Miramar will have at least two new faces on its five-member commission after Tuesday’s at-large election — possibly three if the lone incumbent in the race is unseated.

Miramar, a bedroom community in southwest Broward County founded in 1955, faces many challenges ahead. Most recently, it battled a controversial proposal by Miami-Dade County, in which the county considered building a new trash incinerator less than a mile from Miramar city limits.

Nine candidates are competing for three at-large commission seats in the upcoming election. The winners will earn a yearly salary of $49,461.

Incumbent Yvette Colbourne faces a challenge from write-in candidate Luis Pedraza for Commission Seat 2.

Three candidates are running for Commission Seat 3: Avril Cherasard, Nari Tomlinson and Keith “Papa Keith” Walcott. Winston Barnes, who held the seat for 22 years, chose not to run again.

Four rivals are vying for Commission Seat 4: Kertch Joseph “K.C.” Conze, Carson “Eddy” Edwards, Kerri-Ann Nesbeth and Pamella “Pema” Reid.

The winner of Seat 4 will serve the remaining two years of the term of former Commissioner Alexandra Davis, who won a seat on the County Commission in November.

The winners of Seats 2 and 3 will serve a four-year term.

Maxwell Chambers, the Seat 1 commissioner, was elected unopposed.

In Miramar, commissioners are elected citywide.

This election season, all the candidates agree on one thing: Like the current commission, they fiercely object to having a new incinerator being built so close to the city’s border, saying it could lead to air and water pollution and cause health problems for nearby residents.

Miramar has a growing population with close to 140,000 residents, many of Caribbean descent. More than 46% are Black, nearly 30% are white and 6% are Asian. Just 10% identify as white non-Hispanics.

Commission Seat 2

Voters will choose between incumbent Yvette Colbourne and Luis Pedraza, a Colombian-born entrepreneur in the medical field.

Pedraza told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he made a mistake when filling out paperwork required to run for office and checked the box for “write-in candidate” by mistake. When he was told his name would not appear on the ballot, he appealed to the commission. When that didn’t work, he filed a lawsuit seeking to get his name on the ballot, but the judge ruled against him, he said.

Why is he running?

The current commissioners “have been there for 20 years or more,” Pedraza said. “This is a city that does not have term limits. They don’t want term limits. They can be there forever. I’d like to change that.”

If elected, Pedraza vows to be a financial watchdog when it comes to how the city spends taxpayer dollars.

“They’re doing three festivals a month,” he said. “We need accountability. We need to watch the financials. I’m more of a business guy. City Hall should be managed like it’s a normal company.”

He’d also like to see the city beef up its police force.

“There’s so many thefts in Miramar,” said Pedraza, who lives on the city’s east side. “My car has been taken twice. There’s break-ins every single night in my neighborhood.”

On his campaign website, Pedraza takes a stand against the incinerator: “Do everything possible to stop this insanely awful idea of building a trash incinerator on our border with Miami-Dade, and near endangered wetlands. Advocate in Tallahassee on behalf of Miramar and our neighboring cities to keep trash incinerators away from residential (neighborhoods) and endangered wetlands.”

Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade mayor said she would be dropping her pursuit of a trash-burning facility, preferring that the county look into building a new landfill elsewhere in the state. The county hadn’t settled on a plan recently as the mayor’s administration looked into possible incinerator proposals from the private sector, the Miami Herald reported.

Colbourne, a Jamaican descendant born in Panama, has lived in Miramar for 32 years.

First elected to the commission in 2013, she served on several city boards taking a seat on the dais.

Colbourne has a master’s in public administration from Nova Southeastern University. She spent 30 years with Miami-Dade County, working as an administrator in the Solid Waste division before retiring.

“I care about the city of Miramar,” she said. “I love my city. And I want to see the best for my city.”

Colbourne said she thinks term limits would be bad for Miramar. Without term limits, commissioners who know the ropes can continue working on projects to help improve the city, she said.

“One of the things I’ve learned as a commissioner, things don’t happen overnight,” she said. “As we continue to work through these different initiatives, it takes several years.”

If reelected, Colbourne said she plans to continue working to boost affordable housing, improve the city’s parks, tackle flooding problems and fix pothole-damaged roadways.

Colbourne says she has made it a priority to keep the city’s property tax rate low.

