This story was originally published by KCUR, 89.3, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.

An audit of Kansas City’s communications practices found that the department was slow to respond to records requests, prioritized branding over public information and at some points threatened to revoke access to reporters who published stories that were unfavorable to the city.

All of that happened under former City Manager Brian Platt, according to the audit. Platt was fired in March, after the city lost a whistleblower lawsuit that cost it nearly $1 million. In the lawsuit, Chris Hernandez, the city’s former director of communications, alleged he was forced out of his job for resisting Platt’s suggestions that it’s OK for city officials to lie to the media.

Council member Johnathan Duncan said this audit, made public last week, is the first step in understanding how to better respond to city issues.

“When we know better, we do better,” Duncan said. “We know better. (This is) damning information, but this is the first step to being an accountable and transparent government, which is what we are striving to do.”

After Platt was fired, KCUR and other local news organizations wrote an open letter urging Mayor Quinton Lucas and the city council to make city hall more transparent and the communications department more responsive to the media.

Council member Melissa Patterson Hazley championed the ordinance to audit the communications department. She said the whistleblower lawsuit was one reason she felt an audit was necessary. She also said it wasn’t clear who to go to for press releases and events, or promoting activities that council members are doing in their district.

“The way that communications was being done was not consistent,” Patterson Hazley said. “I would get feedback that there is some hazard that the community needs to know about, but that specific employees in the communications department were not letting that information be known to the public because they were focusing more on the brand of the city rather than effective communications, which could be a hazard to somebody’s life.”

In April, the city council unanimously ordered an audit of the city communications office. Below is what the city auditor’s office found:

Consolidation, branding and ‘buried stories’ 

In 2021, Platt consolidated decision-making and access to information in the communications office under Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz. That meant all media requests had to go through Kozakiewicz, and often Platt, for approval.

The city auditor found that Platt did not make clear to the communications staff or other city departments that the department had centralized decision-making under Kozakiewicz. That meant department-specific public information officers were restricted from answering the media or public, and many eventually resigned. The city is still trying to fill those vacancies.

Kozakiewicz was Platt’s closest aide during much of his time as city manager. She was fired more than two months after Platt.

The auditor recommended that Mario Vasquez, the new city manager, appoint a permanent communications director to manage the city’s media operations and clarify the responsibilities of staff. The auditor also recommended the director create a comprehensive communications plan to help public information officers interact and engage with the media.

Vasquez told city council that he may decentralize the department again and is seeking a permanent communications director. He said the director should understand the unique role of a city communications department.

“It isn’t just media relations,” Vasquez said. “It’s also the event planning, managing Channel 2, managing our public engagement, and above all, being transparent and truthful to the public.”

The auditor also found that the communications department under Platt focused more on public branding than accurate information sharing, which was a key focus in Hernandez’s lawsuit.

The report found that leadership “buried stories or sat on stories it did not find favorable” and that, in some cases, Kozakiewicz “called journalists who had written unfavorable stories and threatened to deny them further access to City officials.” The auditor said those threats are inconsistent with the transparency the city department is meant to uphold.

A former peer of Kozakiewicz’s, Kerrie Tyndall, said during Hernandez’s whistleblower lawsuit that Kozakiewicz kept a sign in her office that read “PR, NOT Public Information.” Tyndall also sued the city for discrimination after she alleged she was fired for giving Platt advice he didn’t want to hear. The city settled her lawsuit for $900,000.

‘We always need to tell the truth’

In addition to not providing accurate access to information and hindering news stories, the auditor found the communications department did not respond to media inquiries or records requests in a timely manner.

Under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, records like emails from public officials and city documents are supposed to be available to the public, with a few exceptions.

The city does not have a system to track and follow up on its responses to records requests, and it took about two weeks, on average, to fulfill Sunshine Law requests. The city auditor recommended the department track Sunshine Law requests and produce regular reports monitoring its response progress.

The city auditor noted the communications department succeeded in some areas. The Office of Language Access helped residents access city services and programs. It also found the department created greater awareness of the city and what it does through public branding campaigns.

However, the audit said the branding should not overshadow the primary purpose of the department, which is to disseminate public information, even when it doesn’t fit the image the city wants to create.

“Branding and public information are not mutually exclusive,” the report said. “The City could have both an effective marketing effort and simultaneously be responsive and transparent in disseminating information to the public.”

Moving forward, Patterson Hazley said she will work to make sure Vasquez hires a leader for the communications department that people can trust.

“We need to have leadership in our communications department that is knowledgeable, experienced, educated and professional,” Patterson Hazley said. “We see the impact that it can have on the community when it’s not done correctly and the impact it can have on employees when it is not done correctly.”

Vasquez said the city will bring in a consultant to help with restructuring the communications department and following the auditor’s recommendations.

Council member Nathan Willett said he’s confident that Vasquez will create a good plan for the city moving forward.

“We always need to tell the truth, even when it’s not convenient to folks,” Willett said. “This is not a spin operation, it’s just that simple.”