Who are the finalists for Kansas City’s city manager? What we know before they arrive
Kansas City is about to host a small parade of local government officials vying for the city’s top bureaucratic job: city manager.
Four candidates will venture to Kansas City on Mondays and Fridays this week and next to meet with city officials, civic leaders and the general public. At the end of the parade, Kansas City will name a new manager. Mayor Quinton Lucas said he hopes that person will be in place around the new year, bringing to an end a year of interim leadership.
The city’s former city manager, Troy Schulte, stepped down in early December, and Earnest Rouse is filling in until a successor arrives.
Among the four finalists, three are Black. One is a woman. And all would be outside hires, coming from coast to coast.
“I think that this is a dynamic set of people who have done a number of good, progressive forms of development, city building, conflict resolution, etc. that I’m excited about,” Lucas said in an interview.
Among the candidates, one resigned from her last job under mysterious circumstances. Another is responsible for creating a civilian review board of police, but faced criticism in a previous job for signing away oversight of a massive sewer reconstruction program. One has worked in city government for less than a decade, while others have far more experience.
Lucas said the new manager will have to deal with a “trinity” of challenges in Kansas City: COVID-19 itself; the economic fallout from the pandemic; and race, policing and how Kansas City cops build trust with the community.
“I think we need somebody who can handle very difficult situations,” Lucas said. “The budget situation is, candidly, dire — not just in Kansas City, but in municipalities throughout the country.”
The four finalists, chosen by Lucas and council members, are Milton Dohoney Jr. of Phoenix, visiting Kansas City on Monday; Janice Allen Jackson of Augusta, Georgia, visiting Friday; Kevin Jackson of Long Beach, California, visiting Sept. 28; and Brian Platt of Jersey City, New Jersey, visiting Oct 2.
Only Platt agreed to be interviewed by The Star before this story’s deadline. Dohoney and Janice Allen Jackson both declined, saying they wanted to meet with city officials first. Kevin Jackson was not available in time.
Here’ more about each candidate:
Milton Dohoney Jr.
Dohoney has a long history in local government. He currently serves as an assistant city manager in Phoenix — population: 1.68 million — where he oversees the city’s police, fire and emergency management departments along with law, human resources and the city’s convention center and library.
He was tasked last year with studying potential models for Phoenix’s new civilian review board, meant to provide oversight to police, according to the Arizona Republic.
The issue began after Phoenix in 2018 had more officer-involved shootings than any other city, according to the Associated Press. The Phoenix City Council adopted the civilian review board earlier this year following what the AP described as a “raucous” hours-long meeting.
The council voted 5-4 in favor of a board with the ability to investigate police interactions.
Before going to Phoenix in 2014, Dohoney served as a city manager in Cincinnati, where during his tenure he signed a memo granting total authority to award construction contracts to the top official overseeing the Metropolitan Sewer District.
Two years after Dohoney left, an investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer found examples of abuse and inflated spending on the city’s more than $3 billion court-ordered sewer reconstruction program. Two years later, a state audit made similar findings.
The county prosecutor there launched an investigation early last year based on the audit. As of December, only about 10% of the overspending had been recovered, according to The Enquirer.
Kansas City is in the midst of its own sewer reconstruction project under a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Before the Cincinnati job, Dohoney worked in city and county administration in Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky.
Dohoney declined an interview ahead of his visit.
Janice Allen Jackson
For five years, until spring 2019, Jackson served as administrator of the Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government in Georgia. Augusta has a population of just over 200,000.
But she and the city’s general counsel were apparently forced out by the Augusta Commission, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
In an email, Jackson said the commission had termination of the general counsel on its agenda. Members emerged from closed session and asked both of them to resign.
“There were not any allegations of poor performance, unethical conduct, etc.,” Jackson said.
Now, Jackson operates Janice Allen Jackson & Associates LLC, a local government consulting firm, which she started before taking the Augusta job. And she hosts a radio show on a gospel station in Augusta.
