New London — Mayoral candidate Bill Vogel is a Republican but says his party affiliation, in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber members of his party, should be secondary to his qualifications.

The 75-year-old former U.S. Navy submarine commander is hoping to win over voters on Nov. 3 with what he says are proven leadership abilities in and outside the military as well as decades of experience in management. 

Vogel, whose full name is Raymond William Vogel III, faces a stiff challenge from the Democratic nominee for mayor, Michael Passero, but says the election of a Republican mayor is not a far-fetched idea.

After all, he said, some of the top vote-getters for City Council in the past have been Republicans.

“What I’m saying is people in New London will vote for the person and not necessarily the party,” Vogel said. “I’m hoping people will evaluate the situation and make up their minds, and hopefully I can make a case for me.”

If elected, Vogel said, he intends to seek revenue increases, constrain spending to control taxes, increase the manpower at the police and public works departments, provide a more transparent government, foster economic growth and look to provide for a better quality of life.

Much of the work ahead, he said, hinges in part on the appointment of qualified professionals to department head positions. He said the first major undertaking will be the hiring of a chief administrative officer and reversing what he says are mistakes made during the administration of Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio, a Democrat.

Vogel said he was a strong advocate for a charter change that led to the first elected mayor in the city in more than 80 years.

“Regrettably, Daryl Finizio was elected,” Vogel said. “It wasn’t fair to the city and it wasn’t fair to Daryl. Daryl had no experience. Without the experience I think he tried to do what he thought was right. I was a little surprised. Generally, if you don’t know much about what you’re doing you try to go slow, learn a little bit about what you’re doing. But that isn’t what Daryl did. He came out of the gate running, but often in the wrong direction.”

He said finances, or more precisely the lack of information about city finances provided to the City Council, is one of the things he wants to see immediately changed. He said Finance Director Jeff Smith has been a source of frustration over the past four years and is not likely to have a place in a Vogel administration.

“Either he was incompetent or he was covering the mayor’s butt, but every question that was asked of him for the past four years was ‘I’ll get back to you.’ Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. People had a difficult time getting straight answers,” Vogel said.

Vogel said he plans to immediately set a plan in motion that would evaluate the competency of department heads and look to make appointments where needed, such as the public works department.

“Throughout my career I’ve been in the business of basically hiring people for the right positions and bringing in the right type of talent into an organization, whether it was the Navy or Northeast Utilities,” he said.

Vogel said he would also look to smooth over some of the friction between the mayor’s office and City Council. He said he would propose a change in the city charter that would allow the City Council to hire its own attorney rather than rely on an attorney appointed by the mayor. He said it he would also consider changing the City Council power to override a mayoral veto with six rather than seven votes.

Vogel, who is the chairman of New London’s Republican Town Committee, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who went on to serve 18 years in the Navy, rising through the ranks and serving on about five different submarines. He retired in 1982 as the commissioning captain of the USS Groton.

Military service is a family tradition.

Vogel’s father, Raymond William Vogel Jr., was a Navy pilot who served in World War II and the Korean War. A carrier group commander, Vogel’s father was shot down in his plane during a bombing operation in Korea. He was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously. Vogel was 10 years old when his father died.

Vogel is the oldest of five children and has two brothers, one who graduated from West Point and another from the U.S. Naval Academy. One became a naval airman and the other a U.S. Marine.

With a background in nuclear engineering, Vogel went to work for Northeast Utilities where, he said, he helped manage a $500 million nuclear operation budget. He was part of a team that commissioned Millstone 3. He retired in 1997. He is married to Sabina Piacenza, a longtime resident of New London.

In New London, Vogel is the longtime host of New London Republicans, a local public-access cable TV show he started. He became active in local politics while living in Ledyard, where he was chairman of the Republican Town Committee.

“If you’re interested in what’s happening in your community, then what you do is you eventually find your way into the political committees, because that’s where people are nominated and placed into positions to actually affect what’s going on in the community,” he said.

Vogel started raising money for his own campaign only in October.

“I’m not trying to get the money like Mike Passero has, which the last time I checked was about $50,000. But I would like to get $5,000. That would be a good amount for me to get what I want. It’s going to be a strong campaign for about a month,” he said.

Passero had raised $74,710 by the State Elections Enforcement Commission's Oct. 10 deadline for filing campaign contributions, records show. Vogel did not have any contributions recorded. 

While falling short in the area of financing a campaign, Vogel said he thinks he has an edge over Passero when it comes to management experience.

“Mike has never been a manager,” Vogel said. “He’s never hired anybody that I know of because he hasn’t been in that kind of position. Whereas every job I’ve had involves managing and or leading and or hiring people for positions.”

Vogel said he looks to help usher in the era of the all-magnet school system and all the economic benefits it brings, but said there are lingering questions about the finances of such a venture.

He said he doesn’t think the school system has adequately explained its plans or timelines for construction projects or explained costs associated with the increase in the number of magnet schools and influx of students.

“It’s been a black hole. They haven’t talked about it. They haven’t published anything. They haven’t answered any questions about it. I think they may have a problem. In this case they need a flashlight on them. They’ve been basically submerged for the past year. Nobody has a clue what they’re doing,” he said.

The schools are essential to a strong economy, he said, which is why he aims to build a stronger relationship with the school system to allow for better transparency.

Public safety is another area of focus. Vogel said, “People need to feel safe in their own neighborhoods” and he supports an increase in manpower at the police department.

But he also said, “It ends up being how much you can afford.”

“It’s surprising to me we’ve been able to cope with just 60 officers these last couple of years," he said. "We can see how well we do with 80 and find out do we need to add more.”

He also said he would look to appoint a new chief at the police department. He said Police Chief Margaret Ackley, who has a pending lawsuit against the city and who was placed on administrative leave by the mayor, has become a distraction.

Vogel said he is looking to offer her a fair settlement “where she could retire with honor and move on.”

In the area of economic development, Vogel said there needs to be infrastructure improvements to attract and retain businesses. He said the city needs to better leverage the waterfront, “a great resource that could be used more effectively." He raised the idea of renting out booths for businesses along the water.

“The more people you bring in, the more foot traffic you have. There’s a huge potential for bringing people in,” he said.

Vogel supports the location of the future National Coast Guard Museum downtown and said he will work to get a project plan in place for the Fort Trumbull area.

What residents are perhaps most concerned with, he said, is the rate at which taxes have risen in recent years.

“The cost of living and doing business has to be brought under control,” Vogel said. “Costs have risen by about 20 percent. Businesses can’t cope with that and residents can’t cope with that, and as a result they’re both moving.”

Vogel said the city needs to draw a line on the amount of money it borrows, budgeting appropriately and bonding money only where needed.

When it comes time to vote, Vogel said he thinks New London residents have two good choices at the polls.

“I personally think I would make a better mayor. But I think the city is lucky to have either one of us run. The next four years will be a lot better than the last four years,” Vogel said. 

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay