1639-25 Politics TUE SEP 25 1984 ED: THREE-STAR
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 11A LENGTH: 17 . 66" MEDIUM
ILLUST:
SOURCE: MORT LUCOFF
DATELINE:
MEMO: INS & OUTS
SCHWARTZ FALLS OUT WITH FROMBERG, VOWS TO UNSEAT HIM
Hell hath no fury like a public relations man scorned. Gerald Schwartz is
used to winning ways in Miami Beach politics. But a rift between Schwartz and
Mayor Malcolm Fromberg deepened after the p.r. man lost a $20, 000 city
contract to rival Scott Ross. He publicly made it known he ' s switching
political loyalties in next year' s mayoralty campaign from Fromberg to
Commissioner Alex Daoud. Also, Schwartz says he may not wait until retirement
to run for the city commission, but take an apartment on Miami Beach and be a
candidate himself next year.
Schwartz exploded when the contract for a p.r. campaign to attract
"yuppies, " young, upwardly mobile professionals and their families, to make
their homes on the Beach went to Ross on a 6-1 vote last week. He walked over
to Daoud, the only commissioner to side with him, and said, "Congratulations,
Mr. Mayor. " Schwartz says he had been discouraging Daoud from challenging
Fromberg in November 1985, but had a change of heart after the vote. Schwartz
ran both men ' s campaigns last time, but now will run Daoud' s for mayor.
Fromberg says he ' s "definitely" going to run again. On Schwartz supporting
Daoud, the mayor says, "I 'm delighted. I like dealing with people out in the
open. Instead of them running against me privately, I 'd like them to run
against me publicly from the start. "
Daoud says a lot of people are asking him to take on Fromberg, but he
hasn ' t made up his mind yet. He says he ' s concentrating on getting Miami Beach
going again.
* * *
IN TV LAND: WTVJ, Channel 4 , is giving reporter Michael Putney a six-
month tryout as night co-anchor with Ana Azcuy. Putney follows Jeff Simmons,
who was dropped about six weeks ago. The station will also have a double-
anchor format for its public affairs show, "Montage. " Amy Huggins, who joined
"Montage" as a reporter in February after a stint with radio station WNWS, and
Ed O' Dell, who has been with the show for seven years, will appear together
beginning Oct. 6. O' Dell also works as a reporter in the news department and
is the moderator for Channel 4 ' s Sunday interview show, "Newswatch. "
"Montage, " a magazine-style program, has been without a permanent anchor since
mid-July when Joe Abrell left to help Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie promote
his team and market his planned North Dade football stadium.
* * *
VISIT MIAMI, SEE THE MOUNTAINS: At least that is what you would think if
you saw the season premiere of "The A-Team" a week ago. Broadcast locally over
WSVN, Channel 7 , the show' s plot had the team flying here to aid a couple of
beautiful damsels whose Beach hotel was being taken over by the mob. In a
scene supposedly shot on the beach, there were mountains in the background.
"Those were the Santa Monica Mountains, " laughed A- Team publicist Frank
Farrell . "Poor old Florida got a new landscape. " The scenes of "Miami Beach"
were shot at Malibu and Santa Monica. After all, he said, it ' s costly to go on
location. Farrell said he 'd pass the word to be a little more careful on
background shots . "They could have shot in the Lancaster area, which is
flat. "
* * *
MERCY RUN: Mercy Hospital is really getting into jogging. Tonight an
executive team headed by Jerry Mashburn, vice president of the Miami hospital,
is taking part in the 3 1/2- mile Manufacturers Hanover Corporate Challenge
7
Run in the Coconut Grove area. That' s only the beginning. Next month there
will be a series of monthly seminars leading up to the "Mercy Health Run" Feb.
9, a five-mile race in the Grove area. The first seminar will be at 6 p.m.
Oct. 18, at the hospital. Dr. Edward St. Mary, a cardiologist, is to speak on
"Your goals and limits" and Dr. Stuart Leeds, a podiatrist, on "Prevention of
Injuries. "
* * *
ACCOUNTING FOR THE RECOUNTS: That ' s what state Rep. Betty Metcalf hopes
to improve by introducing a bill in the Legislature prohibiting political
candidates from having any physical contact with ballots during and after
elections. The South Dade Democrat ' s bill is aimed at correcting the "glaring
weakness" uncovered when the Dade Elections Department permitted District 113
legislative candidate Evaristo Marina and three of his campaign workers to
recount the ballots in the race themselves. The county' s recount, after
Marina' s own manual count, put him into the runoff in a Little Havana race
against first place finisher Luis Morse and knocked out incumbent Humberto
Cortina. The Dade Canvassing Board put Cortina back into the runoff after two
emergency court hearings and a State Attorney' s Office investigation to see if
there'd been ballot tampering. Metcalf says her bill requires election
departments to do any recounts with the candidates free to watch.
* * *
FANCY WORDS: They 've gone highfalutin in that part of the Metro cop shop
that tells us news types what ' s going on in the crime prevention area. It used
to be called simply the "Metro Police Information Office. " Now they' re
relating to it as the "Media Relations Office. " There have also been lots of
personnel changes. Commander Pete Cuccaro left to become a lieutenant in the
south district and took officer Tim Davis with him. New media relations boss
is Sgt. Bill Johnson, with his old job in the office now being held by Sgt.
Hugh Peebles, former president of the Dade Police Benevolent Association.
Officer Bill Wallace left a couple of months ago to become a homicide
detective, and officer Rich Diaz retired. That left Doug Reese and John
Jones, who were joined by Ron Colmenero, Larry Chilson, Al Cardallosa, Cheryl
Lamneck and Virginia Martin.
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END OF DOCUMENT.