“This past year, my fellow commissioners and I approved the 2025 budget without increasing our millage rate,” she says in her bio on the city’s website.

Colbourne promises the city won’t give up on its fight against the trash incinerator.

“Building an incinerator half a mile from Miramar continues to be on the table,” she said. “We are going to continue to fight against this as much as we can.”

Commission Seat 3

The candidates in this three-way race are Avril Cherasard, a real estate broker and independent adjuster; Nari Tomlinson, a finance director for a nursing referral service; and Keith “Papa Keith” Walcott, a DJ on 103.5 FM The Beat.

Cherasard, a 15-year resident, describes herself as the most multicultural candidate in the race.

She speaks Spanish. She’s a Bahamian immigrant married to a Haitian man.

“I don’t want to focus on one small section of Miramar,” she said. “I live in the middle of Miramar. And I am engulfed in both sides. I’m doing this because my son is the heart of this. And I want him to remain a Miramar resident safely, happily, with me as a commissioner. I’m here to do it for everyone in Miramar.”

Cherasard says she decided to run because she sees the challenges Miramar is facing with regard to affordable housing, budget constraints and an overall concern about the city’s future.

“I am a taxpayer. And I’ve earned the right to be critical of the (state) of our city,” she said. “I want to be a voice for change.”

The retirement and benefits package offered to Miramar’s employees is one reason the budget is what she called top heavy.

“You have a really sweet package that’s funded now by the taxpayers,” she said.

Several candidates in this year’s election have pointed to the city’s events budget, saying too many taxpayer dollars are being spent on parties and festivals.

Cherasard quickly agreed that the city’s events budget is overly generous and needs to be cut back.

Tomlinson, a Jamaican-American, is making his second run for Commission Seat 3 after losing to longtime incumbent Winston Barnes in the last election.

He has served on two city boards, including serving as chair of the Historic Miramar Advisory Board for three years.

As the only candidate in the race living in historic Miramar on the city’s east side, he said he knows firsthand the challenges that need to be addressed in that part of town.

“I’m the one with the most experience in municipal government in this race,” he said. “Much respect to both of my colleagues, but I feel that I have a voice to speak for those people, especially on the east side, that have been forgotten.”

Tomlinson, who earned his law degree from Florida A&M University, has lived in Miramar for more than 30 years.

“My background lends itself to legislation,” he said. “I understand this stuff. I’m raising my two kids in the city along with my wife. I do have a vested interest in the direction of the city.”

If elected, Tomlinson said he’d like to see more police patrolling the east side of town.

“Recently the coverage has gone from a 12-police detail down to a 10-police detail,” he said. “This is directly related to budgetary concerns.”

He lays part of the blame on the city’s many community events.

“Police have to staff these events, which takes away from the time and budgeted hours they can spend on duty in the streets of Miramar,” Tomlinson said. “That’s a big problem for the east side especially. We’re running around on a skeleton crew, especially at night when most of the crime happens.”

Walcott was born and raised in Brooklyn, but says he has lived off and on in Miramar for the past 15 years.

If elected, Walcott said he plans to take a close look at the city’s budget.

“I do believe Miramar is top heavy,” he said of the city’s staffing structure. “I think there’s a lot of extra jobs (with high wages) within the city. I think we could clean up some of that.”

As for all the city’s community events, Walcott said residents should be admitted free of charge, but those who don’t live in Miramar should have to pay up.

Walcott has not served on a city board, but said his work as an advocate for young people is what motivated him to run.

“I’m running because I want to see something for our youth in the city of Miramar,” said Walcott, who runs the nonprofit Papa Keith for People Matter. “I’ve advocated for our youth consistently over the last 10 years tri-county-wide. It became increasingly frustrating to pop into these communities and do different events and know that I’m not really creating any legacy change.”

As a commissioner, he said he thinks he can create that legacy change.

“I definitely want to be a voice for them and everyone in Miramar,” he said. “I’m a man of the people. I’m not a career politician. I’m a community leader. My experience of advocating is really needed. Being able to be connected with everyone in our city, our Latino voters, our seniors, our youth, our middle class. Giving everyone an opportunity to have a voice is very important to me.”

