The contrast between the men and the governments they head is as much about style as it is political smarts.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, a lawyer who worked risk-management cases, is leaving office this year with much of what he set out to do completed. Recently turned Democrat, he's arguing fiscal conservatism, telling unions the city will go broke if they don't give up perks.

Despite the fire fee debacle, which forced the city to return millions of dollars to homeowners after a scandal that involved a sweetheart deal to just a handful of taxpayers, Diaz is heading toward a strong finish.

His administration set out to digitally wire the city, build a new baseball stadium with Miami-Dade County picking up most of the tab and change the Magic City's future look with the Miami 21 zoning code that's pedestrian friendly. All while reducing the city's operating expenses the past two years by about $100 million to offset the foreclosure mess that left thousands of new condos empty.

OPEN TO ENGAGE

The city is run with a manager form of government, so that City Manager Pete Hernandez answers to the mayor and the commission, yet Diaz has emerged a strong mayor.

Facing the worst economy in memory, Diaz has proposed a tough budget that protects homeowners and seeks to bring city salaries and benefits back to earth. He wants scaled pay cuts between 10 to 15 percent for those who earn six-digit salaries. When you press him on why he didn't push for a pension fix years ago -- a too-high return on pensions remains the city's budget buster -- he doesn't get defensive.

Diaz engages. He admits errors and aims to correct them or takes the time to explain his position. He doesn't react to questioning as a personal attack.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez is a former police chief who sticks to his guns. It's not working. Tough cop has not translated into strong mayor.

EVASIVE ANSWERS

Question why he would suggest only a 5 percent pay cut across the board instead of extracting more from those earning $100,000 or more, and Alvarez shakes off the question. ``It's fair to everyone this way,'' he says and changes the subject.

Alvarez is by law now a strong mayor, after county voters approved the charter change in 2007. He argued he couldn't reform county government otherwise. Judging from the recent salary scandal of his own making, Alvarez has not lived up to his promise as a reformer. Instead of cutting back on County Manager George Burgess' bloated budget, Alvarez fattened his own inner circle's salaries to bring them closer to Burgess' staff.

LOSING SUPPORT

The term-limited Alvarez has a couple more years left in his term, but county residents may not let him finish.

They're so angry about his budget proposal, which hit virtually every popular program -- meals for seniors, parks and libraries, the arts -- that they want him out. They're incredulous that he would propose a property tax hike, which county commissioners managed to stop.

Alvarez has been abandoned by even his base, a poll conducted for The Miami Herald-CBS4 News shows. His older Cuban base has turned on him. Black voters were always suspicious of him, and those who still seem to take pity on him -- white non-Hispanic liberals -- are too few to save him.

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