With Miami Beach fresh off a tumultuous budget season and with city leaders already expecting another year of cuts, it's no surprise the candidates running for Commission Group 2 are touting their ability to crunch numbers.

Jorge Exposito, an insurance executive, Maria Mayer, a corporate attorney, and Sherry Roberts, a businesswoman and Realtor, are highlighting their business experience in the race to take the seat of termed-out Commissioner Saul Gross. Election day is Nov. 3.

``My business acumen allows me to basically be ready from day one,'' said Exposito, a 54-year-old who earned his bachelors degree in political science from the University of Miami.

Exposito, who was born in Cuba and is married with two children, says that as vice president of claims for Transatlantic Reinsurance Company he oversees a business portfolio worth about $250 million and is prepared to help tackle Miami Beach's budget.

``If I'm elected, I would basically get very in-depth into the whole budget process,'' said Exposito, whom Gross has endorsed.

Commissioners are limited in their control of the city's daily expenses and hiring employees, which under the city's charter are the responsibility of City Manager Jorge Gonzalez. However, Miami Beach's commissioners must approve contracts over $25,000, are heavily involved in the budget process and also have the authority to hire and fire the city manager.

Mayer, who specializes in mergers and acquisitions for the law firm of Carlton Fields, says if elected she can help save the city millions and touts her more than 16 years of legal experience.

``I draft negotiating agreements,'' said the 40-year-old mother of three. ``I help my clients buy and sell businesses, so I'm very familiar with agreements. That's what I do all day long.''

Mayer, who was born in El Salvador and earned her law degree from the University of Florida, also said she wants to take on cost overruns in the Capital Improvements Projects department. Her husband, Emanuel Mayer, already works closely with the department.

A certified general contractor and president of engineering and contracting firm MDG, Inc., Emanuel Mayer was hired last November as a special assistant to the city manager in order to analyze construction bids and contracts to ensure the city isn't overspending or hiring unreliable contractors.

If Maria Mayer is elected, her husband's position alone would not cause a conflict, but could lead to situations in which Mayer would need to recuse herself from a vote, City Attorney Jose Smith said.

Mayer said her husband's employment is ``a non-issue.''

``The fact that my husband works for the city should have no relevance whatsoever to my candidacy,'' she said.

Also running is Roberts, a 62-year-old real estate agent who since announcing her candidacy 12 months ago has raised $90,000, according to the most recently filed campaign finance reports. She has spent $56,000 -- as much as her opponents have raised combined.

Roberts moved to Miami Beach from Ohio in 1996. She is on the city's Board of Adjustment and currently resides with her partner at the Decoplage Condominium, where she is president of the condo association. Roberts oversees a board that approves multi-million dollar contracts and scrutinizes budgets.

``I have been preparing to run and have had the experience to run because of what I've done in the past,'' Roberts said. ``I have been president of [the Decoplage] for six years. I've turned it around financially,'' she said.

As condo president, Roberts is the subject of three complaints filed with the Department of Business & Professional Regulation by a unit owner who says she created budgets that for four years have fallen short of actual expenses, awarded a $325,000 contract for pool repair without properly seeking a second bid and violated a condo rule related to proxy form disclosures.

Roberts says the complaints are without merit and showed a reporter a list of the condo's last six budgets, only the last of which fell short of the association's expenses.

``I'm 100 percent certain these complaints will be dismissed,'' she said.

The city's own expenses have come under great scrutiny. City leaders expect pension costs to continue to rise and property taxes to once again fall, but without the new construction dollars that softened the blow this last budget season. Commissioners could be faced with additional layoffs and diminishing services, though all three Group II candidates say they believe the city can avoid painful cuts.

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