KANSAS CITY, MO – Taxpayers are footing a nearly $1 million bill to pay for the lies, corruption, and retaliation of KC City Manager Brian Platt. Not a dime of this money will fix potholes, fund schools, or improve public safety. Instead, it will settle the cost of his abuse of power.
In reporting this piece, numerous City Hall employees, nonprofit leaders, and even council members spoke candidly off the record, describing a pervasive climate of racism, fear, and intimidation under Platt’s leadership. Yet, many refused to go on record—not because they lacked evidence, but because they feared retribution.
Now, a jury has confirmed what many have long suspected. In a bombshell verdict, former Communications Director Chris Hernandez has won his whistleblower lawsuit, with the court ruling that Platt not only engaged in corruption and blatant lies but retaliated against those who refused to comply.
The case exposed what insiders had whispered about for years: a city government where deception is strategy, and resistance is punished.
Among those who have refused to stay silent is Gwen Grant, President and CEO of the Urban League of Kansas City, who has been unequivocal in her condemnation of Platt’s reign of terror against Black city workers. In a statement to The Defender, she declared:
“Brian Platt operates with impunity… His long track record of discrimination, retaliation, and hostility toward Black employees—especially Black women—should have disqualified him from serving in this capacity long ago. The fact that he remains in power despite overwhelming evidence of his misconduct is a damning indictment of the political will in this city.”
Platt’s History of Corruption, Racism, & Sexism – An Official Timeline
Brian Platt rocketed to prominence in city government at an unusually young age, but his ascent has been shadowed by a trail of alarming allegations. In 2020, at just 35 years old, Platt became Kansas City’s youngest-ever city manager.
Since then – and even before, during his tenure in Jersey City – he has been accused of corruption, brazen lying, explicit and humiliating racism, age-ist harassment, retribution, and engaging in blatant sexism.
This investigative timeline unpacks documented incidents from New Jersey to Missouri, drawing on lawsuits and testimonies that paint a portrait of a disturbingly corrupt official who deployed his position for personal gain and power. The breadth of the allegations against Platt is striking given his relatively short tenure in top leadership, raising urgent questions about accountability in the halls of local government.
This is the first comprehensive exposé on Platt, connecting the dots from his calculated deception in Jersey City to his reign of lies and oppression in Kansas City.
The reason this piece is being published now is because Platt’s abuses are no longer just accusations or whispered allegations—his corrupt and dangerous conduct has been verified by the court of law.
The revelations from this trial, combined with years of disturbing patterns in Platt’s regime, demand immediate public attention. The trial offers the clearest, most undeniable proof yet of how deeply corruption has infiltrated Kansas City’s highest levels of government.
Now is the time for the public to fully understand the scope of what is happening inside City Hall.
Jersey City (2018–2020): Early Red Flags in Recreation Department Reorganization
Platt’s troubles did not begin in Kansas City. As Business Administrator of Jersey City – a powerful role equivalent to city manager – Platt oversaw a 2019 overhaul of the city’s Recreation Department that would later spark a major discrimination lawsuit.
In that reorganization, all employees were told to reapply for positions in a newly created department. According to a lawsuit filed by 10 longtime recreation employees (9 of whom were Black and 1 Latino), the plan had starkly disparate impacts: Black staff were “subjected to illegal transfers, title changes or demotions” while most white employees were not. The plaintiffs – many of them veteran Black city workers with decades of service – say Platt’s reorganization created a hostile work environment for Black employees.
Local civil rights advocates in Jersey City quickly voiced concerns. “I don’t think Brian was very compassionate or even considerate of the needs of the minority groups in Jersey City,” Rev. Nathaniel Legay, president of the Jersey City NAACP, told KCUR in a 2020 interview when referring to how Platt treated the recreation staff.
Prominent community members were hit hard by the shake-up. Frank Gilmore, a well-known youth mentor who ran a popular city summer camp, was abruptly transferred out of recreation to a job managing a mobile shower unit for the houseless – essentially demoted to menial duties unrelated to his expertise.
“Either he was extremely incompetent … or he was extremely negligent in the information he provided,” Gilmore said, accusing Platt of downplaying the reorganization’s impact on Black workers when presenting it to the City Council.
Another veteran employee, Daniel Ali, publicly lambasted Platt’s integrity during a city council meeting about the changes. Ali – who had devoted years to coaching youth soccer – accused Platt of mixing “truth with falsehood” in his justification for the overhaul.
“One of the ultimate levels of disrespect one human being could show … is to be disingenuous, to tell lies, [be] misleading, or deal in half-truths,” Ali said in an open council session.
Ali would later join the discrimination lawsuit against Platt, reinforcing claims that the young administrator’s actions disproportionately harmed Black employees.
