.
Gilmore left City Hall in October 2018 to work as the chief of staff for the chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, then returned 2 ½ years later to become a deputy city manager for Platt, who put her in charge of the city’s convention and entertainment facilities.
According to her city bio, Gilmore worked closely with the Kansas City Sports Commission on preparing the city’s bids for the 2023 NFL Draft and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 1:46 PM.
