Some Good News (For a Change)

Lately, many of my posts have been very critical (deservedly so) of the Miami Herald and its editorials/columns.

Yesterday, however, there was an excellent and positive editorial by Michael Putney of local Channel 10, whose editorials I've been critical of in the past. For once, I didn't choke on my cereal as I read it.

Putney hands out some "Kool Kat" awards to local leaders. It's refreshing and great to hear and read about local people doing good.

Usually, all you hear is people complaining about South Florida, our choking traffic, rude people, and our bad, corrupt leaders.

Here's proof of the good that resides here.

And now . . . the Kool Kat awards

BY MICHAEL PUTNEY mputney@local10.com

So many failures of political leadership in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

So many successes of political and civic leadership in South Florida lately.

I thought I'd list some in case you're feeling down about the ability of government to, well, govern.

We could even create an award for these acts of political acumen and, in some cases, courage, as opposed to the political ineptitude and even cowardice that we witnessed in Washington and the Gulf Coast before, during and after Katrina.

Accordingly, let's call our local leadership models Kool Kats. As opposed to those Scaredy Kats -- and you know who they are. So, if you'll give me a snare roll and cymbal splash, here we go.

KOOL KATS:
• Max Mayfield. The director of the National Hurricane Center is absolutely the coolest of the cool. Is there anyone in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast whom Max didn't call days before Katrina hit? Virtually every emergency manager and elected official of note in the region got a personal call from Max, warning them that they were in the path of destruction and urging them to take immediate precautions. Max's staff at the Hurricane Center also gets a Kool Kat for pinpointing where and when the storm would hit and how hard.

• The Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue Team. They rushed to the disaster zone shortly after the storm arrived and then turned around and went back for a second tour just a few days later. They made us proud. Kudos also to countless South Florida residents, young and old, who collected money and emergency supplies for storm victims.

• Harve Mogul. He does such an outstanding job running the Miami-Dade United Way that he was picked to head a national United Way task force that will gather critical data about Katrina and translate it into a disaster recovery guidebook for all 1,350 United Way agencies across the country.

• UM President Donna Shalala and Administrative VP Sergio Rodríguez. They partnered with the city of Miami and Camillus House to solve a problem that has festered for more than 20 years: moving Camillus House to a new location. The homeless center's new president, Paul Ahr, and its board chairman, Roger Carleton, deserve Kool Kats as well for negotiating that new location with Miami Kool Kats Manny Díaz and Joe Arriola.

For years, there have been complaints about the crime and unsightly condition of Camillus House on Northeast First Avenue. But every time a solution was proposed, intransigent Miami commissioners and local activists opposed it. Mayor Díaz turned around Miami Commissioner Angel González, who cast the critical vote in favor of the new site just off Northwest Seventh Avenue. It will be adjacent to a bioscience center that eventually will employ thousands at high-wage jobs. A winner all around.

• Hank Adorno of Miami-Dade and Peter Balitsaris of Broward. These two lead child-care agencies that oversee nearly 9,000 foster children. Adorno and Balitsaris simply ignored the shortsighted and ill-advised decision by DCF to stop sending case workers to check on foster kids because of high gas prices. ''We received the memo,'' said Balitsaris, ''and disregarded it because it wasn't in the best interests of children.'' Now, that's having your priorities in order.

• Rudy Crew. He was cool before there were Kool Kats. He deserves one for taking a strong stand against more than 100 teachers who phonied up their resumes with bogus classes to keep their state certification. Crew says fire 'em, they don't have the moral standing to share a classroom with our kids, and he's absolutely right.

Sure, some of the usual suspects have committed the usual blunders in recent weeks, but they shouldn't overshadow a run of good and gutsy decisions by local civic and political leaders. And nobody died waiting for these decisions to be made.