Platt defended the reorganization as “merit-based,” a common anti-DEI right-wing dog whistle, and denied any racial intent, but the backlash was significant. By early 2020, ten employees (nine Black and one Latino) had filed suit alleging that Platt’s policies were racist and ageist, accusing him and other city leaders of pushing out older Black workers in favor of younger hires. (One plaintiff was a former councilman in his 60s who says he was reassigned to trivial duties after decades of service.)
A judge initially sent the case to be heard by New Jersey’s Civil Service Commission, but the accusations remained unresolved as Platt departed for a new opportunity halfway across the country.
Kansas City (Late 2020): Nearly every Black Kansas City council member voted against Platt’s Hiring
In December 2020, Kansas City’s mayor and council were tasked with hiring a new city manager – the most powerful unelected post at City Hall. Brian Platt emerged as a finalist, bringing ivy league recommendations. But as Kansas City leaders soon learned, he brought a massive amount of baggage.
Word of the Jersey City discrimination lawsuit and community criticism had reached Missouri. “Nearly every Black Kansas City council member voted against Platt’s appointment due to his documented history of racism,” the KC Defender reported.
Councilwoman Melissa Robinson urged her colleagues to delay the vote and investigate Platt’s record, noting the irony of preaching racial equity while potentially importing a problem. “We … acknowledge the racial sins of the past, but we … continue to create a racial division,” Robinson cautioned at the time.
Despite overwhelming opposition from Black leaders, Platt was handpicked and protected by Kansas City’s political establishment. As Gwen Grant put it:
“The fact that Brian Platt still has the support of the Mayor and City Council speaks volumes about their priorities. They have made it clear that protecting one man is more important than protecting the dignity, safety, and careers of Black employees.”
Thus, the 35-year-old Platt took the helm of City Hall while the deep skepticism among Black leaders set the stage for confrontations to come.
“Why Can’t We Just Lie?” – Whistleblower Reveals Explosive Brian Platt Allegations (2022)
Shortly after Platt’s arrival in Kansas City, internal turmoil began to surface. In November 2022, Chris Hernandez, the city’s communications director and a 20-year veteran of City Hall, filed a bombshell whistleblower lawsuit accusing Platt of encouraging staff to lie to the public. Hernandez’s lawsuit details a Jan. 3, 2022 staff meeting in which Platt allegedly asked, “Why can’t we just lie to the media?” Stunned, Hernandez replied, “That’s not a good idea. We shouldn’t do that.”
Platt was unswayed. “Why not?” he countered. “In Jersey, we had a mayor who would just make up numbers on the fly from the podium, and no reporters ever called him on it.”
The implication, according to Hernandez, was clear: The new city manager saw outright lies as a viable PR tactic, based on his previous experiences.
Hernandez “was not willing to put his credibility on the line for Mr. Platt,” the lawsuit outlines. “[Hernandez] felt he had built a reputation for honesty and transparency for decades as both a journalist and communications director. [He] did not want his reputation ruined while attempting to carry out these orders from Mr. Platt.”
The lawsuit cites additional concrete examples of Platt’s blatant lies in governance. In spring 2022, Kansas City launched a “Summer of Street Resurfacing” campaign touting infrastructure improvements.
City staff, looking at the budget, planned to resurface just under 300 miles of roads – a fact reflected in official press materials. Platt, however, pushed for a larger number. He directed that announcements claim a full 300 miles even if slightly less were planned. Then in May, Platt went even further, tweeting the lie that over 400 miles would be resurfaced, a 33% inflation of the true figure according to the eventual court complaint.
Hernandez grew concerned about the misinformation and lies. When he asked if he should update the official press releases to match Platt’s 400-mile lie, Platt allegedly told him, “No, no, don’t do that. Just go with 300.” – effectively instructing the city’s PR team to publicly tolerate two conflicting figures (one from the manager, one from the official documents).
Around the same time, Platt reportedly became enraged by a Kansas City Star article about potholes that presented city data he didn’t like. According to the lawsuit, Platt demanded staff call the newspaper to say its numbers were wrong, even after being shown the figures were accurate and came from the city’s own open data portal. Hernandez and other communications staff felt Platt was asking them to undermine factual reporting simply because it was unflattering.
Tensions peaked over the summer. Hernandez recalls meeting Platt for coffee in June 2022 to candidly explain why morale was plummeting in the manager’s office. He told Platt that employees were quitting or refusing promotions because of how Platt (and a favored deputy he brought from New Jersey) were treating people.
The conversation ended angrily, and weeks later Hernandez was removed from his communications director post – demoted ostensibly as a reorganization, but, he says, in retaliation for resisting Platt’s directives to deceive.
In his lawsuit filed under Missouri’s whistleblower law, Hernandez claimed he was punished “for reporting not to be dishonest to the news media and the public.”
