This story was originally published by The Kansas City Star. KCUR is republishing occasional stories from The Star with permission from the newspaper.
Less spin. More transparency.
Some members on the Kansas City Council want the city’s communications strategy to reflect that shift in focus now that Brian Platt is no longer city manager.
Under his direction, city government’s approach to communicating with reporters and the public emphasized making the city look good over providing basic information, according to testimony in a recent civil trial. And that approach ultimately cost Platt his job.
The council fired him last month after a Jackson County jury ruled in favor of former city communications director Chris Hernandez. His lawsuit against the city said he was relieved of his duties after pushing back on what he claimed was Platt’s tendency to exaggerate the city’s accomplishments. Hernandez and others said Platt told them that lying to the news media was acceptable.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said at the time of Platt’s termination that the evidence presented against Platt in trial had damaged the city’s reputation.
Now as the council is about to choose a new city manager perhaps as early as next week, Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley has introduced a resolution that would order a performance audit of the city’s communications office.
On Tuesday, the council’s finance committee recommended that the full council pass the resolution at Thursday’s legislative meeting. It would direct the city auditor to evaluate the structure and operations of the city’s communications office and make any recommendations necessary to ensure that the efforts of that office “reflect the City’s core values of transparency and accessibility.”
Lucas, Mayor Pro-Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw and Councilman Wes Rogers are co-sponsors.
“The spirit of this resolution is to evaluate our communication practices here at City Hall to ensure that they the way that we communicate with the public, particularly the press, is timely, transparent, and that there is a known protocol,” Patterson Hazley told the committee. “In a time of misinformation, I think it’s important that we do what we can to make sure that we are trustworthy and that we have a communications protocol that’s predictable."
The resolution says that the council believes that “effective communication with the public is essential for fostering transparency, trust, and informed civic engagement.” It also directs the auditor to assess whether to decentralize the city’s communications functions.
Prior to Platt becoming city manager in December 2020, each department in city government had a designated spokesperson who the public and reporters could contact to get information about city programs and activities.
Platt consolidated communications, at first under Hernandez and then, in August 2022, under one of his key aides, Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz.
The stated goal was to have a unified message because sometimes multiple departments were working separately on a particular project or initiative. News reporters might get incomplete information if they only talk to one of those public information officers, Kozakiewicz explained.
Local media urges transparency
But members of the news media found the single-source system made it harder to get needed information.
In a joint letter to Lucas and the council this month, the executive editor of The Star, Greg Farmer, and leaders of three other local news organizations asked the officials to ensure that the next city manager work collaboratively with journalists and allow greater access to transparent and accurate information.
“We believe that shared knowledge is critical to a well-functioning society and participation in democratic processes,” the news organizations said in that open letter.
The other signatories were Lisa Rodriguez, interim director of content for KCUR; Chris Lester, interim editor-in-chief of The Beacon; and Kalie Hudson, chief content office of Kansas City PBS, Flatland and 90.9 The Bridge.
During Platt’s tenure, city officials were slow to fulfill open records requests governed by the state’s Sunshine Law, the letter said.
“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,” the open letter concluded.
The resolution supporting an audit does not explicitly address public records requests, but the words transparency and transparent appear five times, and accessibility appears three times. Patterson Hazley said she hopes that the city auditor consult with members of the news media as part of his research.
The council recognizes the distinction between public relations and communications, the resolution states. While the former “primarily focuses on manager the City’s image, reputation and brand,” the latter can directly impact public safety and health, it says.
In an emailed response to the letter from news media leaders, Lucas on Tuesday wrote that he and his colleagues are committed to being open and transparent with the public and said he welcomes an audit.
“The report back will be a public one, and at whatever time you may wish, we welcome further meetings in a public forum or during an on-the-record meeting if outside of a deliberative body to learn more about your views on how we are communicating,” Lucas said.
“Having served now for a decade, I have seen strengths and weaknesses in our communications but believe we can always do better. Thank you for writing and reporting on our community.”
Unfinished business
Despite the audit resolution’s outlook to the future, the council is still not finished dealing with the fallout from Hernandez’s lawsuit against the city. It still needs to decide if it will approve a settlement to pay Hernandez’s legal fees.
Losers in civil cases often pay the winning side’s legal fees. In this case, since the trial resulted in the jury awarding Hernandez $930,000 in damages, that would be the city.
Hernandez’s attorneys Lynne Bratcher and Erin Vernon are awaiting the council’s decision on whether it will approve a settlement to compensate them for their time and expenses.
In the event the settlement isn’t approved, the attorneys filed a court motion asking a judge to award them $1.05 million.
