BY TERRY JACKSON

 For the most part, it was a politely contentious town hall meeting that Nightline's
 Ted Koppel convened Friday night at Florida International University.

 During a live 90-minute broadcast on ABC, a broad cross section of Miami's
 ethnic communities discussed the issues surrounding Elian Gonzalez
 ``intellectually and civilly,'' as Koppel had urged them to do.

 Attorney General Janet Reno, appearing via satellite, was the first of Nightline's
 panelists to field questions from the audience. Ninoska Perez-Castellon, a
 spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, asked Reno about
 why the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department were
 moving so quickly to return Elian to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. The
 question was greeted by brief applause.

 When Rafael Peñalver, a Cuban-American attorney, reiterated the issue of due
 process for Elian, Reno's response drew brief boos. But Koppel quickly moved to
 the next question.

 In one of the more contentious exchanges of the evening, Koppel questioned
 Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas about the comments he made toward Reno and
 President Bill Clinton last week, saying he would hold them responsible if violence
 broke out on the county's streets over the Elian resolution.

 ``Do you want to say to the attorney general, to her face, what you said when she
 was not present?'' Koppel asked.

 Penelas avoided the question. Koppel repeated it.

 ``What I'd like to tell the attorney general is that we are all responsible for our
 actions,'' Penelas answered.

 The program moved from Elian to the treatment of Haitian immigrants to Reno's
 prior record.

 A man who identified himself as Carlos Dolz stood up and began blaming Reno
 for the dozens of deaths at Waco, Texas, and said the attorney general should be
 indicted for her involvement. Koppel asked him to step to a microphone and Dolz
 did. Dolz continued, but at one point Nightline cut off his microphone. Dolz kept
 talking, or as Koppel put it, he kept ``flapping his gums'' without the audience
 being able to hear him. The show eventually cut him off.

 The event at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center had a crowd of about 600.

 In addition to Reno, who appeared via satellite from Washington, Nightline's
 panelists were Anthony Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service
 at the University of Miami Law School; Juan Carlos Espinosa, with UM's Institute
 for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies; Charles Gill, a Connecticut Superior
 Court judge and director of the Children's Constitutional Rights Task Force; Cheryl
 Little, executive director of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center; and Lisandro
 Perez, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

 Herald staff writers Marika Lynch and Carol Rosenberg contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald