Former Commissioner Jay Chernoff defeats incumbent in North Miami Beach runoff race

A former North Miami Beach commissioner ousted a first-term incumbent in a runoff race Tuesday evening.

Jay Chernoff ousted incumbent Paule Villard for the city’s Group 2 commission seat. Chernoff won with about 53% of the vote.

Chernoff joins a commission that has been split on ethical and financial issues in the past year, including a vote by commissioners to increase their own compensation.

“During this campaign, there was an absolute feeling that the citizens were unhappy with what was going on with the garbage, with the water, with the taxes,” Chernoff said. “And they were upset, and they had enough.”

Tuesday’s win also changed the ethnic dynamics of the board, with Villard part of a Haitian-American majority, the first ever to govern a city that has become a hub for South Florida’s growing Haitian expat community.

A longtime Realtor, Chernoff served as a North Miami Beach commissioner from 1989 to 2007, when he lost his reelection bid. Chernoff, who had been critical of what he called excessive spending by the commission, said he wants to “return honesty, transparency, and stability back to the City of North Miami Beach, which has been on a bad note for a while now.”

But Chernoff said his goal is to work with all of the commissioners and have everyone work together.

Chernoff and Villard have history: The two competed in a 2018 runoff race in which Villard defeated Chernoff, 64, with 63% of the vote. At the time, Villard was relatively unknown to politics and had retired a sergeant with the Miami Police Department. As Villard ran for reelection, critics accused her of using the city’s Publix gift card giveaway to campaign. She did not return phone calls from the Herald.