WOULD Hialeah Acting Mayor Julio Martinez please resign himself to the fact that for the moment at least, pending the outcome of suspended Mayor Raul Martinez's Federal corruption trial, he is merely a caretaker administrator, and begin behaving as such? Would he please do the people of Hialeah a favor and stop acting as if he's in the mayoral seat for good? His political jockeying not only is becoming absurd, it's also beginning to interfere with regular city business.

Take his gratuitous swat this week against Police Chief Rolando Bolanos. It followed Mr. Martinez's massive and arbitrary reorganization of the police department. He accused Chief Bolanos of abusing his "powers and taxpayers' monies" by allegedly rewarding his friends with overtime pay. Then he claimed that he wouldn't fire the chief because he's Cuban.

Not only did Mayor Martinez fail to back his charges, but he justified his failure to do anything about them by uttering a patently offensive and racist remark. The fact is that the mayor doesn't have the votes necessary on the city council to fire the chief. And performance, not ethnicity, should govern any appointee's tenure.

Mayor Martinez later apologized publicly to Chief Bolanos, who had demanded an investigation to clear his name. Hialeah residents deserve responsible leadership, not demagoguery, from their chief executive.

For the most part, Chief Bolanos appears to be doing an effective job of running the police department and dealing with crime in Hialeah. His officers recently shut several of the
drug-infested, prostitution-prone, seedy motels on Okeechobee Boulevard that long have annoyed legitimate merchants. He also has bolstered security in Hialeah's crime-plagued downtown.

Other than the fact that he is a Raul Martinez appointee -- which the acting mayor seems to resent enormously -- and that he's prone to grandstanding on occasion, there's no evidence to suggest that Chief Bolanos has engaged in wrongdoing. Until he's prepared to prove it, Mayor Martinez should stop suggesting that he has.

Better yet, he should stop acting as if he were Hialeah's elected mayor. He is not. He is a caretaker, and should behave like one.