Ex-North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard’s taxpayer-funded campaign manager, Willis Howard, wants you to know that, if elected as Supervisor of the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, he will uphold the agency’s “pledge to instill trust and confidence by conducting elections that are fair, accurate, transparent and accessible for all voters of Miami-Dade County.”

Just kidding.

Knowing how Willis Howard operates, he will probably pull every trick in the book to find creative ways to make sure his preferred candidates win elections.

And by “preferred,” we mean every single politician who has ever paid him “consulting” fees from their campaign accounts.

Or, as in Paule Villard’s case, from the General Fund of a municipality where he managed to score a sweet gig from an equally corrupt City Manager, who only hired him to help Paule get re-elected so he could continue ripping off the City’s taxpayers.

We burst out laughing when we heard that Willis Perry Howard filed to run on April 20, 2023 for this first-time elected position.  If there is any one person in all of Miami-Dade County who should be permanently barred from being within a ten mile radius of ballots being counted, Willis P. Howard would be that person.

Electing Willis as Supervisor of Elections for Miami-Dade County is as dangerous as electing yours truly as Supervisor of Apple Fritters for the Publix Bakery.

So many things could go wrong.

Willis Howard was one of the most controversial hires of the now-former North Miami Beach City Manger Arthur “Duke” Sorey.  A May 20, 2021 Miami Herald article described Willis Howard as a political strategist, who had “been paid by almost every elected official in North Miami Beach to help them win their seats.”

Mayor Anthony “Tony” DeFillipo, who ran for re-election in November of 2020, told the Herald he had paid “$7,000 in what he now says was a deal for a coveted spot on the operative’s list of endorsed candidates.”

Even though Willis disputed that he was paid for his endorsement, we were right there during the Mayor’s campaign, and we personally know why Willis was paid  — to be included in his “slate!”

Mind you, this is a “Paid Political Advertisement” he hilariously calls the “Miami-Dade County Official Voter Guide,” as he disingenuously claims he’s “Independent of any Candidate or Committee.”

“For Educational purposes” no less.

Willis is such a biased political player that, during every election, he publishes a slate of candidates that he allegedly personally “endorses” out of the goodness of his heart.

Just kidding.

The price of his “endorsement” is obviously based on his personal Friends & Family Plan.

Why else did Tony pay Willis Howard’s consulting company, Urban Initiatives, Inc. $5,000 in October 1, 2020 and another $2,000 in October 31, 2020, for a total of $7,000?

At the same time, Willis only charged Michael Joseph,  McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean $1,250 each.

But, nah.  Nothing shady about that.

The nepotism continued when Willis Howard was hired as Duke Sorey’s Chief of Staff on May 21, 2021 at a base salary of $127,305, a gig that lasted until April 13, 2022, when he resigned only to become a “consultant.”

At the same salary, with the same benefits.

As we reported in Willis Howard, “Consultant”: A story of corruption and racism in North Miami Beach. Duke placed on the March 24, 2022 Commission meeting Agenda a proposed Consulting Agreement, which stated that Willis Howard would retained “to assist [sic] Office of the City Manager to complete projects relating to annexation and the extension of the CRA [Community Redevelopment Agency] agreement with Miami-Dade County.”

According to the Minutes of the March 24, 2022 City Commission meeting:

Interim Assistant City Attorney Ryan read the title of Resolution No. R2022-50 into the record.

City Manager Sorey III gave a brief explanation on Resolution No. R2022-50.

Motion to introduced Resolution No. R2022-50 by my Commissioner Fleurimond, seconded by Commissioner Joseph.

Vice Mayor Smukler opened the meeting for PUBLIC COMMENT.

1. Mubarak Kazan

2. Jeb Handwerger

The meeting was closed for PUBLIC COMMENT.Mayor and Commission began discussion on Resolution No. R2022-50.

City Manager Sorey III spoke regarding the consultant agreement with Chief of Staff Willis Howard.

