We have long supported the concept of consolidating city and school finance operations in New London, so in that regard we welcome Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio's announcement of his administration's conclusion that such consolidation will lead to long-term savings.

But in trying to make a case for consolidation of finance and other administrative services, the mayor risked undermining the support he will need to achieve his goal. The announcement of his administration's study, accompanied by a news release, appeared to come as a surprise to members of the committee formed by the City Council and backed by the school board to work on that very idea - the Consolidated Administrative Services Oversight Committee.

In other words, his honor may have jumped the gun.

Serving on the oversight committee with Mayor Finizio are Superintendent of Schools Nicholas Fischer and Mitchell College President Mary Ellen Jukoski.

The better course of action, it would appear to us, would have been to unveil the report at the committee's next meeting and build toward a consensus recommendation.

While it may seem like insider baseball, process is important. Mayor Finizio will have an easier go of it if he can reach agreement with the committee about implementing consolidation and eliminating duplicity, then sell it to the City Council and Board of Education. The mayor, for example, recommends in his report that the city administration oversee finances, while the school district play the lead role for information technology. We don't know that the committee agrees. If participants feel they are being dictated to rather than worked with, it will make the mayor's task more difficult.

To be fair, the mayor also announced he was "look(ing) forward to working with the consolidation committee, Board of Education and the City Council to formulate a plan for phased-in implementation of Finance department consolidation."

In the end we see consolidation in some form as inevitable. It makes too much sense.