Dolton Village Board members want people to know their efforts to hold Mayor Tiffany Henyard accountable have little to do with personality or ideology.
Rather, it’s all about the money.
“The amount of money being spent without board approval, without checks and balances, is unacceptable,” Trustee Edward Steave said Monday night during a special board meeting at a Dolton Park District facility.
Monday marked the first time the board met since March 6. That was when Henyard dressed as the drug kingpin Nino Brown from the film “New Jack City” and falsely introduced Joslyn King as a winner of the Feb. 28 primary election for trustee.
Henyard has canceled three board meetings since then without explanation, trustees said. The Village Board is supposed to meet twice a month to approve payroll for employees, pay bills and review other expenditures.
Trustees said they have repeatedly asked Henyard’s administrators to provide copies of financial statements but have received no response. Village employees have continued to be paid without board approval, Trustee Jason House said.
“Anything that’s not payroll has not been paid since our last board meeting, the first meeting in March,” House said.
Five trustees have sought accountability from Henyard since a few months after she was elected mayor in 2021. Henyard is recklessly spending public funds without approval and charging up to $50,000 per month on a village issued credit card, trustees said.
“I think the credit card is being abused,” Trustee Kiana Belcher said. “We can’t monitor this credit card.”
Trustees adopted an ordinance in February to cap credit card spending at $20,000 per month, but Henyard is ignoring the policy, House said. Henyard and trustees have battled over paying law firms and other vendors.
Trustees have refused to pay various vendors hired by Henyard unless they can review contracts, receipts or other paperwork, they said. Henyard has refused to place items requested by trustees on agendas, including paying their legislative counsel.
“Now I see some bills are being paid on the credit card because they don’t want to come in front of the board for approval,” Belcher said.
Henyard and Village Administrator Keith Freeman did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
The Dolton Village Board has met in exile at least once previously, in December. By law, two members of the board may call a special meeting. Meetings are legal if notice is properly posted at least 48 hours in advance and if a majority of trustees attend, constituting a quorum.
The board met at a Park District facility because last year when the board tried to meet at Village Hall on different occasions trustees were locked out, the power was shut off and the Fire Department was called, Steave said.
“These are real things that have happened,” Steave said. “We had to have our meeting here because they won’t let us have a board meeting at the Village Hall.”
Monday was Steave’s last meeting after serving as trustee the past four years. He sought another term and was among nine candidates who sought three seats in the Feb. 28 primary.
Voters reelected incumbent Trustees Tammie Brown and Andrew Holmes, who is often the lone dissenting vote. Voters also elected Stanley Brown, a former Dolton trustee who works for Thornton Township, where Henyard was appointed last year to a $277,000 job as supervisor.
Stanley Brown attended Monday’s special meeting and said he looked forward to once again serving residents of Dolton as trustee.
Local government today in Dolton is like what happens in a banana republic when two warring factions each claim legitimacy. Trustees and Henyard are battling in court, and numerous lawsuits are pending.
The two sides are fighting legal battles over such issues as whether Henyard should be authorized to sign village checks and whether village officials are complying with requests for documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
Trustees said Henyard thwarts their efforts to uphold their oaths and fulfill their fiduciary duties. That’s a fancy way of saying their jobs are to ensure taxpayers that their public funds are being spent responsibly.
“There are two things lacking from the administration, and that’s communication and compromise,” Trustee Brittney Norwood said.
Trustees discussed a recent $33.5 million judgment a Cook County jury awarded to families affected by a 2016 high-speed police chase in Dolton. Police chased a vehicle that rolled through a stop sign near Greenwood Road and Sibley Boulevard. The vehicle crashed, killing John Kyles and permanently disabling Duane Dunlap.
Dolton intends to appeal the verdict, House said, and the village’s insurance policy may only cover about $10 million of the award.
“The insurance company is handling the appeal,” House said.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.