To learn more about how KCPD pays for lawsuit settlements, check out my new story at @thebeacon.bsky.social

City Hall is getting frustrated that lawsuit settlements are costing Kansas City taxpayers millions of dollars while elected officials have very little ability to actually change the department's behavior.

City Councilman Johnathan Duncan said it's an "untenable position."

To put that number into context, KCMO spent $8.5 million when it bought and delivered trash carts to every house last year. The entire Vision Zero budget this year is $8 million.

“It makes anyone who’s sitting here in government-land say, ‘What the hell are we doing here?’” Lucas told me.

This is a bit of a long one. But if it helps, my editors tell me it’s a quicker read than it looks!

Check it out at @thebeacon.bsky.social 🙂

…And it could get more severe. The legislators’ lawyer plans to ask a judge to restrain county spending. That means that the county may only be able to spend money on salaries.

But Legislator Smith, who’s part of the lawsuit, told me that urgency might be what could bring this crisis to a close.

That’s why a controlling majority of the legislature is holding up a growing number of funding measures.

That includes buying ice melt, hiring softball umpires and even getting meals for county inmates. Funding from the COMBAT public safety sales tax is also on hold.

In the meantime, the county's using last year’s budget. White's chief of staff tells me that’s standard practice whenever a body of government fails to pass a budget.

But the four legislators say the county should be using the budget they passed (and White vetoed) instead of last year’s budget.

It all started in January, when White vetoed the county budget. Four legislators filed a lawsuit, arguing that his veto was illegal.

They say that White can only veto the budget until the new year, when the budget takes effect. His veto came on Jan. 9.

a bunch more ballots dropped and it’s still at like 85% yes….. WOW

Now that Platt's out, his tenure ranks around the middle of the pack in terms of length. He was in the job for more than four years — longer than Weatherford, or Larry Brown in the 1990s. But much shorter than L.P. Cookingham (19 years) or Troy Schulte (10 years).

There's been plenty of drama around this job for 100 years — especially from 1959–63.

When Weatherford resigned in 1962, I found this quote from a city councilman in The Star's archives:

“It’s too bad, in a way," he said. "It's too bad that we didn’t get a chance to confer that honor on him.”

Platt was the 15th city manager since the job was created in the 1920s. Of those 15, Platt is the seventh to be ousted.

What's relatively unusual is the fact that the council voted to remove him. Typically, the council forces the manager to resign.