Kansas City Lawsuit Testimony: Platt Seyz 'Sarcastic Anecdote' Did Not Encourage Lying

Follow-up on 12th & Oak suspected "Pinocchio Strategy" amid a workplace dispute . . . Check-it: 

“Go ahead and make up numbers for the media,” is the message former city water department public information officer Brooke Givens took away from that meeting, she testified on Wednesday. “They won’t check it anyway. That’s what they did in Jersey City.”

But in his testimony on Wednesday and Thursday, Platt denied that he was suggesting anything of the sort. He said he was merely telling a “sarcastic anecdote” to lighten the mood during “a tense conversation,” with a communications staff of whom Platt had been critical for not being more aggressive in promoting his initiatives. 

In fact, he went so far as to tell them not to lie, Platt testified on Wednesday afternoon.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Lie to local media? KC's City Manager Brian Platt tells jury that wasn't his strategy

The city's top administrator told staffers a story that some interpreted as permission to exaggerate the truth. In court, he denies that's what he meant.