Motion to approve Resolution No. R2022-50 made by Commissioner Fleurimond, seconded by Commissioner Joseph.’

Voice Vote: MOTION PASSED 5-1 with Commissioner Kramer opposed and Mayor DeFillipo absent.

What the Minutes do not reflect are the details of the discussion that took place on this ridiculous Resolution to hire Paule’s personal campaign strategist in the months leading up to the 2022 municipal election in which Paule was defending her seat.

In case you missed it, we’ll fill you in.

At hour 5:24:25 of the meeting video, Duke Sorey attempted to defend his indefensible decision by lying.

As usual.

“Uh, I’d like ta give a brief description, well, give a description of the matter.  Our current, um, Chief of Staff, Mr. Willis Howard, um, has submitted his resignation letter effective, uh, I believe it’s April 13th.  Um, he’ll be movin’ on and going ta do some greater things.  Um, since he’s been here, one of the main reasons that I did hire Mr. Howard to become part of my administrative team was ta work on annexation, um, to give North Miami Beach, um, to entitlement status over fifty thousand.

“Uh, we’ve made great strides with, uh, movin’ forward with this, um, annexation, um, uh, the ball is rolling. Um, we’re attempting to add to the current, uh, we have a, uh, something that’s already down at the County, uh, we have application in place already.  Uh, we’re lookin’ ta add to that a second application, and that’s where Mr. Will, uh, Howard has been workin’ on since his time here.  Um, I just think it’s, uh, prudent for Mr. Howard ta continue on workin’ on this, um, this, this project with myself and my staff.  Um, since he’s been really carried [sic] himself, since we’ve, since he’s been here.

“Um, also, he’s been working with us, um, and with, um, dealing with the County, um, to move forward with our expansion of, er, ah, extending the life of our CRA.  So, uh, fiscal impact is about seventy thousand dollars, um, for, us to continue using the services of Mr. Howard.  Um, I did, uh, want to put this on the Agenda, um, I wanted ta have it here so that everybody understood what was goin’ on, I think I’ve, ya know, shared with everybody he was resigning and, um, moving forward.

“So, uh, this is, uh, really an, something that we need, I mean, this is, uh, one of the main things that I think has been sittin’ around North Miami Beach for a while is gettin’ to entitlement status, uh, there are a couple donut holes here that I’ve heard about soon as I got here, as well as some other areas, um, that are, um, immediately east of I-95 that we need to look to bring into the City as well, um, down toward, um, I believe it’s, you know, sixth avenue, um to bring in the Wawa and all of those other, uh, commercial properties.  So, dat’s what we’re workin’ on, I will, would love to continue usin’ the services of Mr. Willis Howard.  It’s over fifty thousand, which is my threshold, therefore I did bring it to the body for da body to see it and make the decision, um, for us to move forward.  Uh, thank you, um, I look for approval in the matter thank you.”

Yes, he is that embarrassingly crude, unprofessional, and inarticulate.

WATCH!

Duke just kept digging that hole deeper and deeper.

Commissioner Barbara Kramer said that she had no idea about the “other areas east of I-95.”

She then asked, “So where have we gotten in all the time that he’s been here?  Please let me know what he’s achieved for us?”

“We’ve had several meetings with individuals at the County, some of the County Commissioners, um, especially with Commissioner Sally Heyman.”

“We’ve identified other areas, that’s what I’m telling you, we’ve identified other areas that we would possibly like to annex.  Uh, we were really waiting on da final vote [unintelligible] the gentleman alluded to at the Biscayne Gardens.  Uh, um da part, another part that we wanted to annex, which is those commercial properties was in the Biscayne, um, Gardens application.”

“But we had ta wait.  Uh, we’re putting [unintelligible] together but we had to wait for the Biscayne Gardens election to take place.  Once that failed then now we move forward and we’re workin’ on finishing up our application to go forward.”

Except, as usual, Duke Sorey was lying through his teeth.

