Despite promising full video, KCPS removes most revealing part of interview with 41 Action News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 41 News Investigation raised serious ethical questions about a multi-million dollar construction project for Kansas City Public Schools.

In fact, the District preemptively issued a press release before the story aired on Wednesday night. Defending its process as “transparent and ethical,” the news release also promised full video of a 41 Action News interview with Chief Operating Officer Mike Rounds on its website .

Upon first glance, it looked like the entire video had been included. The District even left its camera running after the interview concluded and people starting walking around in the room.

However, after taking a closer look, 41 Action News discovered the most revealing part of the 40-minute interview was missing.

More than eight minutes of the interview were edited out of the District’s video. Those portions addressed concerns raised by companies about the process being an “inside deal.”

The segment also included specific questions by 41 Action News about the absence of a non-disclosure agreement for Buddy Hahs, the District’s unpaid adviser who later founded his own company and won the bid.

A competitive bidding expert said non-disclosure agreements are standard business practice to keep consultants or advisers from using inside information to their advantage.

You can watch the entire interview at http://bit.ly/yhLzvE . Clips four and five contain the segment that had been removed from the District’s edited version.

UPDATE, February 10, 2:30 p.m.:  KCPS has reposted the video in its entirety on the web site. 41 Action News asked why the entire video was not originally included, and whether someone at the District requested the edit.

"The omission of the eight-minute clip was a result of an error uploading the video," said spokesman Andre Riley. "The interview was too long to upload as one file, so we had to break it up into smaller clips. We just made a mistake with the time codes. It was simply a user error."

Ryan Kath can be reached by email at ryan.kath@kshb.com . You can also follow him on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook .