EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR

Michael Putney
Michael Putney is the political and governmental reporter for Miami's ABC affiliate, WPLG-Channel 10, where he also hosts This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney. A native New Yorker, he is a graduate of the University of Missouri. He worked as a reporter for the Dow Jones weekly The National Observer, was a writer for Time Inc. and came to Miami in 1977 to work for The Miami Herald. He joined WTVJ in 1981 and in 1989 moved to WPLG. He has won numerous awards in his career, including two Emmys for reporting and commentary.

Top Story

MIAMI COMMISSIONERS

Sent packing

`IIt's a sad day in Miami,'' Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said with studied solemnity as she opened her news conference announcing the arrest of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and the forced resignation of Commissioner Angel Gonzalez. On the contrary, any day corrupt public officials are kicked out of office is a good day. Even better if there are two.

MIAMI MAYOR'S RACE

Solid, though not inspired, choices

Idon't know why anyone would want to be mayor of Miami. Oh sure, it's a lovely place but trying to govern Miami, to lead it forward?
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Ultimately, final budget refutes Alvarez

It was a sobering, frustrating and inspiring experience to sit through most of the final marathon public hearing on the Miami-Dade County budget for 2009-10. The inspiring part was the dozens of speakers from cultural groups and community-based organizations whose funding was about to be shut off if the mayor's proposed budget was adopted. To a person they spoke with passion and conviction about how their lives or their children's had been changed for the better by services provided by various CBOs or arts organizations facing doomsday without continuing dollars from the county.
DENNIS MOSS

Serve, don't reign

It's not easy being a Miami-Dade County commissioner. The salary ($6,000) stinks, the hours are atrocious and you've got to sit through lots of marathon meetings. Hard on the tush as well as the psyche.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Roll back outrageous pay raises

Miami-Dade seems to be having one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do moments. At least Mayor Carlos Alvarez is having one, and it couldn't come at a worse time. County commissioners are about to do the heavy lifting on the 2009-10 budget, holding a series of public hearings that will be full of cries of genuine pain from a cross-section of residents about to lose a host of vital services and programs.
FLORIDA POLITICS

Let's try `Sen. Clay Shaw' in the interim

I'm saddened and somewhat surprised to see Mel Martinez step down 16 months early. Disappointed, too. He was just starting to find his true voice, even it had taken almost five years in the Senate and eight years in Washington. Or maybe we were just now hearing the voice of a man freed from party orthodoxy after announcing last December that he wouldn't run for reelection. Well, free at last, free at last, gracias a Dios, Mel is free at last.