We just received a tip that IUPA, the union representing the North Miami Beach Police Department, is being bullied into endorsing Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard in her bid for re-election.
We’re also told that the members of the NMBPD are being ordered by City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey to “support Paule or else.”
Duke may be corrupt, but he’s not entirely stupid.
He’s well aware that if Paule loses her seat, he will also lose his much needed fourth vote on the dais to keep his job. Duke and his toadies staff are desperate to make sure that doesn’t happen.
So it comes as no surprise that he’s been forcing every single employee in the City to shill for Paule Villard or risk termination.
Right now Paule holds the key to his four-year, $1.4 million contract. Duke will stop at nothing to keep the gravy train flowing, even if he has to hand the keys to the Police Department over to Paule in order to stay on the payroll.
For example, during one of Paule’s many ridiculous Facebook Live videos, she received a call from her co-conspirator on the dais, Michael Joseph, who apparently had no idea he was being recorded.
They began their covert conversation by discussing the swearing in ceremony of Police Chief Harvette Smith.
At minute 39:00 Michael told Paule that “he” (presumably the manager) didn’t know “it was happening on her [Paule’s] birthday.”
He then blurted out, “And I told him that when it comes to the Chief or whatever, I really think it’s more of a, it’s really on her not … it’s really on her to specifically … the Chief has to understand, has to, has to have, um, an additional type of reverence toward Paule because of her background, because of, like [City “Attorney”] Hans has a reverence towards me. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Except there is everything wrong with that!
For one thing, Article II, Sec. 2.9 of the City Charter specifically prohibits elected officials from interfering with employees “under the exclusive control of the City Manager.”
For another, Duke has the sheer chutzpah to tell the elected officials that he has no use for — three of his actual bosses — to never communicate with “his” staff.
Yet, he has no problem allowing Paule Villard to tell the Police Chief how to run her department.
Mind you, Harvette Smith is a decorated 24-year veteran Chief of Police, who single-handedly “helped the NMBPD become the first law enforcement agency in Miami-Dade County to receive national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc.,” and who was solely responsible for the Department being awarded the coveted Excelsior status from the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, (CFA) for an extraordinary fourth time in a row.
Yet, according to Michael Joseph, Chief Smith should have “reverence” toward Paule Villard, who was nothing more than a glorified Mall Cop with a gun during her less than mediocre 21 years at the City of Miami Police Department.
We can’t even begin to imagine how positively humiliating it is for someone of Chief Smith’s stature and position to be forced to show “reverence” to such a loathsome creature.
In any event, if the Police Union does endorse Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard, it will be the only other endorsement she received besides the one from her co-conspirator, Commissioner Daniela Jean.
A Police Union’s only role is to advocate for and represent the members of their Department and is supposed to be an autonomous organization.
In What police unions do (and why it matters), the esteemed Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges wrote:
The impartiality of police unions
When we divert from Sir Robert Peel’s 5th principle – “To seek and preserve public favor, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law” – we run into problems.
Candidates for political office often come to police unions seeking an endorsement, but are we demonstrating impartial service to the law by offering such endorsements? I would argue we are not being impartial and, for this reason, suggest that police unions get out of the candidate endorsement business and focus on issue advocacy.
The President of IUPA Local 6005, Sergeant Raphael Florencio should heed Chief Hodges’ sage advice before making a deal with the Devil.
Or, in this case, the twin Devils of Duke Sorey and Paule Villard.
Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard does not deserve a seat on the North Miami Beach City Commission.
The North Miami Beach Police Union should stand firm and not allow itself to be bullied into endorsing a literal criminal.
Stephanie
Stephanie-
The attorney for the city may choose to talk with his employer, the commissionor Joseph who apparently is an attorney but who is Villard to have the police chief answer to her. You are correct in that Villard was nothing more in ranking than an officer. That must be demeaning to a Chief to have to have to run things by a commissioner that isn’t her employer. Of course the conversation between Joseph and Villard is sketchy on top of who’s running the the police department and the legal department.
Their conversation is definitely sketchy. It’s super hard to hear Michael talking since he was only on speaker on her phone. At some point, she leaves the room and continues talking to him, but you can barely hear what she says.
In any event, their entire exchange may be construed as a Sunshine violation, but it’s not clear unless they were talking about an item coming up for a vote on the dais.
Still, it’s entirely inappropriate for Michael to be telling Paule that the Chief should show her “reverence.” I believe he was actually trying to say deference, which would make more sense, but would still show arrogance on both their parts.
He doesn’t speak well so the sound doesn’t help. It also sounded as if they spoke about this before and he was telling her how the conversation went with someone that you say is the manager. The union can’t possibly support her after listening to that call. I think the department will lose respect and the union will too.
It’s very difficult to hear Michael in this video, and even more difficult to transcribe what he’s trying to say since he almost never speaks in complete sentences. However, I did take the time to carefully listen. By the context of their conversation I presumed he was referring to the manager, but it could have been any one on Duke’s staff. Either way, the message was clear in that he believed the Chief’s swearing in should be changed due to Paule’s birthday, and that the Chief should show “reverence” for Paule because of her “background.”
It is unimaginable that anyone would think that Chief Smith, who moved up the ranks to Chief of Police in 24 years of service, should take advice or give “reverence” to someone who never made it past the rank of officer in the 21 years she pretended to be a cop. Paule likes to say she was a “sergeant,” and especially likes to give the impression that she had the title for more than the 5 seconds it took to sign her retirement document. The truth, however, is that the City of Miami, as well as many other departments, bestow an honorary rank to a retiring law enforcement officer as a parting gift. It’s a silly tradition, and it means absolutely nothing. Paule never had sergeant stripes on her uniform, and she certainly didn’t even deserve the badge she wore.
She is, however, a consummate liar.
Not a good look. Thank you for your reply.
Stephanie,
Your blogs should state, We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming to Bring You Voters Opinion. I mean, I’m in the middle of watching a series and I get an alert for an email. I see it’s your blog and I click pause just to read it. And as usual, you never fail to have an outrageous story.
That call! Is this right?
The proof is in the video. I had nothing to do with it. Paule constantly likes to be the star of her own show. This time, however, Michael Joseph was an unwitting co-star in one of her productions. If I were him, I’d be pissed as hell and demand that she delete the video.
Unfortunately for the both of them, she can delete it from her Facebook page, I uploaded it to YouTube and the internet is forever.
Thank you for your stories. I hope everyone sees what goes on behind closed doors.
That’s my goal. I hope residents are disgusted enough with the grand theft of their tax dollars and the constant lies they are being told that they are motivated enough to get out the vote in November. The entire fate of the City’s fiscal health and transparent, responsible governance depends on getting Jay and Phyllis elected. If these four criminals stay in office, they will destroy North Miami Beach forever.
This is not hyperbole. It’s reality.
WHERE IS THE STATE ATTORNEY RUNDLE….????
She will not do a damn thing! You should know this by now. The only people she prosecutes now are Hispanics and Republicans. Everyone else gets a pass.
The IUPA President should make a formal complaint to the national office for records and the unions protection. Also should contact the Dade County Ethics Board. Though I have little belief in their integrity. If Duke Jr. so much as begins to retaliate go to the SA’s corruption unit.
Thanks for the tip! I will be sure to pass it on.