New London Mayor Michael Passero, in explaining to the City Council this week his proposed purchase by the city of the defunct Edgerton School, which a previous council managed to unload, went out of his way to praise the developer who is trying to sell the property back to the city.

Developer Peter Levine of New Rochelle, N.Y., principal of Colman Square Partners, which owns the school building, has developed several quality projects in the city, Passero told the council, suggesting he should be treated well in the proposed transaction.

However, a very detailed memo to councilors about the sale from the Passero Administration also describes a developer who is in arrears in his city accounts.

Levine is some $40,000 behind on payments for a $125,000 city loan made in 2006 for the developer's renovation of the New London Market on Washington Street, one of the projects the mayor praised.

He also is behind on tax payments for the Edgerton property, owing $54,120 in taxes and fees.

The back taxes and loan payments would be made before the school sale proposed by the mayor goes through, according to the terms of the sale, but a $17,000 judgment lien the city obtained for code violations would be forgiven. 

Several City Council members expressed considerable consternation about the deal, which they are getting a first look at — most notably the purchase price.

The mayor, who began negotiations for the purchase even before taking office, is proposing to buy the school building for the same price the city sold it for: $350,000.

However, the developer later split off one of the lots that was part of the school property, the old basketball court and parking lot, and sold it separately.

City Councilor Anthony Nolan, one of my new heroes on the council, stopped just short of ridicule in describing how the city is proposing to buy the abandoned property for what it sold it for, even though it is now smaller.

Councilors also expressed concern about the report from the city's development office that says asbestos remediation and the likely cost of demolishing the defunct school could bring the cost of acquisition to close to $700,000, based on rough estimates.

City Councilor Michael Tranchida, before City Council President Erica Richardson shut down discussion on the topic, moving a vote to send it to committee for further study, asked why the city can't wait for the foreclosure, which is underway, to finish and buy it back cheaply from the bank.

The mayor would like to use the property for a new community center, a project that has languished on the drawing boards without a formal plan for more than six years.

If that doesn't happen, he said, it might be used for a new public works complex someday, or to buffer the surrounding neighborhood from the commercial development of Colman Street.

Essentially, it's a proposal to buy and take off the tax rolls a property that needs environmental remediation, all for no clear purpose, by a city that is poor in revenue and taxable land and rich in excess municipal property.

I find it hard to believe the mayor is backing this deal because the developer and his lawyer, Anthony Basilica, a former Democratic Town Committee chairman, and Basilica's wife were big donors to the mayor's election campaign — about $1,200 in all, more than 15 percent of total individual contributions, according to the last accounting.

And yet the mayor turned very testy when I called to ask about the contributions and a deal which has drawn so much skepticism from city councilors.

"That is nothing more than a personal smear on my character," he said about the questions about the large political contribution from a developer who is in arrears on his city taxes and loan.

That strikes me as thin skin for someone so new to his high office.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct