The candidates running to replace outgoing Miami Beach Commissioner Victor Diaz Jr., have plenty of ideas on how to fix the city's woes. But to hear their platforms, voters have found themselves straining to look past public spats between two of the candidates who have lobbed allegations of unethical or unbecoming behavior.

Hoping to rise above the fray are Alex Fernandez, who is 23 but is already known around the county as ambitious and hard-working;, Michael Góngora, a community association attorney and former commissioner; and Gabrielle Redfern, a property manager and transportation activist.

Fernandez and Góngora have taken swipes at each other, most notably at a recent forum sponsored by the county's ethics commission.

Fernandez acknowledges that the first thing voters note about him probably isn't his ideas but his age.

The former press secretary for the Miami-Dade county commission chairman's office bristles at the notion that he is too young to be an elected official.

Last month, a resident filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics alleging that Fernandez lied in campaign literature about having nearly 10 years of public service and questioning whether a $103,000 self-loan to his campaign was really donated by his partner, developer Robert J. Wolfarth, with whom he shares a Miami Beach residence.

The commission did not investigate the complaint because it has no jurisdiction over campaign finance, a spokeswoman said.

Fernandez, who says he made a bulk of his money through a now-defunct media company that marketed Wolfarth's real estate holdings, said the complaint ``is not affecting me in any way,'' though he now carries his bank statements with him to refute the allegations.

As for the candidates' statements that he began public service nearly 10 years ago, Sam Gil, vice president of marketing at Camillus House, said Fernandez came to the homeless shelter at the age of 14 in late 2000 and proceeded to host a radio-thon that raised more than $600,000. Gil said Fernandez has continued to raise money for Camillus House in person and on the radio.

Fernandez says voters should disregard attacks and listen to his proposals, which include amending zoning and code regulations that frustrate prospective businesses, issuing a public safety fee for public events to pad city coffers, and increasing attention on construction projects in North Beach.

``This is a race that should focus on what we want to do for Miami Beach,'' he said.

Fernandez has sparred with Góngora, who at 39 is running for his first full-length term as a city commissioner. Góngora won a special election in 2006, becoming the city's first openly gay commissioner. He lost a reelection bid in 2007 by 33 votes to Commissioner Ed Tobin during a campaign in which Góngora was attacked as unethical and reckless.

Góngora has served on a number of boards, including a stint as a city code enforcement special master and special magistrate for the county. He is also chairman of the Environmental Coalition of Miami Beach and in December 2006 was elected president of the Miami Beach Bar Association.

But once again, Góngora is fighting to push past negative attacks reminding voters of his DUI arrests and his employment with a law firm that appealed a city decision that banned them from lobbying the commission while he sat on the dais. One ad that calls Góngora ``a lemon'' was paid for by Broward political consultant Russ Oster's Integrity Counts Committee.

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