New London — Michael Passero is running for mayor because he's tired of waiting.

"The problem with New London is it seems we are stuck in this cycle of waiting for someone to come to the city and solve all of our problems, and no, no, no, it doesn't work like that," said the career firefighter and labor attorney who is running against the incumbent mayor in a Democratic primary on Sept. 16.

"No one is going to save us from ourselves; we have to get together and do it ourselves," said Passero, who will turn 60 in January — shortly after he's sworn into office in December, if elected.

Among his top priorities is to restore professional management to City Hall and municipal departments.

Passero said he will hire a competent, qualified chief administrative officer as spelled out in the city charter and let that person direct day-to-day operations.

His said his time will be spent working to attract businesses downtown and development to the Fort Trumbull peninsula and on building relationships and goodwill with residents, neighborhood associations, business owners, faith groups and other city stakeholders.

"I will not meddle," he said, in the daily operations of police, fire, public works and other city departments, but added that he will be the one who is ultimately responsible if and when there is a problem.

"I will not place blame onto subordinates," Passero said.

First elected to the seven-member City Council in 2009, and re-elected in 2011 and 2013, Passero served one two-year term as council president immediately after the elected-mayor form of government was adopted by voters in 2011.

His challenger in the upcoming primary is incumbent Daryl Justin Finizio, the first person elected mayor after the charter change four years ago.

"I've never made a secret of the fact that it has never been my life's ambition to be the mayor of New London — to be a public figure, period — but I'm at a point in my life where I can do this, and I really, really want to do it," said Passero.

Five years ago he was vocal in his support of the charter change that led to an elected mayor rather than a city manager form of government.

And despite the problems he sees in the way the first elected mayor has handled the job, he still believes it is the better system.

"I've been waiting my whole life for New London to realize its potential, and I share really the dream of all the people who are committed to this city to see it succeed, and we really believe that by finally electing one of us as the mayor, that will be the thing we needed, the missing ingredient, to make New London really successful," he said.

Does that make Passero part of what Finizio disdainfully describes as "the old guard?"

"New London has always been very welcoming," Passero said. "I don't like this idea of outsiders, insiders, old guard. What is the old guard? Everyone is welcome in New London, but you've got to elect someone who has your dreams and your aspirations."

The second of Ernest and Eileen Passero's seven children, Michael was born in Valley Stream, N.Y., but moved here with his family as a young boy. His only memories of home are New London, he said.

"It's my piece of earth, and it's given me everything," he said. "The life that New London has given me you couldn't dream of it, plan it, plot it, achieve it. My parents chose to live here, and they made a great choice, as it turned out."

Passero earned a degree in English literature from Connecticut College in 1979, but never lived on the campus. He worked construction in winters and as a lifeguard in the summers to pay his own way.

Later, while working towards his master's degree, also at Conn, Passero took his mother's suggestion to apply for a position as a city firefighter. He scored well on the test and was hired May 31, 1984.

"I didn't know a lot about the job when I started, but I sure fell in love with the job real quick," he said.

At the department, Passero is "the roof guy," driving the tiller on the ladder truck and cutting holes in roofs when necessary.

"I still love it, the excitement, the adrenaline rush, just everything that little kids want to be firefighters for," he said.

He's also a labor attorney. When he happened upon a law school fair while pursuing his master's degree in English literature at Conn, he stopped by the University of Connecticut Law School table to ask a few questions.

Hearing his story and about his lack of finances, the recruiter was dismissive, and that's all the encouragement Passero said he needed to apply, explaining he liked the idea of another challenge.

He didn't get in the first time, but he did the second, and while working as a city firefighter and a lifeguard, he went four years to night classes at UConn and graduated with a law degree in 1992.

By that time, Passero was married to Mary Dyer, whom he met at Ocean Beach Park. Today, the couple are the parents of two grown children, a daughter and a son.

His education and life experiences, Passero said, make him uniquely qualified to be New London's mayor. As a firefighter, he's come to know all of the city, and many of its people, oftentimes under unfortunate circumstances.

As a city councilor for the past six years, and a 31-year city employee, Passero said he knows and understands the intricacies of municipal government.

And when it comes to labor issues, he said, as an attorney who practices labor law, he's familiar with both worker and employer concerns and issues.

"I have the ability to be a leader, to communicate, and to build compromise," he said.

