Did Winton disgrace himself?
Herald editorial:
"Gov. Charlie Crist should put a quick end to speculation about whether suspended Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton will return to office. The governor should reject Mr. Winton's request to be reinstated to his seat on the commission. The reason is as clear as sunshine: Mr. Winton disgraced himself, his office, his fellow commissioners and city residents in a drunken fight with police at Miami International Airport last year. "
The whole editorial is here.
"Gov. Charlie Crist should put a quick end to speculation about whether suspended Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton will return to office. The governor should reject Mr. Winton's request to be reinstated to his seat on the commission. The reason is as clear as sunshine: Mr. Winton disgraced himself, his office, his fellow commissioners and city residents in a drunken fight with police at Miami International Airport last year. "
The whole editorial is here.
posted by Tom Falco at 7:38 AM
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8 Comments:
Johnny Winton has been a huge embarrassment to the City of Miami. Winton was first elected in 1999 and at the time he had promise but he quickly let the "power" go to his head. His famous quote "Do you know who I am. Do you know who I am" showed what he had become. The greatest embarrassment would be if Winton's lobbyists somehow convince Gov Crist to reinstate him to the position he so clearly abused.
Governor Christ will probably review the situation and choose to not reinstate Winton. The cloud of the incident is enough to prevent Winton from being re-elected. Therefore, he will be treated as a lame duck and be unable to accomplish anything other than be "Manny's guy" on the commission - something we all agree we are better off without.
If Winton is aware of this and does not want to play the role, he will immediately (24 hours after being reinstated) resign honorably, collect a tax-payer-funded pension, and become a private citizen on probation. This would then call the need for a temporary appointment for the seat, at the Mayor's direction. Mayor Diaz will, predictably, find anyone who will tow his line, and that is obviously not an independent (I mean in personality, not political party affiliation) like Sarnoff. Sarnoff will, regardless of what happens, run for the seat in November.
This is all by way of saying that reinstating Winton is a politically untenable situation the governor would best not to create. There is no upside to reinstatement.
Come on folks, this is not the place for sound judgment and reasonable positions. We need the rabid anti-Sarnoff contingent to check in. Anybody out there?
The legal arguments presented by Sarnoff's attorney arguing against reinstatement seem very valid.
And then there is the issue of Winton's probation. Many convicts and others who have pled quilty, or are otherwise on probation, have violated their probation. If Winton violates his probation that can have provide further embarrassment to the City of Miami and of course, to Gov. Crist. Will Gov Crist have to suspend Winton again? Imagine how many journalists are camped out waiting for Johnny to be caught drinking? And imagine all the people Winton insulted over the years waiting for another disaster?
How would it look to have a sitting commissioner who is on PROBATION?
We already know he is a lawbreaker, do we think he would care about breaking more laws with his buddy Concrete Manny?
Oh yeah , and now he wants the pension and free lifetime insurance too?
If you haven't already made the call to Crist office to request that he not be reinstated,YOU are part of the problem.
Winton can get his job back - at the next election, IF he can convince voters to elect him.
He's already blown this term. It cost the taxpayers money to clean up the mess he made. He can wait until the next election, and try to convince us to re-elect him. And good luck with THAT.
As a City of Miami citizen, I don't think that a little drunken altercation is "disgracing yourself" that much. It's an incident.
Elected officials in DC and here in Miami do worse things (e.g., blow the cover off an active undercover CIA agent; send us on mindless wars...) every day.
To anonymous 10:11 pm. You certainly are holding the bar pretty low. Shouldn't you have a right to expect more from our elected officials? Unless of course, you are just playing with us?
OK. I know this is just Miami but I still do not want my elected official to be on probation, one drunken altercation away from another suspension and jail.
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