Energized, the mayor wants to take more risks

“What I hope to do in the next four years is take more risks on some of the things we have to deal with in government,’’ Menino said in a wide-ranging, hourlong interview, kicking back in a chair in his fifth-floor City Hall office overlooking Faneuil Hall.

Basking in his 15-point election victory, amid fruit baskets and flowers sent by well-wishers, Menino ticked off multiple concerns he wants to address, at times reading from a list of talking points, but then seeming to drum up more ideas on the spot. He suggested merging city departments to save money, building a medical research and residential complex on the South Boston Waterfront, doing something to attract more people to the harbor islands, and generally attempting to make Boston more exciting.

“I have the political capital to do it right now that I haven’t had in the past,’’ Menino said.

Menino was unusually chipper yesterday. He teasingly threatened to banish reporters from City Hall, chuckled as he recalled that Vice President Joe Biden had called him Tuesday night and told him, “You’re the only Democrat who won,’’ and laughed when asked when he will step down as mayor. “I haven’t started my fifth term yet, pal,’’ he said.

“I feel so good about it, so, so good about myself,’’ Menino said. “I don’t mean to sound like an egomaniac. I feel so good about myself.’’

Throughout the interview he mixed a sunny outlook (“we have a pretty good city’’) with expressions of humility (“we’re not perfect’’). He insisted that he intends to serve his full four-year term.

“I have no place to go,’’ he said. “I don’t run for things and give up midway. This job, to me, is everything I want. It’s a challenge. I love it. You make a difference in people’s lives every day.’’

Menino, who was elected mayor in 1993 and is already the longest-serving mayor in Boston’s history, had reason to feel good. On Tuesday, he survived his toughest reelection fight ever, easily defeating Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr., 57 percent to 42 percent. Flaherty had criticized the mayor over the lack of diversity in the top rung of his administration, the quality of the city’s schools, and his leadership style, which Flaherty had characterized as dictatorial.

Menino expressed lingering frustration with the attacks, but said, “I understand the business, better than most.’’

The mayor, whom Flaherty accused of keeping counsel with a small group of developers and confidants, expressed a desire to work with a broader range of people in his next term. He mused, for example, that he would consult more closely with Harvard Business School students who work in City Hall and start a “little CEO’s club’’ to discuss policy.

Menino - seated at a coffee table with a book titled “Make the Impossible Possible: One man’s crusade to inspire others to dream bigger and achieve the extraordinary’’ - said he had been reaching out for several days before the election to discuss ideas for his fifth term.

“The last three or four days of the campaign I sat down with some people: ‘Here’s what I’d like to do,’ you know, and of course, they gave me pushback on some things, but I had these ideas,’’ Menino said, before reading a list of priorities: improve education, reduce health care costs in the city, increase coordination between public safety agencies, and spur economic development.

He also floated a loosely defined plan to build a scientific research and housing complex at Marine Industrial Park in South Boston. “Researchers love to get together,’’ Menino said. “They speak their own language. They like to hang out together.’’

Although he insisted that the schools are not as bad as some suggested during the campaign, he said he would make education a priority and had been talking to mayors and teachers’ union officials about supporting state legislation he filed that would allow the city to bypass union approval and transform low-performing schools into “in-district’’ charter schools controlled by the School Committee.

“I’m going to do everything I can,’’ he vowed.

Menino, for all his talk of bold action and new directions, was adamant and unapologetic about maintaining the relentless focus on basic services that has been the hallmark of his administration. He said, for example, that he gets “so angry’’ when utilities cut up recently repaved streets.

“There has to be a better system,’’ he said. “Other cities do it; we have to do it. It drives me up the wall.’’

He also said he wants the Public Works Department - which handles snow removal, pothole repair, and trash pickup - to do better.

“I have to do a better job of that,’’ he said. “I really do. I’ve never said that before. That’s one of those daunting issues that we’ve got to do a better job on.’’

Menino acknowledged that, in the near term, he is likely to a face brutal choices as the city continues to grapple with plummeting tax revenues caused by the recession.

Menino has already cut the city workforce 4 percent, negotiated wage freezes with 22 unions, and temporarily closed firehouses. The mayor may be forced to cut social services, permanently shutter firehouses, or lay off teachers, firefighters, or police officers, said Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

“The fiscal challenge is going to dominate what the next mayor of Boston is going to have to confront over the next two or three years,’’ Tyler said.

The mayor said he has an urgent concern about the financial health of Boston Medical Center, a primary source of care for the city’s poor residents. The hospital, which lost $38 million last year, is projected to lose $175 million this year and is suing the state, alleging that the universal health care law is forcing it to cover too much of the cost of caring for the poor.

“That is an issue that’s growing deeper and deeper every day,’’ Menino said. “That has to be solved now.’’

Menino said he was eager to end his bitter battle with the firefighters’ union and settle the contract, which is currently in arbitration. The union strongly backed Flaherty and ran hard-hitting ads during the campaign that accused Menino of endangering public safety.

“That was yesterday,’’ Menino said, waving his hand.

Menino said he also wants to combine the emergency dispatch center used by the Police Department and Emergency Medical Services with the one the Fire Department uses. The proposal is likely to generate resistance from unions because it could result in fewer jobs, but Menino said it could save money and increase efficiency.

“Folks out there today understand government can’t be status quo,’’ Menino said. “If government’s status quo, we’re going to go backwards. We’re going to do things differently, and some people aren’t going to like what we’re going to do, and some people are.’’

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.