Keep in mind that the referendum to incorporate Biscayne Gardens was held on November 2, 2021, and it failed spectacularly “by a margin of 83-17%,” as reported by the Biscayne Times.

If Duke was really serious about annexing that area, Willis Howard already had more than four months since the failed vote to get the ball rolling.

Duke’s rationale to hire Willis back as a “consultant” to work on annexation was obviously just a ruse because no application to annex those “other areas east of I-95” has ever been filed with the Miami-Dade County Office of Management and Budget.

In fact, according to the County’s OMB web page, the only annexation application that the City of North Miami Beach has on file with the County was for the area known as the “donut hole,” and that was filed back in 2005.

We have made public records requests with both the City of North Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County for all correspondences and documentation between both government entities regarding any and all annexation proposals since Willis Howard was paid to handle this matter.  Like Barbara Kramer, we want to know exactly what he was doing during those five months he was collecting a “consulting fee” of $12,229.94 for each of those months, for a total of $61,149.70.

Let’s just say we won’t be surprised if there are no records in response to our requests.

But, if there are, we will be sure to tell you all about it.

At hour 5:39, Commissioner Kramer had another question for Duke.  “So do you think that for five months from April to September, he’s going to be able to accomplish all of this?  And why are we paying him the balance of whatever his salary was if he’s not even working here full-time?  He’s not going to be doing this full-time so why are we paying him his full-time salary and benefits?”

Duke really had to scramble now to come up with what he thought was a rational response.

“I spoke with Mr. Howard and I came up with the price, he, uh, we talked about it, uh, the price to move forward with the item.  I brang it forward what I did speak with Mr. Howard on for us to move forward.”

Yes, he really did say “brang.”

Duke continued,

“Um, again it’s also something to do with the CRA also.  We will be having to lobby and go to da County for our CRA extension.  Uh, a lot of da projects, you know, da, uh, NMB Place, the, uh, NMB Venus, a lot of these projects coming up are lookin’ for CRA money, and we continue to try and develop, uh, Hanford Boulevard my CRA district, um, the West Dixie corridor.  All this stuff is contingent upon our CRA being renewed and nobody sees it right now but we’re gonna have to bond for Snake Creek Canal the same meeting that we just had.  Dat bond doesn’t happen we don’t get the CRA extended.”

Barbara cut him off, “There’s no way, if you’re going to hire a consultant, you don’t hire him for five months.  There are very specific dates that you have here and there’s a reason for that.  And I’m not going to sit here and speculate but obviously, there’s a reason why it’s specifically this amount of time.  And since when do we give consultants health benefits?  This to me doesn’t sound right.  I think this is very shady.  I’m extremely skeptical.  I think you’re paying him way too much because he’s not any longer here full-time, where you had him here from whatever hours as a full-time employee.  He won’t be a full-time employee.  He’s a consultant.  He’s working with other people.  Yeah, we’re gonna pay him more money because you think he’s so great, and yet, I have not seen the fruits of his labor.”

Duke’s only response to any of Barbara’s concerns was his taking offense that she called the deal “shady.”

How adorable.

He started arguing with her and she ignored him by saying, “Why are we paying him a full-time salary for a part-time job?  Why doesn’t he just stay here?”

Duke tried to respond with his typical mumbo jumbo, which is not even worth repeating.

What is worth mentioning is that Barbara was not falling for Duke’s little lying game.

Anyone with a working brain cell knew that the only reason Willis Howard was still being paid was to help Paule get re-elected in November.  Duke’s entire future at North Miami Beach depended on keeping a four-criminal majority vote on the dais.  He was fooling absolutely no one.

Unfortunately for Duke, but fortunately for all the residents of North Miami Beach, this time his manipulative scheme didn’t work.

Needless to say, however, for the year and a half that Willis Howard was being handsomely paid as Duke’s and Paule’s personal political operative, the exorbitant salary and benefits ($200K+) he received since first being hired wasn’t the only damage he left in his wake.

