The former director of communications for Kansas City government won a whistleblower lawsuit against the city on Wednesday, alleging that he was forced out of his job because he refused City Manager Brian Platt’s suggestions that city officials could lie to the media.
Platt denied doing so in testimony last week.
However, a Jackson County jury believed Chris Hernandez instead. On Wednesday evening, jurors unanimously recommended that Hernandez be awarded $928,829 in damages.
Of that, $228,828 was due to his dismissal from the communications position he had held for nine years following a long career as a television news reporter.
And the jury awarded him $700,000 because Hernandez believed he had no choice but to retire early from the city at the age of 58, a year after his demotion, because he had transferred to another city job with far fewer responsibilities and no opportunity for advancement.
The city will also most likely owe a significant sum to his lawyers for their time and expenses, which a judge will determine at a later date.
On Wednesday night, city officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hernandez filed suit in the fall of 2022. He retired from the city at the end of September 2023.
The eight-day trial began last Monday and featured testimony from a number of current and former city officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, who supported Platt’s decision to remove Hernandez from the communications position and replace him with someone more committed to Platt’s vision.
“This is a victory for the truth and transparency that Kansas City residents deserve,” Hernandez said in a written statement following the decision.
“During my whistleblower lawsuit, we presented solid evidence that I objected to the City Manager’s attempts to inflate numbers, as well as his suggestion that we make lying to the media part of our media relations strategy.
“Kansas City taxpayers who believe that City Hall should be more transparent and truthful should express their opinion to the City Manager’s bosses – all of the City Council members and Mayor.”
‘Just sickened me’
Hernandez claimed in his lawsuit that he was demoted in August 2022 because he questioned Platt on several occasions, believing Platt had crossed ethical lines.
In his testimony on Monday, Hernandez claimed that Platt once directed his communications team to remove critical comments from the city’s social media accounts after it received criticism for suggesting that homeless people could store their belongings in city-branded trash cans.
The jury also heard repeated testimony about a meeting between Platt, Hernandez, and three other communications staffers on January 3, 2022, during which Platt allegedly suggested that it was acceptable for city officials to lie to the media and exaggerate the city’s accomplishments.
“Why can’t we just lie to the media?” Platt allegedly asked during that meeting, according to the lawsuit.
Hernandez responded, “That’s not a good idea.” “We should not do that.”
In his testimony last week, Platt denied suggesting that the communications staff lied to the news media, but he did admit that he told a story about the mayor of the city where he used to work in New Jersey.
That mayor, who later went to prison for fraud, believed it was acceptable to lie to the media because reporters were unlikely to question him about his claims.
In his testimony on Wednesday and Thursday, Platt stated that he was simply telling a “sarcastic anecdote” to lighten the mood during a “tense conversation” with a communications staff that Platt had previously chastised for not being more aggressive in promoting his initiatives.
However, Hernandez stated on Monday that he believes Platt “was 100% serious.”
Hernandez claims that Platt made it clear that he had no problem exaggerating Kansas City’s accomplishments, such as the number of miles of road repaved.
That was how others at the meeting interpreted his meaning as well.
Brooke Givens, former city water department public information officer, testified on Wednesday that she took away from that meeting the message, “Go ahead and make up numbers for the media,” “They will not check it anyway. “That is what they did in Jersey City.”
Hernandez and two other former staff members who attended the meeting said they were shocked and demoralized by Platt’s attitude.
“It revealed something about his character that just sickened me,” Hernandez told me.
According to evidence and testimony, Platt began the process of getting rid of Hernandez around the time of the meeting.
‘A different philosophy’
According to Hernandez, Platt ordered a restructuring of the city’s communications staff, emphasizing promoting his and the city’s accomplishments over simply providing unadorned factual information, unlike his predecessors.
“Mr. Platt came in with a different philosophy,” Hernandez explained. “…more in the direction of less information and more fluffy stuff, more promotional.”
Instead of having a spokesperson for each department, there would be one for the entire city government. Platt and his top aide, Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz, who followed him from Jersey City in May 2021, agreed. And they felt Hernandez and his team fell short of their expectations in terms of executing the vision.
“It wasn’t the right fit,” Platt said of Hernandez’s position as communications director. “We were always disagreeing on things.”
Hernandez retained his salary and benefits, but moved to another city job with fewer responsibilities and filed for early retirement in the fall of 2023. He sought compensation for lost wages, emotional distress, and career damage, among other things.
The jury ruled unanimously in his favor on Wednesday evening. He was represented by Erin Vernon and Lynne Bratcher of the Bratcher Gockel law firm in Independence.
