The strange tale of Tiffany Henyard keeps getting more bizarre.
Henyard, the mayor of the Chicago area village of Dolton, has been under investigation by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot since April because of suspected mishandling of taxpayer funds. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who was hired by village supervisors at a cost of $400 per hour, released some of her findings on August 8.
Lightfoot’s Preliminary Findings
At a packed village meeting, Lightfoot revealed that the Dolton Village General Fund had a negative balance of $3.65 million. The preliminary report found that over $43,000 in purchases at Amazon were made on village credit cards in one day, without any explanation. Many thousands of dollars of village funds were spent on gift cards, with no records of where the cards went. “Receipts for credit card purchases are rarely provided,” Lightfoot said.
The crowd gasped with each new Lightfoot revelation.
Almost 600 checks worth more than $6 million were approved to be paid to village vendors, but have not been signed by Henyard for unspecified reasons. Lightfoot stressed that the $6 million did not include all the unpaid vendors.
Nine separate trips, involving dozens of people, were taken in 2023 on the village dime. These included voyages to Las Vegas; Washington, D.C.; Austin; Portland; New York; and Birmingham, Alabama.
The meeting was jam-packed. However, Henyard, who attempted to veto the investigation in June, did not attend.
Lightfoot emphasized that the report findings are preliminary, and that “we have more work to do.” She told the crowd:
We’ve worked very, very diligently, very hard—under difficult circumstances—to get as much information as we could to share with you….
If you hear this is fake news, it’s not. It’s real. This is real.
The village has not done state-mandated financial reports or mandatory audits since 2021, when Henyard took office.
Police Inquiries
Another large spending item during Henyard’s tenure has been police overtime. One officer made $108,000 in fiscal year 2023 against a base salary of $72,000, and $114,000 in fiscal year 2024 in overtime against a base salary of $87,000. Another officer racked up $87,000 in fiscal year 2023 on a base salary of 55,000, and $102,000 in fiscal year 2024 on a base salary of $73,000.
And Deputy Police Chief Lewis Lacey, who wasn’t allowed overtime by a collective bargaining agreement, raked in over $200,000 in overtime in the last three years. Lacey has been placed on administrative leave and now faces federal charges of bankruptcy fraud. He claims he is a victim of retaliatory lawfare due to his connection to Henyard.
In the past, Henyard has been accused of using village police officers as personal security. Plus, residents have accused her of using the police to harass citizens who would not contribute to her charity, the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation.
The village has had trouble paying its bills since Henyard took office. At one point, six village police cars were nearly repossessed when payments went unmade.
“Financially Raped”
After Lightfoot’s presentation, Dalton trustee Kiana Belcher said, “We have been financially raped. And when people rape people, they get everything they deserve.”
Henyard is also facing an investigation by the FBI over allegations that she’s used taxpayer funds for her own personal use. Said former FBI agent Ross Rice in April:
[The investigation is] very broad in scope. It’s very broad in the number of people and entities they’re asking for records on. So there must be some serious allegations of wrongdoing that they’re trying to get to the bottom of.
Henyard, a Democrat, has a very high opinion of herself. In 2023 she used taxpayer dollars on huge billboards of herself ostensibly telling passersby about village services. In reality, it was a way to promote herself to the area.
“This is a blatant attempt to promote herself politically,” said election attorney Burt Odelson. “The township should not have paid for these if they did. And I’m sure they did.”
It’s a very bizarre story, even when you consider Illinois’ history of corrupt politicians. Ms. Henyard is certainly making a name for herself.
