How Can You Trust a Pathological Liar like Paule Villard
Trust and integrity is ultimately at the foundation of our system of government and if you cannot trust that our elected officials will be honest, the whole system collapses. If you take a close look at almost anything Paule Villard says, you will find it easy to spot how misleading her statements actually are.
Publix Gift Cards
In an effort to create the illusion that Paule Villard is a generous public servant, Paule Villard has taken several opportunities to give out Publix Gift Cards to a small number of North Miami Beach residents. These controversial gift card giveaways are thinly veiled campaign events where Paule Villard is buying votes, anyone who attends will always walk away with several pamphlets containing Paule Villard's photos, Paule Villard Tote Bags and these will all be given under one of two Paule Villard branded tents... all paid for with Taxpayer Funds.
What Paule Villard forgets to mention in any of the pamphlets is that the Publix gift cards were paid for with federal funds, specifically money from the American Rescue Plan Act Grant Program (ARPA) and the City of North Miami Beach General Funds. These gift cards were not paid for by Paule Villard, they were paid for with taxpayer funds that we will all essentially be paying back for decades to come.
While I will not deny that the Publix gift cards did help many people with genuine hardships, they were not given out in a way that would have actually helped some of the most vulnerable residents of North Miami Beach as you had to have a car and 5+ hours of time to wait in line during a weekday that most people are at work. If you were one of the few who managed to wait in line and claim a gift card, you did not even need to provide any evidence of financial hardship due to COVID 19. An overwhelming number of residents who turned up for the event were ultimately turned away after waiting in line for 5+ hours.
In truth, there would have been far better ways to use the ARPA funds that would have benefited far more residents in North Miami Beach however none of these other ways would have had ways for Paule Villard to campaign on.
A Police "Sergeant" Who Served For 27 Years
On several occasions, Paule Villard makes references that she is a retired Police Sergeant who served for the city of Miami. While not entirely false, this statement is misleading at best and intended to give the illusion that Paule Villard was a highly decorated police officer who honorably served the public as a Sergeant for over 20 years. Most police departments have a policy in which they retire police officers at the next highest rank when they retire without being terminated. This is why Paule can claim she retired as a "Police Sergeant" without ever having the responsibilities of a sergeant.
In truth, Paule Villard did not serve a single day in the line of duty as a Police Sergeant, she was a standard and lackluster police officer whose primary responsibility was to assist other police officers who needed a Creole translator. While serving as a Police Officer for 21 years, she only made one arrest during all that time, when most officers in the City of Miami make dozens, if not hundreds, of arrests in their careers.
In addition, depending on her audience on any given day, she will tell you she was a Police Sergeant for anywhere between 28 and 34 years, when she actually retired after 21 years to the day.
Most police departments have a policy in which they retire police officers at the next highest rank when they retire without being terminated. This is why Paule retired as a sergeant without ever having the responsibilities of a sergeant. This lie is repeated multiple times in the media Paule Villard releases and on all of her profiles. It is even featured in Paule's own words in a video she released in which she took credit for the work that all of the commissioners accomplished.
It goes without saying but this video was not only painful to watch but this video was also produced with taxpayer funds. In addition to making the misleading statement about being a Sergeant, it also includes several other untruthful and misleading statements that will be described in detail below.
Claimed to Lower The Millage Rate (Lower Taxes)
On September 6th, Paule Villard made a motion to lower the millage rate from 6.20 mills to 6.15 mills. This is a insulting decrease especially as the Mayor and two other commissioners wanted a rate below 6.0 mills In a perfect world, this 0.05% reduction might save a typical homeowner around $50 a year, however that is without factoring in the increased cost of garbage collection, water and sewage ... so Paule Villard did not actually save taxpayers any money at all. At best she created a loophole to allow her to claim that she made a proposal to reduce taxes while hiding substantial increases to services offered by the City of North Miami Beach such as water and garbage.
If Paule Villard really did care about reducing taxes, she would cut back on her excessive parties and luxury travel and accept the rollback rate that Miami-Dade County factored as 5.61 mills which would actually amount to some real savings for North Miami Beach Property Owners and Renters. The reason that Paule Villard did not want to see the rate lowered this low is it would require her to significantly cut back on her uncontrolled spending.
Shamelessly Takes Credit For The Work Of Others
Paule Villard loves to ensure that her name and photo are attached to all City events so she can take credit for the event. On many occasions, she went as far as duplicating invites for events made by other commissioners only to add her name and photo to the invite. A quick look through the City of North Miami Beach's social media accounts will show a massive amount of posts that contain Paule Villard's name and photo for no apparent reason except to market Paule Villard.
In addition to undermining the actual people who worked to setup the events, Paule Villard's insistence on printing a excessive number of handouts with her photo has a financial cost to the taxpayers of North Miami Beach as she does not pay for these out of her own pocket.
Hiding The Real Cost of Freebee
In 2022, lead by 4 commissioners including Paule Villard, the City of North Miami Beach entered into a pilot program with Freebee, a ride hailing service to give "free" rides to the residents of North Miami Beach. Paule Villard is more then happy to paint this as a public service that has no cost to the users, this could not be further to the truth as the city subsidizes the cost of this service to the tune of ~$500,000 a year. While it is true that you wont pay a penny to take a Freebee ride from your house to visit the Ancient Spanish Monastery, all taxpayers in North Miami Beach are ultimately on the hook to pay the bill with higher property taxes, higher water bills and further reductions in trash services.