Mayor Lucas once again came to Platt’s defense, claiming he had “seen absolutely nothing” to substantiate Hernandez’s allegations during a press event in 2022.
Despite Platt’s overwhelming record of racism, ageism, sexism and corruption, no one has defended him more than Mayor Quinton Lucas.
“The moment Mayor Lucas dismissed the collective concerns of Black council members and community leaders regarding Platt’s appointment, it became evident that he prioritized his own self-interests and consolidating power over the well-being and representation of Kansas City’s Black community,” Gwen Grant told The Defender. “His continued defense of Platt amidst escalating allegations further confirms this troubling allegiance.”
Targeting a Black Woman City Official – Spying on Andrea Dorch (2023)
If the Hernandez saga raised questions about Platt’s corruption and dishonesty, an even more explosive case soon raised questions about racism and sexism in his administration. In early 2023, Andrea Dorch, the respected director of Kansas City’s Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department, was forced to resign by Platt.
Dorch, one of the highest-ranking Black women at City Hall, later revealed she believed she was forced out for doing her job too well – specifically, for insisting on fairness in a major development deal.
The conflict centered on the construction of a sprawling new Meta (Facebook) data center in Kansas City’s Northland. As civil rights director, Dorch was responsible for ensuring the $1+ billion project complied with city requirements to hire minority- and women-owned subcontractors.
When she discovered the project was failing to meet those inclusion goals, she raised alarms and pushed for enforcement. According to Dorch, this stance put her at odds with City Manager Platt and other officials who were pressuring her “to look the other way” on the Meta project’s diversity shortfalls. In a report she prepared, Dorch alleged that city leadership waived the usual minority-participation rules for Meta’s developers – effectively shutting out Black and women-owned businesses from lucrative contracts.
Rather than heed Dorch’s warnings, Platt moved against her, asking for her resignation the next day. Citing a seldom-enforced city ordinance that requires high-level employees to live within city limits, Platt accused Dorch of violating the residency rule and demanded her resignation.
Dorch does own a house in a suburb (Lee’s Summit) – as an investment property – but she provided various documents of evidence (tax filings and her government ID) to KCUR showing her primary residence has always been in Kansas City. Regardless, Platt used the technical residency issue as grounds to retaliate and oust her in March 2023, even as Dorch insisted this was a pretext to retaliate for her speaking up.
“We believe the departure of Director Dorch of CREO will cause immeasurable damage to the efforts of the city in (providing) contracting opportunities to minorities and women owned businesses in a constitutionally defensible manner,” said Ray Malone, chairman of the Fairness in Construction Board, in a letter to council at the time.
It later emerged that the city, under Platt’s direction, went to extraordinary lengths in the effort to discredit Dorch.
In January 2023, he spent taxpayer dollars to hire private investigators to surveil Dorch and document where she was living. An invoice showed nearly 121 hours of surveillance and over 1,100 miles driven by the P.I., costing taxpayers almost $11,000.
Dorch was never informed she was being tailed. She only learned of it when local journalists uncovered the surveillance, leaving her “in fear for her safety and the safety of her children,” according to court filings. The apparent goal was to catch Dorch spending nights at her mother’s suburban home, thereby justifying her termination on residency grounds.
Dorch’s treatment sent shockwaves through the community. Civil rights advocates saw it as a blatant example of punishing a Black female official for demanding equity. “The city’s former civil rights enforcer was herself surveilled and pushed out for trying to protect Black workers and businesses,” observed one NAACP leader in disbelief.
In April 2023, Dorch filed a lawsuit against Kansas City and Brian Platt for race and age discrimination, asserting that the residency rule was selectively enforced. Her suit notes that several other department heads – some of whom are white or male – own homes outside city limits yet have never faced similar scrutiny.
In fact, the lawsuit claims Kansas City has a pattern of using the residency requirement “to terminate female, minority employees” while ignoring violations by others.
Platt and City Hall vehemently deny that Dorch’s race or gender had anything to do with her ouster, insisting the move was solely about enforcing city policy. But for many, the optics spoke louder: The Black woman charged with advancing equity was hounded out just as she challenged a big developer’s lack of diversity.
Importantly, this all takes place in the context of Trump’s recent executive orders banning DEI initiatives which will now put Kansas City’s minority participation requirements for city projects at extreme risk. The orders rescinded policies mandating federal contractors to promote affirmative action and diversity programs, potentially jeopardizing federal funding for Kansas City’s infrastructure projects that include diversity goals.
Civil Rights Leaders Issue a Scathing Rebuke
By spring 2023, the accumulation of controversies – lying to the public, alleged retaliation against whistleblowers, and the ousting of a high-ranking civil rights leader and Black woman – led to an unprecedented public outcry.
