Tiffany Henyard supporters who packed Thornton Township Hall in South Holland Tuesday evening were treated to a master class in how a powerful authoritarian can bully critics to stifle dissent and snuff out democracy.
People munched on fried chicken and french fries and listened to financial reports and comments from township officials and the public. Most who spoke publicly heaped praise upon Henyard, who was elected Dolton mayor in 2021 and appointed to the $277,000 per year township supervisor post in early 2022.
“It’s a shame you people are always here for the mess but not the greatness that comes with the title,” Henyard told reporters before a nearly three-hour annual town hall public meeting.
Henyard has smashed norms and blatantly flaunted questionable spending of public funds in full view of an adoring public. She appears to have used her political power to clear payrolls of career civil servants and rewarded loyal supporters with taxpayer funded jobs.
Many township employees fawned over Henyard during public comments. A woman said she started working for the township several years ago earning $5 per house mowing lawns through the Zuccarelli Assistance Program, or ZAP. The jobs program named after late Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli has been re-christened as the Henyard Assistance Program, or HAP, and is headed by Stanley Brown.
“I worked my way to where I’m at,” the woman said. “I cut grass for a whole year, no complaints. Then I got pulled up by Mr. Stanley Brown, thank God for him.”
In addition to having a township job, Brown is on the Thornton Township High School District 205 Board and was recently elected to the Dolton Village Board. He earned $300 for serving as moderator of Tuesday’s town hall.
Henyard supporters vastly outnumbered critics at the town hall. I’ve observed Henyard at numerous Dolton and Thornton Township public meetings over the past 18 months. I’ve witnessed alarming conduct that indicates Henyard shares many traits displayed by tyrants and despots.
She travels as part of a convoy of taxpayer funded SUVs with dark tinted windows and emergency lights. Such an entourage is typically reserved for governors, American presidents or foreign dignitaries, not mayors or township supervisors. She surrounds herself with armed security agents who often intimidate citizens with menacing stares.
She defensively bristles at the first hint of criticism. She launches counterattacks apparently designed to discredit her critics. She plays the victim while attacking the press and others who seek to hold her accountable.
Henyard is a masterful orator who spins yarns that often seem to have little basis in reality. She can rattle off a list of supposed accomplishments at the drop of a hat because she insists on telling everyone at every opportunity about what a great leader she is.
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She plays race and gender cards with ease, even though three Black women on the Dolton Village Board are among her most formidable political foes.
“I’m a strong, Black, African American woman,” Henyard told Tuesday’s audience. “I think I’m doing a damn good job.”
Henyard endears herself to an adoring public through a relentless onslaught of public relations, promotions, events and freebies that have prompted numerous questions about potential waste, fraud and abuse.
She exhibited her ruthless tactics Tuesday when she characterized the handful of critics who questioned spending as disgruntled former employees. She depicted herself as a savior and the only person capable of cleaning up a mess left by her predecessor, Zuccarelli.
“A lot of people like to lie and tell you things about the township,” Henyard said. “Frank Zuccarelli, one of my mentors, showed me the ropes. When he passed it was like everybody was in chaos. The whole township was basically up for grabs.”
Zuccarelli was an ineffective leader who presided over a corrupt army of freeloading employees, according to Henyard.
“People were working here, they were doing everything under the sun, from shredding papers to all the things you don’t even know about, ghost payrolling,” Henyard told her audience. “People barely came to work but made $90,000, $100,000.”
By most other accounts, Zuccarelli was a revered public servant. Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke at his memorial service and called him a champion. But according to Henyard, Zuccarelli was an inept leader who plunged the township into a $5 million hole by spearheading a township hall renovation project without first securing financing for the work.
Henyard also blamed the deficit on state Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey. Voters last summer elected Harris Democratic committeeperson for Thornton Township, a position Zuccarelli previously held.
“Napoleon, your senator, was supposed to sign off on a $5 million amount to give to the township” Henyard said. “He did not give the township the $5 million, so that put the township in a deficit of $5 million, because they did a build out here at the township without even having the money in the bank.”
I’ve previously criticized Henyard for mischaracterizing grant funds as “free money.” Her remarks about Harris seemed to indicate the senator might have unsuccessfully lobbied for a state grant that might have funded the Township Hall renovation.
“I can assure everyone that Sen. Harris has never discussed funding or any grants with Supervisor Henyard and any claims suggesting otherwise are baseless,” Nakita McGraw, a representative for Harris, told me Wednesday.
Henyard assured town hall attendees that the township was now on firm financial ground and that last year’s $5 million deficit was now a $3 million surplus.
“That is something that has never been done before in the history of the township,” Henyard said of her amazing fiscal skills.
Trustee Christopher Gonzalez asked finance director Robert Hunt whether the surplus accounted for $5 million the township had borrowed.
“We’re saying there’s a surplus but we still owe $5 million,” Gonzalez said.
Future budgets would account for loan repayments, Hunt replied.
People in the audience wiped their fingers of grease from fried chicken and french fries as former township employee Stephanie Wiedeman questioned why the township repeatedly spent $7,000 on catered food for public meetings.
Henyard mocked and ridiculed her critics.
“Look how small the crowd of them is, and look how massive we are,” she raved as the audience cheered.
Henyard will continue gaining political power so long as she continues abusing taxpayer resources for personal gain. She seems to claim personal credit for gas giveaways, food pantries and other services funded by taxpayers.
“I’m your mom, I’m your sister, I’m all your loved ones,” Henyard said. “The same respect you give your mom, your sister, your auntie, give me that same respect. Protect me, my brothers.”
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.
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