Kansas City Manager Brian Platt is suspended with pay, with an end date not specified, as of Thursday night, the city announced.
The city council will ratify or reject Platt's suspension or take other action at its March 20 meeting, Mayor Quinton Lucas wrote in a letter to Platt that was shared with media. The City Council could also remove Platt from office if nine members, not including Lucas, vote to do so.
Deputy City Manager Kimiko Gilmore has been appointed interim city manager.
The move comes the day after a jury ordered the city to pay more than $900,000 to Chris Hernandez, the city’s former director of communications, in a whistleblower lawsuit he brought against Kansas City. Hernandez alleged he was forced out of his job because he resisted Platt’s suggestions that it’s okay for city officials to lie to the media.
In the lawsuit, Hernandez alleges Platt asked “Why can’t we just lie to the media?” Platt denied suggesting that the communications department lie to the news media but did admit to telling a story about a former mayor in Jersey City — where Platt formerly served as city manager — who believed it was okay to lie to the media. That mayor was later convicted of fraud.
Lucas said the case gave him and the city council a new reason to review Platt’s employment. Suspending Platt is within Lucas’ control, but he says he spoke to council members for hours before making the decision.
A source told KCUR that the suspension was unanimously supported by City Council. They will make a final decision on Platt’s suspension in two weeks.
In a statement, City Spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt said an official update will come after city council takes action on the suspension.
"Kansas City respects the leadership of the Mayor and City Council as they navigate this decision," Honeycutt said.
Lucas said he thinks Platt has improved Kansas City during his time as city manager, but that he wants to ensure city employees have a good work environment.
“We want to make sure that the people of Kansas City can trust not just in the success and growth of the city, which I think continues and of which he’s been a part, but can also trust in everything that we're saying to them, everything we're doing,” Lucas told reporters Friday afternoon.
Fourth District Councilperson Eric Bunch said the recent verdict on Hernandez’s whistleblower case was the impetus for the decision.
“There’s been a lot of news lately and we’ve gotta step back,” Bunch said. “It was pretty clear the verdict yesterday was pretty serious and something we have to take into consideration."
Platt has been embroiled in controversy before, when civil rights leaders called for him to resign and accused him of creating a culture of racism at city hall after the city surveilled and ousted Andrea Dorch, the former head of the Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department.
A city manager has not been suspended since 2009, when then-Mayor Mark Funkhouser and city council fired Wayne Cauthen.
Platt did not respond to a phone call from KCUR.
