Self-proclaimed “Super Mayor” Tiffany Henyard has been under investigation following accusations that she abused municipal funds for her own personal spending. Despite denying the allegations, a recent probe revealed Henyard’s shocking spending habits.
Thursday evening, former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot held a meeting revealing the findings from a probe she launched into the Dolton mayor. She was hired at $400 an hour by Dolton trustees to investigate allegations that Henyard used village monies to hire local police as personal security guards, pay for out-of-state vacations and neglected upkeep of the neighborhood, per The Chicago Tribune. Henyard previously vetoed the hiring of Lightfoot but the trustees banded together and successfully overrode the veto.
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Lightfoot’s report found the village of Dolton owes over $6 million in village vendors while only having a $3.6 million spending deficit. The report found Henyard did indeed use the funds to pay two police officers overtime, increasing its spending on the police department from $7.7 million in 2022 to $9.2 million by 2024. The report also found village funds were spent on various trips and most shockingly, a $43,000 Amazon binge in a single day in January of 2023.
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“What a slap in the face to everybody that resides in 60419 zip code,” Lightfoot said in the meeting.
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In addition to those frivolous spends, Lightfoot’s report found the village had six credit cards in use, four of which are used by the police department and another having statements issued to a village administrator.
Read more from The Chicago Tribune:
The village’s fiscal year runs from May 1 to April 30, and Lightfoot said no annual financial reports are available beyond fiscal year 2021.
There have been no audited annual financial statements since that time, and Dolton has failed to file reports on its spending and income with the state, Lightfoot said. She noted the village is already four months into fiscal 2025 and lacks a budget.
She said Dolton has a very small or non-existent finance department, and said she relied on monthly reports from Kasperek’s firm to try to piece together the village’s financial condition.
Lightfoot said the village had a general fund surplus of $5.6 million as of April 2022, before the start of fiscal 2023.
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It’s unclear what the next steps are for Henyard after such a scathing report but the findings only make the call for her to step down louder.
“It’s ridiculous to see how our tax dollars have been recklessly spent,” said Trustee Tammie Brown in the meeting to the crowd of over 100 villagers.
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Henyard also facing federal probes which resulted in the subpoena of nearly all of her staff members and thousands of business records to further investigate her handling of taxpayer money.