Kansas City Manager Brian Platt was suspended from his position with pay on Thursday night.
The Kansas City Council will choose on March 20 to ratify or reject the city manager's suspension, or take other action. Deputy City Manager Kikimo Gilmore will be temporarily appointed as interim city manager.
The news comes after a jury ordered Kansas City to pay more than $900,000 in a whistleblower lawsuit centered on Platt's conduct. Chris Hernandez, the city's former director of communications, alleged he pushed back on Platt's suggestions to lie to the media and was then forced out of his job.
Mike Hendricks, a local government reporter for the Kansas City Star who covered the whistleblower trial, says he believes Platt won't be able to continue as city manager.
"I mean, his credibility is shot because of this," Hendricks told KCUR.
"I think it confirms a lot of people's suspicions and prejudices against Platt over the years," he said, "who thought that he sort of talked a big game and made some — made a lot of — statements that were hard to back up."
- Savannah Hawley-Bates, Missouri government and politics reporter at KCUR
- Mike Hendricks, local government reporter for the Kansas City Star