Commission Seat 4

Voters have four choices: Kertch Joseph “K.C.” Conze, a lawyer and former assistant state prosecutor; Carson “Eddy” Edwards, co-founder of Riddims Marketing and the Jamaican Jerk Festival; Kerri-Ann Nesbeth, a managing partner at EdFuel, an education management firm; and Pamella “Pema” Reid, a talent acquisition specialist at ChenMed, a health care firm for seniors.

Conze was born in Haiti and moved to the U.S. when he was 12.

He earned his law degree at the Nova Southeastern University College of Law in December 1999, just a few years after moving to Miramar.

“There was something special that captured me about Miramar,” he said. “I actually lived on the east side of Miramar. After law school, I graduated, got a family, so now I am on the west side.” Conze agreed that City Hall has neglected the east side, citing the lack of lighting and inattention to proper infrastructure, including road maintenance.

Here’s the main reason he’s running: “I am tired of the way that the city spends our money,” he said. “If the commission were spending its own money, it would be very careful how it spends the money. But when politicians are spending taxpayers’ money they think they can just throw it away anyway they see fit. And I’m tired of complaining and that’s why I’m getting involved.”

Regarding the trash incinerator fight, he thinks the city should keep up the pressure and hope for the best. But he’s hoping the matter will become moot if the feds won’t fork over enough money to build it.

“Some of the funding sources that were going to be used for construction of the site will need to come from the federal government,” he said. “And as you know, we’re in a different landscape. The Biden administration is not the Trump administration.”

Edwards hails from Kingtson, Jamaica.

When he moved to the U.S., he lived in New York for two years before heading to South Florida.

“I just couldn’t stand the cold,” he said.

At first he didn’t live in Miramar but he did work in the city.

Eventually he got involved in city politics, helping with the successful campaigns of Barnes and other candidates.

He didn’t run himself because he didn’t live in town. That changed two years ago, when he and his wife moved to Miramar.

As a businessman, he said he’d take a scalpel to the city’s budget to cut out the bloat.

“I think there needs to be a holistic look at the budget,” he said. “We need to streamline the budget, see how best we can shave various departments and transfer some of those savings into other areas.”

He agrees that the city spends too much on festivals and weekend events, but is even more concerned about the less visible costs that are taking a toll on the bottom line.

“The events get highlighted because everybody sees these events and there are too many events,” he said. “But there are things we are not seeing that we could make savings on.”

Nesbeth could not agree more.

“There are so many instances where our dollars are being spent on lawsuits, they’re being spent on inflated salaries, they’re being spent on things such as being in the red with events — and it’s critical that we address it,” she said. “It’s not too long ago when the city was considering layoffs because of the pandemic and having limited reserves.”

Nesbeth said she’d like to see the city set aside taxpayer dollars for reserves.

“We really need to assess what our spending looks like and prioritize fiscal responsibility,” she said. “I do think we should look holistically at our expenditures.”

A third-generation Miramar resident, Nesbeth was born to Jamaican immigrants.

“I’m running truly because I grew up in Miramar,” she said. “I’ve experienced our city’s growth and transformation over the past 30 years. Of all my opponents I’m the only one who actually went to school here. And I think that gives me a unique perspective to understand where our city has been, where it is currently.”

Four years ago, Nesbeth came in second in a three-way race for Commission Seat 1.

This time, she has four clear goals: She’s like to make neighborhoods throughout the city safer; make sure that residents, regardless of their address or background, feel represented, seen and heard; ensure sustainable growth; and ensure that the city bolsters the local economy by supporting its small businesses.

Reid, born in the Bronx, has been a resident of Miramar since 1998.

With regard to the budget, Reid said she wants to see every department at City Hall audited along with every credit card handed out to staff.

Reid accuses the city of being too pro-development.

“I am the founder and executive director of Dreamcatchers for the Soul, which is a holistic wellness organization for children,” she said. “One of the things we’re concerned with and we speak to our children about is green space. And Miramar is just building too much. By building so much, there’s no trees. We need trees.”

Reid lives on the west side of town but has been knocking on doors on the east side.

She agrees the west side of town gets more attention from City Hall.

“I’ve walked door to door and they’re not happy,” she said of residents who live in the eastern neighborhoods. “They’re concerned about the way the west side looks vs. their side. There are real disparities happening. And it’s not right. There’s roads that haven’t been paved in 10, 15 years. Street lights don’t work, so people’s cars are getting broken into. Those are real disparities.”