It’s official: Kansas City Manager Brian Platt is out of a job.
On Thursday, Kansas City Council voted unanimously to fire Platt, who was suspended three weeks ago after the city lost a whistleblower lawsuit that cost it nearly $1 million.
Council member Crispin Rea said the outcome of the lawsuit had a significant impact on his decision to vote to remove Platt.
“It says to you that a jury of our peers made a finding, made a decision based on the credibility of the evidence, which included testimony that the city manager directed employees to lie to the media," Rea told KCUR’s Up To Date.
Up To Date has also invited Platt for an interview.
Platt has retained the attorney Joanna Trachtenberg of TGH Litigation, which specializes in employment discrimination in the state.
In an email to KCUR, Trachtenberg said Council member Melissa Robinson, along with others on city council, “have continued since the beginning of his tenure with Kansas City to attack, harass, bully, and publicly defame my client.”
When asked on about Trachtenberg’s accusation, Robinson told Up To Date, “We’re here because of his actions.”
“I think about looking forward with the sense of making sure that we have transparency, that we restore public trust, and we have someone with experience that can execute results in a way that's fair,” she said.
In a statement released to KCUR prior to his firing, Platt said his tenure saw Kansas City assemble the “most diverse leadership team in our city’s history and found ways to support so many marginalized communities that have been left behind.”
- Crispin Rea, 4th district at-large council member, Kansas City
- Melissa Robinson, 3rd district council member, Kansas City
