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Why the director of Kansas City's civil rights office got pushed out

Kansas City officials hired a private investigator to surveil the city's then-Civil Rights director — something she said was retaliation for raising alarms about a massive development project in the Northland. A report from the Civil Rights office says Kansas City officials let Meta, the parent company for Facebook, ignore the city's diversity hiring rules when constructing a Northland data center.

The sprawling Meta data center campus was hailed as a project that would bring jobs and investment to Kansas City's Northland. But a new report alleges Turner Construction, the general contractor behind the campus, skirted city rules on hiring minority businesses — and that city officials tried to silence the Civil Rights office director when she sounded the alarm.

KCUR also learned that Kansas City was billed nearly $11,000 by private investigators to follow and surveil the official, who was one of the highest-ranking Black women at City Hall, in order to prove that she was violating the city's residency requirements.

Host Nomin Ujiyediin sat down with KCUR reporter Celisa Calacal to learn more about what exactly happened and how the city has responded.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
Paris Norvell is a freelance podcast producer for KCUR Studios,
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
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