The mayor of Dolton, Illinois, a predominantly Black suburb of Chicago, is enmeshed in a scandal of big-city proportions. Mayor Tiffany Henyard is accused of misusing money from the Village of Dolton to fund her lavish spending and blocking efforts to hold her accountable.
On Monday, Henyard vetoed a resolution passed by the village board to investigate her spending. The small, lower-income communities’ unpaid bills have been piling up, much to the irritation of residents and vendors alike.
According to the New York Post, Henyard is accused of spending taxpayer money on expensive trips and a $1 million personal police detail.
However, Henyard says that she didn’t do anything inappropriate, even as unpaid bills from the village continue to pile up.
“It’s facts over fiction for me. I will state facts. I will show receipts, and I will make sure our community is back together as one,” Henyard said, according to ABC7 Chicago. “It amazes me how people can get together and come to a board meeting and just have hate in their heart and not love on each other.”
However, residents appear to be fed up.
“We don’t need anything else, saying what you’re claiming to do for the village. We need accountability. We need information on the finances,” one speaker at a community meeting said, according to ABC7.
Dolton Trustee Brittney Norwood told NBC5 Chicago that the board has no plans to back down and ignore the budget concerns.
“We can always expect for the administration to use a lot of smoke and mirrors,” she told NBC5. “We feel that it’s extremely important to have the authorities come in and force this administration to provide us with the information needed so that we can provide it to the residents regarding how the money is being spent.”