FINALLY! Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard’s taxpayer-funded campaign stunt gets media attention! UPDATED!

Just yesterday, we reported that North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey used $225,000.00 of taxpayer money to fund a three-day campaign event for Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard under the guise of a gift card giveaway.

Today, Channel 10’s Glenna Milberg exposed the corruption to a much wider audience.

The station broadcast the story first at 4:30 PM and again an hour later, and it was a beautiful thing!

UPDATE: Channel 10 updated its story and video, which you can watch in its entirety here: Ethics of city’s Publix gift card giveaway questioned amid commissioner’s campaign

Milberg showcased Paule as saying “it’s not taxpayer money,” even though that’s exactly what it is.

Then again, as we’ve pointed out on many occasions, Paule Villard has the intelligence of a sand dune, and has absolutely no understanding how government works.

The reporter also revealed that this Resolution No. R2022-118 “using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to purchase 1,500 Publix Gift Cards valued at $150.00 each to be issued to residents who have experienced financial hardship and food insecurity due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” which was illegally placed on the Consent Agenda for the August 16, 2022 City Commission Meeting, yet she saw no evidence “of the checks for proof of residency or financial hardship, for an accounting of who received gift cards, how many, or proof that all were given away.”

“What was very visible,” Milberg continued, “was Commissioner Villard, her campaign signs, even logo tents at this City sponsored event with public money that may have skirted it’s own laws.”

Which is exactly what we here at VotersOpinion have been complaining about all along!

Milberg wrapped up her report by exposing that the City missed its own deadline “to distribute the Publix Gift Cards no later than thirty (45) days from the effective date of this Resolution,” which was August 16, 2022.

In the second video aired at 5:30 PM, which has not posted to the station’s website yet, Milberg astutely noted “the giveaways late last week were planned just as mail-in ballots were arriving to City voters.”

Not surprisingly, the reporter also attempted to interview both Duke Sorey and Paule Villard, but neither of them returned her calls. She even showed up at Paule’s house where one of her relatives answered the door but Paule didn’t show her face.

By investigating this story, Channel reporter Glenna Milberg got a brief glimpse of what we here at VotersOpinion have known for the past several years — North Miami Beach is now nothing but a dumpster fire of corruption.

After deliberately ignoring the many valid complaints filed with her office about the crimes being committed by City officials, we can only hope that Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle will finally open her eyes and start prosecuting the perpetrators.

Criminal Commissioner and her accomplices at City Hall need to be held accountable for the misuse and abuse of taxpayer money.

And by held accountable, we mean held in county lockup.