It was deeply disappointing to see New London Mayor Michael Passero withdraw the employment offers made by his predecessor to two minority applicants. The offer had assured them positions on the New London Fire Department after they successfully completed training at the Connecticut Fire Academy.

In a situation common in many cities, New London’s Fire Department is predominately white, in contrast to the diverse community it is sworn to protect. Mayor Passero, who served 31 years as a firefighter and only recently retired after his election as mayor, has long said he shared the goal of finding and hiring qualified minority applicants.

After his defeat by Passero in the Democratic primary last September, former Mayor Daryl Finizio continued with a hiring process for the fire department, with an eye towards diversity. The process produced a list of 17 qualified applicants narrowed from more than 100 applications.

Using that list, Mayor Finizio hired three new firefighters who could begin work immediately because they already had certification from prior firefighting experience. Given letters of intent to hire, after certification by the fire academy, were three others, Dakwan Alger and Evan Giesing, both of New London, and Diego Barboza. Mr. Alger is black, Mr. Barboza a Latino.

Tellingly, the letters of intent were signed by both Mayor Finizio and Mayor-elect Passero, then fresh off his election victory.

In running for office, Mayor Passero noted his experience as a practicing labor attorney, as well as a firefighter. That labor experience would serve the city well in negotiations and dealing with labor issues, Mr. Passero assured city voters and this newspaper, which provided him its endorsement in both the primary and general election.

If there were problems with the hiring process and the letters of intent, then Mayor-elect Passero should have looked into them before signing the documents. His signature indicates his agreement with the process and the decision. Having signed, the new mayor should be prepared to defend his decision.

By way of explanation, he did point to the potential that Mayor Finizio could have hired the three applicants outright, while they were training, a hiring he said the city could not afford and for which there was no precedent. The better option, he said, was to co-sign a notice of intent.

Mayor Finizio, saying he did not want to second-guess the new mayor, declined comment.

Having signed the notices, the mayor reversed course this week, announcing that the three offers were withdrawn. Mayor Passero says that based on discussions with the city’s insurance carrier and Risk Manager Paul Gills, he now concludes the hiring process was flawed and left the city vulnerable if any of those not hired challenged in the court.

The mayor declined to get into details on why the hiring process was faulty. We also note no litigation or notice of intent to sue had been filed against the city.

Mayor Passero did point to the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Ricci v. DeStefano involving New Haven’s fire department. The court in a 5-4 ruling found that New Haven’s decision to pass over white applicants seeking promotions, despite their better test scores, violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and in particular its provision prohibiting discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

However, the New London situation is substantially different. Mayor Finizio was choosing from a list of 17 all judged to be qualified. Mayor Finizio did not pass over all white applicants in making his decision. And, in any case, this is a matter of hiring, not the promotions contested in the New Haven case.

And New London may yet face a lawsuit, but instead from the three men who were assured a job was waiting, and perhaps declined or missed other opportunities, only to have the fire ladder yanked out from under them. Mayor Passero acknowledged this potential, but said the legal threat presented by going through with their hiring was greater.

Given the information available — and admittedly the mayor’s office may have more it has not shared — the better course of action would have been to persist with the hiring as planned and defend the decision if necessary.

Mayor Passero says he remains committed to seeing greater diversity in the NLFD. He has his own ideas for doing that within the rules, including aggressive outreach into the community, he said. He also said the rejected men could resurface in a new search process.

We trust he is sincere and wish him success. But in what was supposed to be a strength — a labor issue — Mayor Passero has gotten off to a bad start.