Mayor Phillip K. Stoddard and Commissioner Valerie Newman of the City of South Miami gave press conferences at the School of Communication to student journalists in Professor Joseph B. Treaster’s public affairs reporting class.
The students are reporting and writing articles on the municipal election in South Miami on Feb. 11. Stoddard, a biology professor at Florida International University, is running for re-election to a third two-year term. Newman, a corporate accounts manager at Relax the Back, Back Pain Relief and Comfort, has served as a South Miami city commissioner since 2008.
Both candidates explained their campaign plan and outreach tactics as well as their positions on various issues within the city.
The mayor and city commission posts are part-time jobs in South Miami, a mainly residential town of 13,000 mostly middle and upper middle class people just south of the University of Miami campus. A city manager handles day-to-day business.
