kby Jan investigates has learned taxpayers are on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars more in travel cost for Dalton mayor Tiffany henyard and her Administration comes after WGN sued the village for refusing to turn over Financial records as required by law 12 2021 a resolution was passed the following persons are hereby authorized to be added as signatures for All City accounts mayor Tiffany henard Village clerk Allison keing but when we asked henyard a few months ago about her use of tax she was quickly hustled out of the room by armed security and on
Facebook well if the proverbial 40-day thing is real then it has certainly caught up with one Tiffany not hadish but mayor Tiffany henyard a day after a report on a probe of The Villages finances found South Suburban Dotan is more than $3.5 million in the red mayor Tiffany henyard who is accused of misusing taxpayer money was nowhere to be found presidents of Dalton deserve nothing less than a government that is fully accountable responsive transparent and effective stewards of your precious tax dollars liot former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot who was hired by the village board to
investigate henards handling of Village finances released preliminary findings that the village is not only in significant debt but that credit card spending is out of control and Tiffany is solely responsible for bleeding out the village allegedly she used part of the loot to renovate her luxury home we want some openness about what's being done and that's not what we got South Suburban Mayors are urging their constituents to vote against the proposed property tax it's been over three years since henyard was sworn in as the youngest and first woman mayor of Dolton she also serves as
Thornton Township supervisor Her Image is prominently displayed outside the Village Hall but now it turns out she has disappointed thousands of people who believed in her The Villages do you think are opposed to this the majority of them all of them all of them all the ones that signed the mayors of Markham the once celebrated young leader is now the center of allegations of corruption and political retaliation which are being lobbed at her by trustees business owners and even the Attorney General's office she has taken lavish trips with the village staff and has caused the
village to be in a multi-million dollar deficit said trustee Jason house they say henyard has used the village coffers as a personal piggy bank while Dalton's unpaid bills have piled up today I'm here to proudly announce my candidacy for mayor of D in February of 2025 there's a lot of mismanagement of funds and we just want some clarity so we can move forward and understand what's going on with all the spending said Kiana beler another Dotan trustee when she walked past she kicks at it and then it mysteriously moved that is about the outrageous pettiest
thing that um anyone could display it is a deadly sin that you could have lost six of your police cars and when you lose police cars you lose police officers too but she chose to keep her payments on her security detail said Bert Odon legislative councel for the doltan board of trust narrative because um it is not the truth it's only one-sided and it's a shame that the media comes out and they only show negative things SEC residents who packed into the park district room for the meeting were Furious and rallied loudly against their mayor
reportedly running a business in Dotan has also been getting harder multiple businesses have been shut down recently over unresolved licensing issues the municipality have so many credit cards out there orders of going out to each is mindboggling the the trips um the shopping and if you thought that was it how about this it is now alleged that mayor henyard signed a check for $561,000 to repave her mom's home driveway with taxpayer money she's also allegedly removed all other City members from being able to sign for spending except for herself since taking office as mayor of
Dolton in 2021 Tiffany henyard has had nothing short of a hectic term thanks to a slew of legal allegations coming against her to terminate Keith Freeman and you're announced his termination last night though the board insists Freeman is still the village ad the self-proclaimed super mayor touts herself on her work to mend the community's housing crisis secure American Rescue plan act funds for seniors and military veterans as well as spearheading the construction of new developments to add more recreational Gathering spaces for the community however despite all her good lip service the feds are investigating a
series of allegations that she has a nasty spending problem but not with her own monies with taxpayer dollars that on top of a recent lawsuit from a previous employee claiming wrongful termination for refusing to Aid in her alleged political schemes hen yard's reputation has been smacked left and right by claims of corruption she's denied most most if not all of the allegations stacked against her claiming she's got receipts to prove fact over fiction the first bombshell allegation to strike henards office came in March 2024 alleging she misused taxpayer money to fund a series of her
own personal and pricey expenditures per the New York Post last January we told you Tiffany henyard and her Entourage racked up more than $67,000 in travel related charges in just five months at the time the Doon board unanimously voted to open a probe into henyard calling on her to submit The Village's Financial records and inviting the FBI to conduct its own investigation henyard however issued a veto claiming the resolution was the result of personal attacks against her and stemm from one-sided narratives as you can see our village our community myself we are under attack henyard
said at the village board meeting it's a shame that people can come to meetings and just tell one side of the stories and not get the entire side of both stories that we the public can't ask you anything about the BMWs the the Range Rovers all of that it's like you're keeping all of that hidden from the taxpayers and we paid for those she claimed that the village board was a boy club that didn't want women like her leading and henard vowed to fight back against the smear campaign against her I'm going to always fight
for what's right and I always stay the course and I will be victorious when all the dust clears she added story it is a smear campaign going on right now during the village board meeting the embattled mayor also admitted to a $2 million deficit with doltan owing more than $427,000 for Street Paving and another $400,000 for tree trimming services local wgn9 reports members of the village board who vowed to override her veto during the next meeting claimed that the deficit was Millions more than henards estimates the mayor can blame everybody for what's going on but
she has to look at herself former trustee Edward Steve said during the heated meetings this is Trusty Edward Steve and I must address the appalling lies that you may have heard in attempts to spar my name and selling my care one resident also rose up to voice her concern saying you lie to us as residents you do not you do not stand for me and I want you to step down as mayor today and save our Village from this deficit you have caused on several occasions henyard has been accused of spending taxpayer money on lavish
and unnecessary trips and forking over $1 million for a police detail then using its members to retaliate against her perceived enemies the former Burger Joint owner turned local politician also is known to attend meetings dressed as a movie Gangster to intimidate her critics henyard once channeled drug kingpin Nino Brown from the 1991 gangster movie New Jack City at a 2023 Gathering there's a mayor in Dalton Illinois by the name of Tiffany henyard who has likened herself to that of Nino Brown a fictitional character from a cult classic '90s movie called people look at politics like
a joke it's like a mockery right now because of all this stuff Village of doton trustee Kiana beler told the post she comes to board meetings dressed like Nino Brown in March of 2024 Village trustees requested a third-party investigator to look into suspicious spending around henyard trips for the Washington examiner specifically they requested a look into a trip she took to Las Vegas with two other Village trustees a previous investigation into the trip found no wrongdoing yet other trustees remained skeptical former Village trusty Valeria stubs who publicly criticized the mayor claimed she was retaliated against
by henyard she told the New York Post henyard repeatedly intimidated and harassed her at her home including sending Hitman to shoot up the vehicles of two of her tenants St stubs alleged henyard made allies with the police department on purpose so they'd ignor the complaint she made against the mayor looting and threatening aside there is more henyard former assistant alleged she was yet ually harassed by a trustee on henards board when she told henyard about it the mayor responded that if the incident went public she'd be ruined per NBC Chicago in Vegas when we clock
out is anybody hitting the strip with me you know it's my birthday and everybody said no or they had something else to do after the mayor's former assistant reported the s u claims against the trustee she claimed the mayor promised she'd take care of it but was involuntarily placed on unpaid medical leave and soon terminated per NBC Chicago claims he was offered a $10,000 pay increase weeks prior to facilitating this change after he refused he says he was fired less than a month later we but that didn't mark the end of the illegal terminations former
maintenance manager Dwayne thrash filed a lawsuit alleging in 23 he was terminated while on vacation after refusing to cooperate in a scheme where henard and her assistant planned to fire an attorney and replace them with a firm preferred by the mayor's assistant per the Washington examiner elsewhere henard was alleged to spearhead a20000 payment in a no bid no contract deal with a uh suburban construction company which has been linked to multiple coruption cases featuring one where the owner allegedly tried to run a scheme to clear thousands and unpaid taxes from family-owned properties per the Illinois
answers project the mayor was soon served as subpoena in connection to an investigation into the villages permitting and Licensing practices per wgn9 news the FBI document sought a series of financial records including payroll reimbursement travel and expenses henyard in particular was accused of denying permits to those whose businesses she considered unfaithful to her she's denied those [Applause] claims it [Music] out some also accused her of using public funds to fuel her personal gains the besieged politician boasted about her plans to create the Tiffany henyard cares foundation in 2022 however upon the other allegations this year
of frivolous spending she began distancing herself from the charity claiming she doesn't have a foundation and denied knowing anything about the Illinois Attorney General's office Banning the organization from Raising any money per the Illinois answers project still on the same Foundation according to the Illinois answers project the township of Dolton was built $117,000 for merchandise henyard used for herself and her foundation after a federal subpoena requested the documents related to that payment and found the invoice for the merchandise went out just one day after henyard Foundation was submitted to the state in an unfortunate turn
of events Dolan's first female mayor and youngest mayor in its history's first term in office has played out like a soap opera her village board meetings have been as rockus as reality television you should pay everybody is it the reason why you guys are not paying uh whatever that vendor is what was it for um it was for shirts that's what it's for you just ask me you have an invoice she was elected in 2021 after taking over 36% of the vote in the Democratic primary against her opponents which included incumbent Riley Rogers and Andrew
