KC radio host says mayor and aide tried to get him fired, offered quid pro quo
A former KCUR employee says in a new lawsuit that Mayor Quinton Lucas and a high-level aide attempted to have him fired after he participated in a protest at City Hall.
The suit, filed by Hartzell Gray on Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, is a First Amendment retaliation claim that names the City Of Kansas City and Lucas’ former chief of staff, Morgan Said, as defendants.
The city, Gray claims, “attempted to force KCUR to terminate (him), worked to destroy his reputation, and caused various other harms that further serve to chill his First Amendment activities.”
Gray was a KCUR radio host in 2022. He was also publicly involved in the renters-rights group KC Tenants, speaking regularly at its rallies and protests.
In August of that year, Gray attended a city council meeting alongside about 50 other members of KC Tenants. The group was there to protest an ordinance, supported by Lucas, that relaxed affordable housing requirements for developers. Though the measure passed, KC Tenants disrupted the meeting with chants, and one of its leaders was arrested and escorted out of council chambers. The council prematurely adjourned the meeting.
That night, according to Gray’s lawsuit, Said contacted KCUR news director Lisa Rodriguez and told her “something to the effect of: The Mayor’s Office believes that KCUR does good work and is very fair with its reporting, but (Gray’s) personal and political activities could reflect poorly on the station and damage how people see KCUR.”
At many news organizations, including The Star, ethics policies prohibit journalists from participating in political protests to avoid the appearance of bias. NPR revised its policy in 2021 to state that journalists can “sometimes” participate in protests. KCUR, which is a member station of NPR, doesn’t address the issue in its Ethics and Practices policy posted online.
Gray says that after Said’s call to Rodriguez, a KCUR supervisor pulled him off his weekend shift, causing him to lose pay and fear for further retaliation. His suit also alleges that Said followed up with Rodriguez a week later to see what steps had been taken to “fix the issue.”
KCUR, Gray says, “acted in a manner so as to not potentially upset the mayor, fearing the consequences of losing any remaining access to City Hall,” the suit says.
But Gray also included in his lawsuit a text from Rodriguez where she appears to take issue with Said’s behavior.
“Wanted to let you know that I think the call I got from the mayor’s office was not cool, and I plan to follow up with Morgan about not issuing vague threats when our coverage is more than fair,” Rodriguez told Gray, according to the suit. “Still, I’d love to chat about how you can support the causes you’re passionate about in a way that doesn’t make the newsroom’s work more difficult.”
Gray parted ways with KCUR roughly a year later, in the fall of 2023. It is not clear if he was fired or quit. He posted on X in 2024 that he had been “fired for (his) advocacy,” though that might have been a reference to his work as an emcee at Sporting KC games, a role he also no longer holds.
KCUR, which is not named as a defendant, declined to comment for this story, saying only that it was aware of the lawsuit but that its policy is to not comment on pending litigation.
“(Gray) feels that if not for actions taken by the city, he would perhaps be in a different situation at KCUR,” Gray’s attorney, Madison McBratney, told The Star in an interview Thursday.
Quid pro quo?
The lawsuit also alleges that Said attempted to appease Gray by offering him what amounted to a quid pro quo.
Gray says he brought up the conversations between KCUR and Said to Lucas after running into him a few months after the incident, and that Lucas said “something to the effect of, ‘Ya, you know, I heard about that,’” and changed the subject. In March 2023, Gray says he saw Said and raised the issue with her. They scheduled a coffee meeting.
At that meeting, Gray says, Said “was both apologizing and justifying her actions regarding calling for (Gray’s) job.” She then said, according to Gray: “What do you want?”
Gray says in the complaint that he took this to mean, “What can the mayor give you for your silence?” Said offered Gray seats on two city boards, Gray says: the Commission on Reparations and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City.
Gray left the meeting but, “concerned by what was taking place,” did not follow up. The lawsuit suggests that Lucas must have been aware of the offer because “he is the only person who can appoint individuals to city boards and commissions.”
Lucas critiqued the basis of the lawsuit in a statement provided to The Star.
“The claim at its core appears to be an employment suit between a former employee, Mr. Gray, and his former employer, KCUR, that endeavors to cast blame unfairly on the City and our former colleague and friend,” Lucas said. “The Mayor and the City visit regularly with the press, sharing facts, honest opinions, and feedback. We will leave it to KCUR an explanation for their own employment decisions. The claims against the City lack merit.”
Said — who formally stepped down last year — referred The Star to the mayor’s comments.
Responding to Lucas’ comments, Gray’s attorney, McBratney, told The Star, “I find it interesting that he is trying to make this about the actions of KCUR but is not denying any of the allegations about the actions of the mayor’s office.”
McBratney added that Gray’s experience was especially troubling in light of other recent events coming out of City Hall. Those include a whistleblower suit filed by a former city employee who alleged that city manager Brian Platt suggested the city’s communications staff lie to local media about the city’s activities and accomplishments; a jury ordered the city to pay the employee $930,000, and Platt was fired last month.
And earlier this week, leadership at The Star and several other local media outlets, including KCUR, issued an open letter urging Lucas and the city to restore transparency that has eroded under Lucas and Platt’s tenure.
“It is starting to seem like we have a situation where not only are press outlets not able to get information from City Hall, they are essentially threatened with punishment if they don’t follow a directive from the government,” McBratney said.
The Star’s Mike Hendricks contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM.