The circumstances around her departure were not clear in the article, and Jackson declined a full interview with The Star before her meetings in Kansas City. One Augusta commissioner, interviewed by The Chronicle on the day Jackson resigned, expressed concerns about department head turnover during her tenure.
Jackson didn’t comment for The Chronicle when she resigned.
While she was administrator, Jackson worked on a $94 million downtown mixed-use development, called The Depot, that later fell apart when the Alabama-based developer pulled out.
Jackson also created new service and compliance departments and added a public information office, evaluated city salaries for the first time “in close to two decades,” she said, and pushed for a Keep Augusta Beautiful organization.
Before taking the Augusta job, Jackson served as an assistant city manager and city manager in Albany, Georgia, from 1993 to 2004. She was also a general manager — reporting to the county manager — in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Kevin Jackson
Jackson currently serves as a deputy city manager in Long Beach, California — population: more than 467,000 and part of the Los Angeles metropolitan region.
Long Beach last year was in the process of creating an Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw council districts following this year’s census, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
The city has also laid groundwork to create an African American Cultural Center, though no location has been announced yet.
Before taking the post in Long Beach, Jackson directed neighborhood services in Champaign, Illinois. According to the Champaign News-Gazette, Jackson oversaw redevelopment projects, registered more neighborhood groups and increased code enforcement.
Before that, he worked in neighborhood and project management roles in Arizona city governments.
Jackson did not reply to emails requesting comment in time for publication.
Brian Platt
Of the four finalists, Platt, according to LinkedIn, is the newest to local government work. He serves as business administrator for Jersey City, a role equivalent to city manager. Before that, he was the city’s first director of innovation.
Jersey City, which sits just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, has a population of over 265,000.
In his time with the city, Platt’s projects included outfitting police officers with body cameras, something the Kansas City Police Department is working on after receiving private donations to fund the cameras’ purchase.
Jersey City’s program took some time to set up after the first contractor the city hired to provide the cameras failed to perform, he said.
Platt said Jersey City — like Kansas City — has been grappling with how to manage its budget while the COVID-19 pandemic dries up revenue streams.
He said the challenges in Jersey City — aging infrastructure, unequal investment in different areas of town, limited affordable housing — are like those in Kansas City.
In Jersey City, he said, officials have leveraged relationships with developers to ensure the city is served by new construction projects.
“Through new development, and through zoning changes and changes to limit somewhat what can be built in certain areas, we’ve financed and funded programs and services, such as new library facilities, (a) homeless shelter, affordable housing units, new parks and the list goes on,” Platt said. He added that over time, Jersey City has gotten to a point that offering tax incentives is no longer the main approach for development.
Before working for Jersey City, Platt was a management analyst for McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm.
How to see the candidates
Here are the events that will be streamed on Channel 2, YouTube and Facebook. The meetings in council chambers are also open to the public.
Milton Dohoney Jr., Monday:
▪ 9-10:30 a.m.: Meet with Mayor Quinton Lucas and City Council in the council chambers.
▪ 1-2 p.m.: Virtual meet and greet with civic groups.
▪ 6-7 p.m.: Community forum in the council chambers.
Janice Jackson, Friday:
▪ 9-10:30 a.m.: Meet with Lucas and City Council in the council chambers.
▪ 1-2 p.m.: Virtual meet and greet with civic groups.
▪ 4-5 p.m.: Community forum in the council chambers.
Kevin Jackson, Sept. 28:
▪ 9-10:30 a.m.: Meet with Lucas and City Council in the council chambers.
▪ 1-2 p.m.: Virtual meet and greet with civic groups.
▪ 6-7 p.m.: Community forum in the council chambers.
Brian Platt, Oct. 2:
▪ 9-10:30 a.m.: Meet with Lucas and City Council in the council chambers.
▪ 1-2 p.m.: Virtual meet and greet with civic groups.
▪ 4-5 p.m.: Community forum in the council chambers.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story was not clear on Kevin Jackson’s availability for an interview with The Star. Jackson said he was willing to be interviewed, but not in time for the story’s deadline.
