Formal mayoral aide Shawn Pierce has filed a lawsuit against the Mayors and the city. Pierce claims he was fired in retaliation against his support of Ruth Bates, who sued the Mayors and the city in the famed Mammygate case.

Well, seeing as how I was there, I can shed some light on this.

My recollection is that Pierce was fired primarily because he wasn't a team player. He was off doing stuff on his own and none of us had any clue what he was doing. At one point we heard that he was helping the police department buy a helicopter, which was weird because the Mayor not only didn't authorize him to do so, he had actuallymade a formal recommendation as an auditor against police department use of helicopters.

We had leaks galore up on the 29th Floor. It seemed like everything we did or talked about would instantly become known by people who weren't necessarily supportive of the Mayor -- certain City Council members, various political operatives, reporters looking for dirt.

By and by we came to the conclusion that it must have been Pierce who was leaking the info. He was constantly down in the City Council offices, and at least once we saw him hanging out with former City Manager Wayne Cauthen.

We never had any real proof. But to most of us, the leak was coming from where we'd been Pierced. Ha! 

After I quit, a bunch of politico types told me straight up that Pierce was leaking info left and right. Again, no proof. But by that time, these folks had no reason to lie to me.

We tried to get Pierce under control. At one point the Mayor's wife, Gloria Squitiro, reorganized the whole staff, with the help of the Mayor and the former chief of staff. She made Kendrick Blackwood Pierce's direct supervisor.

Then, when Blackwood tried to lay out some parameters for the job, Pierce told him to essentially back off and, according to Kendrick, threatened -- somewhat jokingly -- to throw Blackwood out the window.

It's true that Pierce was friends with Ruth bates, and this was a huge source of tension between him and Gloria.

On one occasion, someone spotted Pierce delivering bates her final check in the City Hall garage. There might have been another incident or two, but it was so petty I can't remember it.

By this point in time the office had devolved into a pit of paranoia, most of that anxiety emanating out of Gloria.

At one point, she confronted Pierce. I wasn't there, but according to her account, she told him that she didn't trust him. She said he broke into tears and told her something that she probably shouldn't have repeated to other members of the staff because it's potentially defamatory.

So there you go. A little more to the story.

Pierce's complaint is partly true -- Gloria wanted him out, she said offensive things about him, and his support of Bates wasn't looked upon kindly.

But he was also a free radical in an office that was totally under siege. Attempts were made to rein him in, but he rebelled against them. So he got fired by a Mayor who is allowed to fire at will.