Willis also ripped off North Miami Beach taxpayers for a grand total of $20,876.13 on some super shady Purchasing Card (P Card) charges, of which $1,771.75 are still unaccounted for, according to a March 6, 2023 Memo from ex-employee Francisco Medranda to Chief Financial Officer Marcia Fennell.

How did that happen?

We are especially curious why he charged $896.31 at Costco and why he never turned in a receipt.

For all we know, Willis might have an 85″ TV hanging on his wall at home, courtesy of North Miami Beach taxpayers.

We’re also curious how Duke’s former Finance Director, Agnew Jean-Pierre, and his former Chief Procurement Officer, Phillip Ford, approved these charges for payment without having the receipts, in violation of the City’s Procurement Policy & Procedure.

Actually, we already know the answer to that one.

Further proof that Willis Howard’s only job was to manage Paule Villard’s campaign for re-election came in the form of a mystery charge for $1,500.00 to “PAYPAL *CHUKAPA,” as posted on his taxpayer-funded P Card Statement ending May 4, 2022.  which we’ve been trying to decipher since April of last year.

In They spent how much on what? NMB City Officials Gone Wild, Part 1, we wrote, “Willis spent $1,500.00 of your money via PayPal to something called “Chukapa.”  He gets brownie points for winning Stump the Gadfly with this one.  We furiously Googled “Chukapa” and only came up with two possibilities:  (a) He’s buying a whole bunch of handmade thangka paintings from Tibet, or (b) He’s supporting some dude from India named Chukapa on YouTube and Twitter, who’s not having any luck getting followers.  Either way, this purchase, as well as many of the above, is practically screaming, “Public Records Request!”

The mystery was finally solved on April 18, 2023 — a year later — when Commissioner Fortuna Smukler was able to wrangle an email from McKenzie Fleurimond’s first “Constituent Service Aide,” Nadia Brewton, showing that “Chukapa” is actually local Channel 10 anchor Calvin Hughes.

Willis paid him $1,500.00 to perform a literal 20-minute gig as the Master of Ceremonies for Paule Villard’s self-promoting “Unsung Heroes” event honoring herself and her Friends & Family.

Willis Howard’s P Card purchases of more than $1,700.00 on Amazon are just as unacceptable.

He charged $607.81 on drinks and snacks for the City Manager’s Office, $452.78 of which was deliberately misclassified as “Office Supplies,” and absolutely none of which should be billed to North Miami Beach taxpayers.

These drinks and snacks included:

• Two 24-pack cases of V8 Energy Healthy Drink in assorted flavors at $1.31 each
• Three 24-pack cases of Gatorade Classic Thirst Quencher at $1.07 each
• Five 24-pack cases of Tropicana Mixer at $.58 each
• A 24-pack case of Bawls Guarana soft drink at $2.92 a bottle
• Three 1-ounce packs of 40 Sunchips Multigrain Chips at $.47 a bag
• 24 10-ounce bottles of Naked Juice Variety at $2.17 each
• 24 .5-ounce bags of Daniela Jean’s favorite snack, Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar Cheese Puffs at $.50 a bag
• Two 66-count “care packages” of Healthy Snacks to Go at $.59 each
• A 24-pack case of Welch’s Juice Drink Variety Pack at $.80 each

In addition to the care and feeding of the fourth floor blood-sucking leeches posing as public employees, Willis also charged another $249.50 on gift bag items for Paule’s self-promoting Friends & Family party.

If Willis Howard is so irresponsible with taxpayer money in a small municipality with a City Manager’s Office budget of $1,801,409, just imagine the damage he can do with an Elections Department budget of $37,185,000.

If Willis Howard is so untrustworthy to account for $1,771.75 in Purchasing Card receipts, just imagine how untrustworthy he’d be with the ballots of the 1,486,175 registered voters in Miami-Dade County.

Willis Howard is irresponsible and untrustworthy, and is completely incapable of safeguarding the integrity of Miami-Dade County elections.

Please vote responsibly!

Stephanie