If elected, he will retire from the fire department and wrap up any pending legal cases to focus on being New London's mayor.

Asked to respond to taxpayers who have raised concerns about his strong pro-labor bent, Passero said, "I won't be a member of a union if I'm elected mayor, and my client will be the taxpayers of New London."

Passero also said he will work in tandem with the Renaissance City Development Corp. to bring development to Fort Trumbull.

Just as the city was moving past the pain of the Kelo v. New London Supreme Court ruling that upheld the city's right to take private property by eminent domain to increase the city's tax base, Passero said, Finizio reopened old wounds and hindered those charged with developing the peninsula.

"Hey, everybody acknowledges the mistakes that were made there, everybody acknowledges the failure of that whole process ... but I will give (the development corporation) encouragement and support," he said.

He also will work with property owners and the business community to keep the downtown clean and attract more businesses, he said.

"The mayor has to be at the table with the employers that we have in town, and we are blessed with some big employers, but the future is small business," he said.

He also said as long as police Chief Margaret Ackley chooses to remain in her position, he will support her.

"We are human beings, we do not all get along, but when people all have the same goal — having a top-notch police department and providing quality public service and safety to the community ... I will work with her in my job as mayor to support our chief and police department," he said.

Filling police officer vacancies will be a priority, Passero said.

He will also be an advocate of establishing a funded plan to maintain city schools and school grounds, and ensure that the millions of dollars in ongoing school construction and refurbishment projects is properly managed.

"You can't have students and parents coming to dirty schools and the grass is not cut and stuff is growing out of the gutters, and you go into a school and you can just tell it's not maintained. The city has to fulfill its responsibilities," he said. "And number one is managing the construction projects and secondly is building maintenance issues."  

Regarding taxes, Passero said the city has to live within its means and prioritize what is important.

"Certainly an option is not proposing budgets with 11.5 percent increases and 20 percent increases," he said. "And one of the biggest problems we have now is that people — and, I think, justifiably — believe they are not getting value for the money they are paying, that the money is just being wasted on mismanagement."

The city needs a detailed capital improvement plan and needs to get a handle on its debt service, Passero said. And it needs to determine what taxpayers can realistically afford and not exceed that.

"And we need to give taxpayers value for the money that they end up paying," he said.

Employing qualified municipal managers would avoid many of the problems and lawsuits that have resulted on Finizio's watch, said Passero, who said he believes Finizio appointed a public works director who wasn't qualified, resulting in problems.

"The CHRO (Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities) cases are unbelievable," he said. "Look at how many CHRO cases have been filed. ... Liability comes from number one, police issues, and number two, personnel issues, and I think that probably half of our workforce is suing us in one form or another." (City Risk Manager Paul Gills acknowledged that New London has "a huge problem" and that the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency that deals with municipal insurance has rated New London in the "high severity quadrant.")

Passero said he is particularly troubled by what's happened in the city's police department.

"What (Finizio) did to the police department is shameful," he said. "From day one he had a political vendetta against that institution, and I think he has jeopardized public safety. ... He stripped that organization of its senior leadership, purely out of political retribution," he said.

There are also myriad problems in other departments, he said.

"Public works is a disaster, it's an absolute disaster," said Passero.

And he knocked the incumbent mayor's choice of Laura Natusch as his chief administrative officer. (Natusch was appointed to fill a vacancy two years into the mayor's four-year term and is paid $52,000. In addition, the mayor named an executive assistant, Tambria Moore, who makes $38,500. The chief administrative officer position is budgeted for $80,000. The mayor's salary is $86,000, according to the city's personnel administrator.)

"He's got a friend and personal confidant in the position, running a municipality, and we are paying her a professional salary," Passero said. "We should have a professional person in that office. What he's done is disrespectful to the city and its residents. One of my key platform issues is to bring professional management back to the city of New London."

Running a municipality shouldn't be as difficult as it has been under Finizio, Passero said.

"When I supported the charter change I had an image of a mayor who was my neighbor, who was accessible, who I was free to share my concerns with, and who I had faith was going to be honest with me," he said. "And I'm disappointed in our first experience with an elected mayor because I don't think he's been any of those things to the people.

"I want to be a mayor that my neighbors can be proud of, a mayor who makes people feel like they are empowered and that I'm there to make them successful, that I'm not there for myself," he said.

Editor's note: This version corrects Michael Passero's mother's name.

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli