Thornton Township trustees asked Tuesday for patience as residents expressed frustrations about the supervisor’s salary and budget increases.
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The first budgets taken on by Supervisor Napoleon Harris passed unanimously but faced questions from some in the nearly full audience. People who criticized former Supervisor Tiffany Henyard expressed frustration that Harris was carrying on the former supervisor’s $202,000 salary.
“My comment is to you, Supervisor Harris — what motivated you to seek the supervisor position of Thornton Township?” asked Jennifer Robertz during the public comment period. “Was it solely for the six-figure compensation, or did you feel the sense of entitlement to become the most powerful figure in the Southland?”
Former township Supervisor Tiffany Henyard’s salary was a rallying point among her opponents. The slate of candidates led by Harris promised increased transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility for township residents.
The township clerk’s office did not provide Harris’ salary information as requested through the Freedom of Information Act, but attorney Burt Odelson, whose firm represents the township, said a previous ordinance that called for Henyard’s successor to make $54,000 was unconstitutional.
A bill out of the Illinois General Assembly, where Harris is a senator, overrode that ordinance, allowing Harris to continue making more than $200,000 as supervisor. Harris also earns a more than $103,000 salary as state senator, according to the state.
Harris did not address the public regarding his continuation of Henyard’s salary but said he is “going to stick to the business.”
“Sometimes, as we take office, people often wonder why we do it,” Harris said in his report. “Because, genuinely, people care. There are not enough people that care enough to do it.”
Harris later told the Daily Southtown he did not push forward the bill that allowed him to earn the same salary as Henyard, but he supported it, as he believed it unfair for elected officials to be able lower the salary for their successors.
“This bill basically said that someone, your predecessor, can’t make the office less desirable just so they can remain in office,” Harris said.
Harris’ interpretation of his six-figure salary was rejected by Nate Fields, who ran against him as an independent candidate for supervisor.
“I honestly don’t think it’s fair,” Fields said. “I was positioned or prepared to take on a lower salary.”
Harris and several trustees requested residents’ patience as they worked to create positive change in the township, as many meeting attendees complained about a bloated budget compared to years before. The 2025 general fund budget, posted on the township website, projected $10.1 million in total revenues and about $11 million in expenditures.
Members of the new administration said the budget looked different due to their renewed interest in providing services that improve upon residents’ lives.
“With these budgets, the focus is on you, the focus is on services,” Trustee Christopher Gonzalez said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I’ll just go ahead and say it, in the past that wasn’t the case. The focus, unfortunately, was on one person.”
Gonzalez, the only trustee to stay on the board post-Henyard, led budget discussions at the beginning of the year, but said last month that the board under Henyard chose to hold off on finalizing the budget until Harris and other new trustees entered office in May.
Gonzalez was an outspoken opponent of Henyard, who he said failed to communicate or provide necessary information about township initiatives.
“We had kind of looked at doing something with the budget sooner rather than later, but … we were still not really getting as much information as we needed,” Gonzalez said last month. “It just dragged on.”
Gonzalez and other trustees repeatedly asked for residents to trust that they will use the 2025 budget to support residents of the largest township in Illinois.
“I only ask that you give us a chance,” said Trustee Mary Avent, a former anti-Henyard activist
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. “We’ve been here 63 days. I only ask that you give us a chance to do what you elected us to do.”