Open letter from media asks Kansas City to restore transparency, collaboration
The Kansas City Star has joined other local news organizations in calling for the Kansas City City Council and Mayor Quinton Lucas to ensure the next city manager works collaboratively with journalists and allows access to transparent and accurate information from City Hall.
“We believe that shared knowledge is critical to a well-functioning society and participation in democratic processes,” the news organizations said in an open letter to the City Council and mayor.
The letter is signed by Lisa Rodriguez, interim director of content for KCUR; Chris Lester, interim editor-in-chief of The Beacon; Kalie Hudson, chief content office of Kansas City PBS, Flatland, 90.9 The Bridge and Greg Farmer, executive editor of The Kansas City Star.
It provides detailed examples of obstacles news organizations faced in accessing information about city operations while Brian Platt served as city manager.
The City Council voted unanimously to fire Platt in late March after four years in the job, following a jury verdict against the city in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former communications director Chris Hernandez, alleging he was demoted in 2022 after resisting Platt’s suggestion that it was acceptable to lie to news organizations.
Open letter to Kansas City City Council, Mayor
Below is the full text of the open letter to the Kansas City City Council and Mayor Quinton Lucas:
To the honorable Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of the Kansas City Council:
Over the course of the last five years, we, members of the Kansas City media, have grown increasingly concerned about changes in our access to transparent and accurate information from City Hall.
We were profoundly disappointed to see this shift confirmed over the course of the lawsuit filed against the city, during which City Manager Brian Platt insinuated that lying to the media was acceptable and that his office’s approach to communication should be “public relations, not public information.”
We believe that shared knowledge is critical to a well-functioning society and participation in democratic processes.
We applaud the mayor and City Council for stating publicly that they want to earn the public’s trust, and we encourage the council to set expectations for the next city manager to work more collaboratively with journalists across the city.
Prior to Mr. Platt’s appointment as city manager, each Kansas City department had a public information officer authorized to use their own judgment to decide whether to accept or decline media interviews and who fulfilled requests for information.
This structure allowed for more efficient communication — vital to journalists on a deadline — and spread the task of working with multiple media organizations across several city employees. This also allowed for a healthy relationship with the media, which included productive back-and-forth dialogue between the city communications department and reporters working to ensure fairness and accuracy.
Under Mr. Platt’s leadership, city communications were centralized and all media requests filtered through a single person, who had to run the decision by her superiors — often Mr. Platt himself — before granting an interview or providing information.
Under this model, interviews with subject matter experts that had previously been easy to arrange were consistently denied, and information was withheld from the media, sometimes putting the city’s constituents at risk.
During the recent winter weather that caused dangerous road conditions, closed KCI airport and delayed other city services, KCUR sought critical updates for Kansas City residents. However, the city’s chief communications officer, who was fielding all media requests, said she was too busy for interviews.
A willing KCI employee who told KCUR he was available for an interview referred us to the same city official for permission, yet we were denied. As a result, KCUR was unable to offer critical context or provide residents with the city’s perspective or explanation about recovery efforts.
Two years ago, when Kansas City readied its launch of new recycling bins, The Beacon received messages from readers who wanted to know how it was funded, whether recyclable materials would be changing, who would be getting a bin and whether apartment tenants could participate.
But when the reporter asked to set up an interview, the city’s spokesperson responded that they were “not ready to discuss” these issues and told the reporter to follow up “when the time is right.” Without that information from the city, the story couldn’t be published, and readers were left in the dark about those details until after key decisions were already made.
The city denied a request from The Kansas City Star for a copy of its latest contract with Local 42, the union that represents most fire department employees, hiding a clause that removed members’ rights to sue for discrimination in a department that has long been accused of bias and fostering a hostile work environment. A reporter from The Star was only able to obtain a copy of the contract through a Sunshine request, which the city took more than seven weeks to fill.
The city’s choice to withhold the contract meant the public was not aware that the union agreed to deny future members the right to present evidence of harassment or abuse in a courtroom. This added clause was not announced to the public when the City Council approved the contract and known only to city officials and the union until The Star requested and reported on it.
By contrast, in 2021 a reporter at The Beacon (before the communications structure was consolidated under the city manager) did a series of stories on the city’s efforts to provide rental assistance to Kansas City tenants during the pandemic. Throughout the process, the reporter spoke frequently with staffers in the city’s housing department, including the public information officer.
Because the PIO and the housing department were so forthcoming, The Beacon’s approach was not “what is the city failing to do.” Rather, it told the story of how tenants were struggling, how the city was trying to help and how the city itself was overwhelmed during the pandemic.
We hope these examples illustrate what happens when the city refuses to provide information to journalists and what a good and open relationship with the media can look like.
A truly transparent city government should be willing to share facts — good or bad — and trust that the media will report with appropriate context and fairness. Only then can the public truly celebrate the city’s successes.
Gratefully,
Lisa Rodriguez, Interim Director of Content, KCUR
Chris Lester, Interim Editor-in-Chief, The Beacon
Kalie Hudson, Chief Content Officer, Kansas City PBS, Flatland, 90.9 The Bridge
Greg Farmer, Executive Editor, The Kansas City Star
“A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce, or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.” — James Madison, 1822