On May 4, 2023, a coalition of Kansas City’s most prominent civil rights organizations convened on the steps of City Hall to deliver a fiery “vote of no confidence” in Brian Platt. Leaders from the NAACP, Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Urban Summit, and the National Black United Front stood shoulder to shoulder, united in condemning what they called a “culture of racism” fostered by Platt’s administration.
Their message, also directed at Mayor Lucas for his continued support of Platt, pulled no punches.
“We stand with Black women and Black city workers,” the coalition declared in an open letter, “and we issue this vote of no confidence because of Brian Platt’s racist, sexist, and discriminatory policies toward Black women and Black city workers.”
The statement went on to express outrage that a major project like the Meta data center was allowed to proceed “without the proper guarantees of Black and minority participation,” tying Platt’s governance to broader economic injustices.
Civil rights veterans noted the painful irony that Kansas City had even created a commission to study reparations for Black residents, yet “the very administrator responsible for securing our participation [was] discriminated against and forced to resign”.
At the City Hall press conference, Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard, president of the local SCLC chapter, spoke to the crowd with unmistakable anger. “Our civil rights organizations have had enough of duplicitous rhetoric, posturing, pontificating about Black issues while presiding over an administration that oppresses Black people and leaves Black businesses out in the cold,” Howard proclaimed.
He and others lambasted Platt’s use of surveillance against Dorch as a shameful intimidation tactic. If City Hall could spy on a department director with impunity, they asked, what message did that send to every other Black employee?
“It’s an insult,” said Marvin Lyman, a leader in Kansas City’s Black business community and employee of KC GIFT. “To create a commission on reparations when the person tasked with inclusion is forced out under false pretenses. … We cannot be serious about diversity and equity when our practices are racist and sexist at the very core.”
Bishop James Tindall Sr., a venerable civil rights activist and president of the Urban Summit, put it bluntly: “He’s from New Jersey. I suggest he go back there.”
Flanked by dozens of Black leaders, Tindall called for Platt’s immediate resignation. Frustration had been building for months, and now it erupted in public demands: Reinstate Andrea Dorch. Stop sidelining Black businesses.
The coalition’s ultimatum signaled a breaking point – a collective declaration that Platt’s conduct was no longer tolerable to Kansas City’s Black community.
City Manager Platt did not attend the meeting and offered no direct response that day. Mayor Lucas, for his part, issued a measured statement highlighting his own record of appointing Black leaders and investing in the Black community. But these reassurances rang hollow to the coalition.
In their view, Lucas’s continued defense of Platt made the mayor “complicit with racism against Blacks in city government” and “overseeing a culture of racism against Black women at City Hall”, as the no-confidence letter searingly put it.
The episode was extraordinary: Rarely have so many major civil rights groups in Kansas City united to so publicly rebuke a sitting official. It made undeniably clear the gravity of the accusations facing the city manager.
Multiple Eyewitnesses Testify Under Oath Exposing Brian Platt’s Brazen Lies & Deception (2025)
Now, in 2025, Hernandez’s lawsuit has played out in real time in court, bringing even more damning evidence to light. In a major development, Maggie Green, the city’s former Media Relations Manager, along with other eyewitnesses, took the stand and confirmed under oath that Platt did, in fact, attempt to encourage city officials to lie to the media.
Green testified that in the same January 2022 meeting that Hernandez mentioned, Platt asked, “Why can’t we just lie to the media?”—the exact phrase Hernandez alleged in his lawsuit. Green also recalled that Platt referenced his time in Jersey City, where he claimed the mayor fabricated numbers on the fly, and “no reporters ever called him on it.”
Green became visibly emotional during her testimony, stating that she felt immense pressure and fear about what this meant for her job. “I was terrified that I was going to lose my job,” she told the jury.
She described the workplace environment as demoralizing, especially after the city consolidated all communications under one department.
A Rogue City Government That Has Lost Public Trust
Beyond the workplace scandals and economic failures, Platt’s regime has left the city’s credibility in ruins. Kansas City’s residents have watched their leaders defend a city manager who has been exposed as a liar, a manipulator, and an enforcer of racist and sexist policies.
Each chapter of Platt’s story features individuals who chose to speak up: minority employees who challenged unfair treatment, a communications director who stood in integrity at the expense of his career, civil rights leaders who united to demand change. Their courage to come forward has forced these issues into the open.
As Kansas Citians grapple with the fallout, one thing is clear: Sunlight is finally piercing the secrecy of City Hall.
It is the role of a free press and engaged public to ensure that such serious corruption is not swept under the rug. The future of Kansas City’s governance – and its commitment to truth and equality – very well depends on how these damning revelations are addressed.
The people have spoken, the evidence is undeniable, and now the question remains: Will this city uphold justice, or will it continue protecting dangerous, corrupt officials who wield power at the expense of the most vulnerable?