Holmes henard then defeated independent candidate Ronnie Burge by taking 82% of the vote in Dalton's general election young and ambitious henyard ran her mayoral campaign in Dotan as a change candidate before serving as Dalton's mayor she was a village trustee where she was an outspoken critic of then mayor Rogers when she was elected mayor hopes were high among Dotan voters who supported her at the polls with her colorful and flamboyant leadership style henyard ushered in a new era of politics in doltan which is located just 22 miles south of Chicago bold and Unapologetic hen's leadership
and controversial spending have put Dolton and his future in the National Spotlight in just her first term the young mayor made more enemies than supporters at City Hall she calls herself Dolan's super mayor as a young black woman whose appetite for Flash and Brash has gained unwanted attention to doltan um about 100 residents showed up at the meeting tonight but only 42 residents were allowed inside um they had to walk through metal detectors and they were wanded critics have dubbed her as America's worst mayor since taking office in May 2021 henyard has been accused of
political corruption that involves taking lavish trips at five-star hotels and dining at high-end steakhouses on taxpayers dollars she has been accused of pressuring businessmen to make donations to her campaign fund henyard has also been accused of making conflict of interest deals in January 2024 one doltan trustee was concerned that the village was headed toward bankruptcy due to to the spending and The Village's 7 million debt Village trustees have expressed concern about The Village's debt and that it was not meeting its Financial Obligations in March fena Dukes the mayor's former assistant filed a civil lawsuit against
henyard and Andrew Holmes after they took a taxpayer funded Economic Development trip to Las Vegas there Duke's alleged Holmes had non-consensual s with her after dinner and a stroll on the Las Vegas trip Dukes accused his homes OFA and alleges henyard retaliated against her after she reported the alleged encounter through officer Byron miles who was part of henard security detail he was demoted after he reported the alleged assault to the mayor miles also filed a lawsuit against henyard very stressed and critical to the point of almost breaking um having to provide officers on the detail
rather than have officers out the mayor also faces a lawsuit from former police chief Robert Collins who alleges she fired him in 2023 because she believed his wife was one of her political adversaries doltan residents have called for henards resignation but she has been defiant even as she Remains the target of an FBI investigation which includes two subpoenas sent to doton City Hall in 2022 doltan residents voted to recall henyard but an Illinois appell Court ruled the referendum was illegal allowing henyard to remain in office in addition to doltan henyard faces problems as supervisor of
thoron Township she was appointed to the position in 2022 after longtime supervisor Frank zucarelli died henyard makes $2 to $24,000 a year in that role but her appointment raised questions about whether she can effectively serve two political positions at the same time or whether she was motivated to take that position because of the high salary months later a new development emerged in hen yard's Rocky political career Federal investigators served two subpoenas to thoron Township expanding its probe against the besieged henyard one subpoena focuses entirely on henyard and her two businesses she owns a restaurant and
a property management company she also has a political fund and a charity bearing her name The subpoena reportedly seeks all records including Personnel files wage and tax statements time and attendance records of work performed contracts and checks written to cash the second subpoena requests a kitchen sink of Township records including Financial reports budgets payroll records and ordinances covering credit card purchases expense reimbursements security details and vehicle use until recently henard enjoyed near unanimous support on the Thornton Township board but now truste Carmen Carlile says after trusting henyard and remaining silent she will be a whistleblower
against in a recent hearing one trustee called out hener for who she believes she is today I am breaking my silence and speaking out against Thornton Township supervisor and mayor of Dotan Tiffany henyard who I believe has engaged in unethical and predatory behavior throughout her tenure truste Carmen Carlile wrote in an emailed statement to WGN for the past 2 years henyard has manipulated employees vendors and residents using her position to increase her influence all a while projecting a false image of success funded by the hardworking taxpayers of Thornton Township and the village of Dotan at
a recent board meeting Carlile acknowledged that she rarely raised questions about lavish trips and other spending charge to Township taxpayers I trusted the administration she said said on August 15th while looking at supervisor henyard Carlile and other Township trustees then voted to put new restrictions on spending for special events and access to credit cards L released a statement to WGN that reads in part for the past two years henyard has manipulated employees vendors and residents using her position to increase her influence all I am standing up not just for myself but for others who have
been affected by what I see as henards abusive leadership Carlile statement said I believe there are many more victims who have been retaliated against fired or lied to by henard but have yet to speak out on her part henyard ridiculed carlile's new found challenge at an August meeting I think I'm going to get you a new nickname lion carile henard said in front of a packed audience I'm tired of everyone in here there always has to be a show so will this be the end of the once vibrant young leader Will she end up in
jail or will she prove her innocence only time will tell and that's it from us today until next time thank you for watching
