Mario Vasquez is Kansas City’s new city manager. He was appointed to the role Thursday following a 11-2 vote by the city council.

The vote came a little more than two months after former City Manager Brian Platt was suspended and later fired when the city lost a whistleblower lawsuit that cost it nearly $1 million.

The role of city manager is one of the most powerful jobs in Kansas City. Vasquez will need to focus on repairing the city’s image and making it more transparent after Platt was fired.

According to a trial for the whistleblower lawsuit, the city consolidated its communications with reporters and the public under Platt’s leadership, prioritizing the city’s image over basic information. Vasquez will now oversee an audit of the city’s communications office and make any recommendations necessary to make sure the office will “reflect the City’s core values of transparency and accessibility.”

Vasquez will also need to quickly take charge of the city’s negotiations with the Royals over a downtown stadium, continue World Cup preparations, prioritize equitable development and infrastructure projects around the city and help guide the city’s public safety policies and its dealings with the state-controlled Kansas City Police Department.

The vote is a stark contrast to Platt’s appointment, which divided the city council along racial lines. In 2020, every Black city council member besides Lucas voted against hiring Platt, who was the only white candidate for the job.

In Thursday's vote, 5th District council members Ryana Parks-Shaw and Darrell Curls voted against Vasquez's appointment.

Vasquez will make $265,000 each year in the role. At the time he left the city, Platt made $308,000 for the position.

Vasquez is the first Latino person to hold the role of city manager. Before being hired, he was the assistant city manager and director of city planning and development. He’s worked for the city since 1997.

While in that role, the city’s planning and development department expanded its project services, reduced plan review timelines, increased staff in the permitting division and reduced inspection delays in an effort to meet the demand for more investment in the city.

At his public interview , Vasquez said he wants to prioritize economic development in all parts of the city and make the city’s development agencies more competitive to attract big projects.

But that doesn’t mean the city will ignore smaller projects. Vasquez said he wants to reinvest in parts of the city that have historically been neglected by prioritizing home improvements and street resurfacing, and eliminating illegal dumping.

Vasquez said the city is “somewhat unprepared” for the World Cup. He would prioritize getting the city ready to receive, transport and host visitors.

He also wants to begin a campaign to renew the city’s 1% earnings tax next year. Voters have renewed the tax since 1963. But with economic uncertainty on the horizon, Vasquez believes the city will have to run a major campaign to renew the tax, which provides about half of the city’s discretionary spending.

Vasquez also said he will approach the job like “a coach. You need to guide, you need to encourage, motivate and provide corrective action.” He moved from Bolivia to the United States in the 1980s and said he’s made Kansas City “my life and my family.”

“My tenure of service has given me a deep appreciation of this community, its diversity, its challenges and its potential,” Vasquez said at his public interview. “Over the years, I've earned a reputation of being a trusted leader, a dedicated leader, a problem solver, somebody that's looked upon through difficult challenges. I believe my work has made a difference in this city.”