The mayor of a poor Chicago suburb has blocked an invitation for authorities to examine where millions of dollars have disappeared.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard earns $300,000 for her public duties, but has spent thousands more on first-class travel, a professional hair and makeup team and security staff.
It has been accused of illegally signing contracts as dozens of unpaid suppliers threaten to take the city to court.
And he faced angry calls for him to resign Monday as he rejected demands to open the books while vetoing an attempt by city trustees to call in the FBI.
“I always stay the course and I will emerge victorious when everything clears up,” he told them.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard vetoed an attempt to refer her to the FBI on Monday, telling administrators their attempt was “unconstitutional and in complete disregard of the law.”
But he faced angry calls from the public for him to resign as concern grows over the missing millions.
Henyard posted a video of her with President Joe Biden at the White House in January after coming under fire for her high salary and questionable expenses.
The town board voted through a motion to ask agencies including the FBI, the federal prosecutor, the Cook County sheriff and the Cook County state’s attorney to investigate Henyard last month.
Henyard vetoed the invitation last night, but FBI agents are already talking to dozens of people in the city of 20,000 about the unpaid bills.
Henyard has admitted to a $2 million shortfall, blaming trustees for incompetence, but some fear the real figure could be as high as $5 million.
WGNTV reported that the town owes more than $427,000 to a company that repaved its streets, and another $400,000 to a tree trimming company that worked for it last year.
‘You lied to us as residents. You don’t, you don’t defend me. And I want you to resign today as mayor and save our town from this deficit that you have caused,” Dolton resident Vivian Allen told her on Monday.
“The mayor can blame everyone for what’s happening, but she has to look at herself,” added former administrator Edward Steave.
Henyard, 40, had her charity ‘Tiffany Henyard Cares’ shut down last month by the Illinois Attorney General amid allegations that it used taxpayer money and the services of public employees.
In a photo posted to Instagram, Henyard even appeared to pose with a dog laden with jewelry.
The FBI is now investigating spending on limousines, first-class flights and a professional hair and makeup team.
Residents claim he adopts the character of gangster Nino Brown from the 1991 film ‘New Jack City’ during official meetings, wearing an outfit designed to instill fear.
Tiffany Henyard, 40, is accused of shutting down businesses that refused to donate to her campaign, just weeks after she came under fire for using city money to fund her glamorous appearance.
Tiffany Heynard, the first woman and youngest mayor of Dolton, Illinois, is under fire for hiring her former campaign worker Lavelle Redmond (pictured together, left) as a code compliance officer. The 46-year-old man is a registered child sex offender.
Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard has launched a YouTube channel where she plans to “spill the tea” as she faces an FBI investigation over her high salary and embezzlement.
She and other officials spent more than $67,000 of public money on trips to Portland, Austin, Atlanta and New York City, traveling first class on some of the flights and spending $13,000 on a stay in New York.
‘It is unfortunate that politics is being played. “What happened is a million dollars was cut from my budget because of politics,” said Dolton Police Chief Lewis Lacey.
The first female mayor in the city’s 128-year history was at the White House meeting with President Joe Biden in January, but she has been accused of shutting down businesses that refuse to donate to her campaign.
One resident, Lawrence Gardner, claimed Henyard forced his trucking business to close after he refused to renew a $3,500 contribution to his political fund.
“I made the payment,” he said. “Then every year he started coming in and asking for the same thing, and we had a problem with it.”
—Who is she, Nino Brown? he said. “Anything she wants to do, she gets you harassed.” She doesn’t like anyone.
She was criticized for hiring her former campaign worker as a city code enforcement officer even though he is a convicted child rapist.
He also gained attention after spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on security details, including one time he pulled police officers off the street to make a protective suit.
A successful recall vote was overturned last year on a technicality that led to her dancing on a podium at the next board meeting to Rihanna’s ‘B***h Better Have My Money’.
“I am and always will be the mayor of Dolton,” she posted on Instagram.
But she has never been charged with a crime and is defiant in the face of critics who she says “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“Everyone forgets that I’m the leader,” she said at a meeting last month.
‘They want to know about the mayor. You haven’t learned it yet.
‘The mayor, not the trustees who do nothing. Only speak. You all don’t work, you don’t work!’
He criticized his colleagues’ attempt to turn to the authorities as “unconstitutional and in complete disregard of the law”, after it was carried out in a different location.
After a recall bid failed, Henyard posted this defiant image on Instagram declaring that she will “always be the mayor of Dolton.”
“I continue to be amazed by what administrators simply don’t know about municipal government,” he added.
But the trustees have already filed a lawsuit against her and have promised to override her veto at their meeting next month.
“When I say we’re here to save Dolton, I mean it,” said administrator Brittney Norwood.
“We can’t survive like this, we have suppliers calling us every day for non-payment.”