New London — After working his way through a standing-room-only audience at Muddy Waters Cafe on Bank Street, City Councilor Michael Passero confirmed what he called “the second worst kept secret in the city.”

“I’m here today to commit the next year of my life to running for the office of the mayor of New London,” Passero, a Democrat, said to cheers from his supporters. “This is going to be the longest job interview I’ve ever had and I hope to win over everybody in this city by the time we get to Election Day.”

Passero said his decision to run was spurred by a desire to stop talking about what needs to be done for the city to realize its potential and to work toward making that potential a reality.

“We stand here today united in the belief that we can do better and we must do better,” he said. “I want to regain the momentum I felt in this city during my first term on the council. Progress overcoming the significant challenges we face has stalled over the past three years.”

Among those who spoke in support of Passero on Thursday were former Mayor Kevin Cavanaugh, former chairman of the Democratic Town Committee Anthony Basilica, Board of Education President Margaret Mary Curtin, City Councilor Michael J. Tranchida and State Rep. Ernest Hewett.

“I’ve been with him from day one; we have to go take back what is rightfully ours,” Hewett said. “I’m sick of being the laughingstock of the state of Connecticut. We need someone to take this ship and turn it around, and that guy is Michael Passero.”

Passero, 58, grew up on Ocean Avenue as the son of a 20-year Navy veteran who later worked as a senior supervisor at Electric Boat. During summers, Passero worked as a lifeguard at Ocean Beach Park.

He studied English literature at Connecticut College and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the school.

In 1979, Passero worked in construction before taking a job on the city’s fire department, a job he has held for more than 30 years.

Passero, a city firefighter and a lawyer, was first elected to the City Council in 2009, when the first-time candidate ended up as the top Democratic vote-getter.

In 2011, Passero formed an exploratory committee to study a bid for the newly created strong mayor position. At the time, Passero said he would run for mayor only if he received the nomination of the Democratic Town Committee. When the party nominated City Councilor Michael Buscetto III, Passero chose instead to campaign for re-election to the council.

For his second term, from 2011 to 2013, Passero was elected by the other councilors to serve as the body’s president. In 2013, he was elected to his third term on the City Council.

As a councilor, Passero has been critical of Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio’s handling of the New London Police Department, placing much of the blame for both the loss of officers from the department and internal morale problems on the mayor’s shoulders.

He has also been a vocal advocate of planning for long-range capital expenses for things like road improvement projects and a restoration of the decrepit City Hall.

On Thursday, he pointed to attracting and retaining small businesses, cleaning up blight in the city’s neighborhoods, addressing parking and traffic issues, and capitalizing on the city’s deepwater port as some of the issues a Passero administration would “aggressively tackle.”

With a full year before Election Day, the 2015 mayoral campaign got underway Wednesday morning when Finizio, the incumbent Democratic mayor, announced that he had changed his mind and would file papers to run for re-election in 2015. Finizio had previously announced that he would not seek re-election.

Finizio was also the first candidate to announce his intentions for the 2011 mayoral campaign.

Though he said his April announcement that he would not seek a second term was earnest, Finizio said he was “inspired” to continue what he had started after watching the results of Tuesday’s election.

In particular, Finizio said the fact that voters passed all five referendum questions pertaining directly to the city was “a clear mandate that the city wants to move forward,” and swayed him to seek a second term.

Finizio said he plans to file campaign papers by the end of week, and make a more formal announcement at the beginning of the year.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung