I thought one of the most heartfelt things I heard last week from mayoral candidate Michael Passero, during his endorsement interview with The Day's Editorial Board, was his criticism of opponent Daryl Finizio for packing City Hall government with friends and political allies.

"The cronyism is offensive to me," Passero told the board.

Then, two days later, as if on cue, the mayor turned up for his own Editorial Board interview with Exhibit A for Finizio cronyism, the chief administrative officer, who was rewarded with an important city job, for which she had no experience or qualifications, none, following her work on the mayor's first campaign.   

I asked the mayor last week why he was accompanied at a political appointment by the person whom, according to the terms of the city charter, is supposed to be managing the city government.

He said she was on a vacation day. Besides, he might have added, she's here because she's a political crony, not a professional city manager, and this is an important political event for me.

It's inappropriate for paid city managers and department heads to be so directly engaged in a political campaign, whether or not they are on the clock at any given moment.

I would say the cronyism is the most powerful campaign attack yet against the mayor, since it is his inept management of the city and inappropriate hiring and firings that has left smoking ruins in his wake.

I wonder if the city could survive another four years of it.

I know some local political pundits worry that the endorsement of the mayor by the powerful AFT Connecticut union, which also has fed on the Finizio cronyism, will strong-arm the primary vote Sept. 16 and help pull the mayor to victory.

And yet I can't imagine how a city that has been so disappointed and deceived by this mayor could return him to office.

I asked him last week what downtown business owners support him. He named one. Then he admitted that, in general, they all despise him. Despise was his word.

He said he doesn't usually go to City Council meetings anymore because, essentially, the councilors don't like him, either. He is openly derisive about the owners of expensive city real estate who complain about tax increases.

He doesn't regularly attend general meetings of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, a body of the region's chief elected officials, because he says they are largely pro forma meet-and-greets.

Later this week, rank and file members of the city police and fire departments plan a rally urging residents to vote against the mayor.

He has insulted the city's largest employer, Electric Boat, by saying the country builds too many submarines. Indeed, he sneers whenever he uses the word corporation, as if they are all evil.

And this is someone who was a Republican town councilor in Westerly before he ran as a Democrat in New London.

He burns through parties and people fast. You have to wonder who is left, except the chief administrative officer, always loyally in tow, who counts on him for her job.

The mayor says that, in part because he is gay and married to a Puerto Rican drag queen — his description of his husband — that he relates and better understands the needs of the city's minority populations and the oppression they have suffered under the city's old political guard.

And yet who can forget this is the mayor who, at the start of his first term, fired the first black firefighter the city had hired in decades, maintaining its largely white membership all those years. It was only after demonstrations against the mayor on the steps of City Hall by the NAACP that the firefighter got his job back.

More recently, the mayor fired another black worker, this one with a whistleblower status for complaining to the state about safety violations at the city's transfer station. That fired worker has a strong case against the city.

The pending legal complaint by the black whistleblower Finizio fired is just part of an avalanche of litigation against the city since the mayor took office. There are so many claims it blew the city's insurance premiums out of the water.

A black legislator who represents most of New London in Hartford says he never hears from the mayor. He is supporting Passero.

I think Passero is sharpest in focusing on cronyism.

Most of Finizio's major appointments of city department heads and managers — some made after expensive separation agreements with the professionals who previously held the jobs — went to people who had zero experience in their new posts. One doesn't even have a college degree.

Passero calls the cronyism offensive. I would say it is staggering in scope and impact.

I think it is fair to suggest one city resident may have even lost his life as a result of it.

The death at the city transfer station occurred at a compactor that already had been cited by state inspectors for serious safety violations. The city was fined. And yet nothing was done to make the machinery safer.

You can't help but wonder if the mayor had appointed someone to head public works who had just a little experience running a large municipal public works department — not just a crony — whether those serious safety violations that were cited might have been corrected in time to save a life.

I would be surprised if there are enough people left in the Finizio camp who would vote for four more years of unbridled cronyism.

And really, could there be enough voters who pay no attention at all, for the mayor to get re-elected?

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct