Correction: The Mirror inadvertently did not include the last three paragraphs of this column when the column was originally posted. The rest of the column has been added. The Mirror strives for accuracy and regrets the error.

Several weeks ago Mayor Jim Ferrell announced that Patrick Doherty would no longer head the Community Development department at City Hall and that he would be working from home for an indeterminate period.

But there is far more to the story, and Doherty’s actual departure is only part of it. The rest of the story is cloaked in political and personal relationships and has played out amid issues, such as the Performing Arts and Conference Center, and the underlying emotions that remain in play from last year’s mayoral election. Ferrell suffered an embarrassment that didn’t have to happen.

While Ferrell was announcing his decision on Doherty’s future in Federal Way, he was unaware that individuals with City Hall connections were already undermining the mayor’s position by secretly assisting Doherty with his efforts to get a job with another city.

It is illustrative to remember, all of the department heads had been in their jobs for several years, had support from the veteran City Council members who remember the Council-manager days, and had served with Skip Priest for three years when he was mayor. A majority of the Council supported Priest in last year’s election.

Over the years, each department head developed their own political constituency, not always a healthy approach in a strong mayor form of government. Doherty, in particular, had strong support from some businessmen and the group that wanted to build the Performing Arts and Conference Center.

Their influence was so strong that they easily brushed aside community requests for a public vote on the project and likely influenced Ferrell to retreat from his campaign opposition.

With some facts and a little guess work, based on some inside knowledge, here’s what probably happened.

When Ferrell first came into office as mayor he was very careful how he handled Doherty because of Doherty’s political support. While most of Doherty’s supporters didn’t vote for the anti-Performing Arts and Conference Center candidate Ferrell, he was still leery of getting rid of Doherty because he needed Council support on some of his ideas and because he was leaning toward changing his position on the Performing Arts and Conference Center anyway. After he decided to switch and support the project, Ferrell needed Doherty to help get Council approval.

Once that occurred Ferrell felt he had political maneuvering room to make a change in the directorship.

Ferrell, through his staff, offered Doherty a severance agreement and he was given 21 days to be at home, with full pay and benefits to think about the offer.

He could agree to the offer or reject it. If he rejected it he would be discharged. This is the same approach the city used in the departure of Pat Richardson, the former city attorney who retired. In the sometimes cumbersome world of human resource management, a severance agreement is usually a very safe mechanism, however, it is also a slow and conservative manner to separate employees from city government.

Both Doherty and Richardson held exempt, top level, “serve at the pleasure of the mayor” positions and could be fired for any reason, or no reason at all, as long as no civil rights violations occurred.

Absent any knowledge of a violation, some mayors might have handled the two situations differently, saved the extra weeks of salary, dealt with any political repercussions and started the process to refill the positions. In both cases, Ferrell was in unfamiliar territory and his advisors may have wanted to be extra cautious. With Doherty’s high visibility in city government, his departure was front page news.

However, unbeknownst to the mayor, Doherty was one of two finalists for the Economic Development director position at the city of Edmonds. At the same time Ferrell was making his announcement of separating Doherty from city government, he was also learning from the media about Doherty’s Edmonds job. The timing made Ferrell look like he was disconnected and out of the loop.

Doherty had not applied for the Edmonds job when it first opened and only got in at the last minute during the second application process. Current top level administrators say Doherty never told them he applied for another job. Speculation from City Hall watchers question whether Doherty, given his late application, may have been tipped off by an insider about the mayor’s plans to terminate him.

Had Ferrell known of the Edmonds opportunity he likely would have not given Doherty the severance agreement and may have even helped him try and get the Edmonds job. In that case, it would have been a nice smooth exit for all concerned.

But as it played out, Ferrell found himself in the embarrassing position of terminating someone who was already wanted in another city. To many of Doherty’s supporters, some of whom may not be Ferrell fans, it gave cause to question the mayor’s administrative judgment.

But since Ferrell didn’t know and all of the key current city administrators deny they were listed on Doherty’s resume or application as a reference, how could Doherty have possibly made it to the finals of a job interview process?

Edmonds is a well regarded city and would be certain to do its due diligence and check references. However, Edmonds won’t release Doherty’s application, resume or references to the public. When Doherty took the Edmonds job, he effectively resigned his Federal Way position and the city withdrew the severance agreement.

And while it is impossible to say with certainty who knew what going on, the process of elimination suggests names that would have been happy to help Doherty, and in some cases might have liked seeing Ferrell embarrassed. But it is clear, key people within city government, or with very close connections to it, did know what was going on and chose not to tell Ferrell. That includes Doherty himself.

Ferrell has since stated that even if he had known about the Edmonds job he would still have taken action, because he felt it was the right thing to do and it was time for Doherty to be replaced. That seems unlikely for a new mayor who was already fearful of getting a reputation for firing people. But after the fact, he is somewhat stuck with the position.

But the bigger issue for Ferrell in this insiders game, is learning a painful lesson about who he can trust. Some key people with connections inside City Hall knew some very important information and his intelligence gathering advisors should have been able to get that information for him, but they didn’t.

On a bigger scale, it is a reminder that to some either the last election isn’t really over, or the next one has already started.

Federal Way resident Bob Roegner is a former mayor of Auburn. Contact him at bjroegner@comcast.net.