Interested?

 You could apply for the position of chief of police, heading up a force of 1,100 sworn officers. Or you might consider trying for the city manager job, which technically isn't open but probably will be in a few days.

 Before you apply, keep in mind that these are unique  jobs.

 The city's departing police chief, Willian O'Brien, was forced to resign for doing his job properly. Mayor Joe Carollo fired City Manager Donald Warshaw for having too much integrity to fire a police chief who in all likelihood had averted a catastrophe.

 Consider what O'Brien would have had to do to avoid the criticism that finally drove him from his post.

 Carollo says O'Brien should have called him as soon as the chief learned that a squad of federal agents was about to seize Elian Gonzalez in a surprise raid on April 22.

 Never mind that O'Brien was sworn to secrecy as a law enforcement officer, would have been breaking the law to tell and had a very reasonable fear that Carollo might have alerted demonstrators, which could have intensified the confrontation between the agents and civilians and heightened the risk for everyone.

 To stay in the mayor's good graces, O'Brien also shouldn't have allowed one of his commanders to ride along with the federal agents, even though this enabled officers at the site to know the raiding agents were legitimate -- thus averting the risk of law enforcement officers opening fire on each other.

 Then O'Brien should have figured out how to restore calm to turbulent streets where unruly demonstrators were burning tires and trash bins, throwing rocks and bottles and roughing up people who were expressing opposing opinions -- but without making too many arrests or showing too much force.

 File this job description under ''No-win situation.''

 O'Brien exercised sound law enforcement judgment every step of the way -- but Carollo, unwilling to stand up to angry Cuban constituents who were unfairly demanding O'Brien's head, chose instead to join the chorus.

 Prevented by city charter from firing O'Brien directly, he demanded that Warshaw do it.

 Warshaw, who preceded O'Brien as chief and named him as his successor, has helped steer the city through a daunting financial crisis. He was gradually restoring respectability to a government smeared by corruption and racked by political infighting.

 That didn't matter. Carollo fired Warshaw for not firing O'Brien. At a moment when the nation, already looking askance at Miami's bizarre character, needed to see a Cuban-American mayor praise two of the city's top people for their roles in stabilizing the city -- Carollo added to the discord.

 Even if Carollo were intent on firing Warshaw and pressuring O'Brien to leave, his timing was inexcusable. Why not allow tempers to cool and give time for a sober review of the actions of the chief and his officers?

 What exemplary law enforcement veteran would want to be Miami's chief, knowing that the mayor and commissioners -- with one exception, Johnny Winton -- are too cowardly to step forward and praise good police work?

 What sensible and talented municipal executive would consider the Miami city manager's post, knowing that the only hope of job security would be to kowtow to an impetuous mayor willing to sacrifice good city management on the altar of exile passions?

 Oh, don't worry. People will apply. I figure the applicants will either be starry-eyed optimists confident against all sense that they can rise above the miasma of Miami's ethno-political swamp, or opportunists eager to test their political gamesmanship against the masters.

 Either way, I'd hate to be the poor soul who has to write the copy for the want ads.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald