LINCOLN – Auburn Ward 1 City Councilor Michael J. Farrell expressed regret Thursday that leaked confidential information caused Town Manager Glenn Aho to drop out of the running for the open Auburn city manager’s job.

Aho abruptly withdrew his candidacy for former Auburn City Manager Patricia Finnigan’s job Tuesday after a front-page story in the Auburn area’s weekly newspaper, the Twin City Times, described him as a finalist for that position. Finnigan left the job in May.

Farrell said he found aspects of it misleading, but no one has denied the substance of the story, and according to state law, records pertaining to such job applications, including resumes, are supposed to remain confidential. Some portions of the records may be released once a candidate is hired.

Farrell called the leaking “kind of an underhanded event.”

“It not only puts people and [cities] at risk of liability, but … now trust may have been displaced in some people,” he said Thursday. “People need to know that not all of us [city councilors] were involved.”

“There was definitely an agenda there,” Farrell added, saying that some Auburn residents might have floated the story to the Times in an effort to promote one candidate over another.

The story lists Aho as a top-three finalist, Farrell said, but the process hadn’t yet produced a ranking.

Peter A. Steele, Times editor-in-chief and the writer of the story, stood by his work.

“This [hiring process] has been going on for more than a half-year, and Auburn residents have zero information about who they [city councilors] were looking at,” Steele said Thursday. “My job is to inform the public. I want Auburn people to know who the candidates are and why.

“To me, I think this story is almost run-of-the-mill information,” he added in reference to the story’s listing candidates’ resume points and accomplishments. “I think it speaks highly of Auburn that they have candidates of this caliber.”

Aho refused comment Thursday, except to say that he had received a letter of apology for the leak from Auburn Mayor John Jenkins.

Aho, 38, of Lincoln is paid $70,000. If hired, Aho would have made $83,554 to $117,075 annually in Auburn, said Deborah Grimmig, Auburn’s Human Resources Department director.

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