AUBURN — Mayor Dick Gleason Monday cut short a councilor’s attempt to read a letter from a former city employee that was highly critical of City Manager Glenn Aho.

“The city manager is an employee of the council and is not a public figure like a councilor is,” Gleason said. “Councilors can be condemned and criticized because they are public officials, whereas the manager is an employee and should be given the same protection given to all employees.”

It was the second consecutive meeting where a councilor began reading a letter mailed to them from an unhappy ex-city employee.

Councilor Ray Berube read a letter from former Finance Director Tracy Roy at the Sept. 6 City Council meeting. It accuses Aho of fostering a hostile workplace.

Monday, Councilor Belinda Gerry began reading a letter from Betty Kimble, a former employee in the tax collector’s office, when she was interrupted by Councilor Mike Farrell and Gleason.

“I think this is inappropriate,” Farrell said.

Gleason said the letter amounted to a personnel matter between councilors and Aho.

“There has been a debate in the community in the last couple of weeks as to whether I should have asked Councilor Berube to stop reading his letter,” Gleason said.

Councilor Dan Herrick said that more and more former employees have started coming forward with criticism of Aho. He urged councilors to act on those complaints.

Gleason said councilors have one clear course of action.

“If the council is not happy with the performance of the manager, if five councilors vote to fire him, they can fire him immediately,” Gleason said. “Until they have five votes, the manager should be treated with dignity and respect. As far as I’m concerned, I at no time have sensed there are five councilors that want to remove the manager.”

“But we’ve had four,” Gerry said.

Gleason said councilors could call an executive session at their Oct. 3 meeting to discuss the matter.

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