Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard worked to hide true condition of village finances, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says

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Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard worked to hide true condition of village finances, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says

Just months after her election in 2021, there was a “concerted and systematic effort” by Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard to hide the condition of village finances from trustees, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday.

In her final report on her investigation into Henyard and village finances, Lightfoot told some 200 residents and others the concealment continued and that, by March 2022, trustees “were effectively cut off from receiving regular financial reports.”

Lightfoot was hired by village trustees last year to investigate spending by the village and the Henyard administration. Lightfoot gave an

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of her findings last summer.

She credited trustees Monday for taking steps to curb spending and bring costs and revenue more in sync, but said Dolton still owes at least $5 million to vendors for goods and services, and continues to run a budget deficit.

After her public comments, Lightfoot told reporters the “residents of Dolton have suffered needlessly because of the financial mismanagement of the current mayor.”

Trustee Jason House, who is

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in the Feb. 25 Democratic primary, said he and other trustees are working to get finances on the right track.

The findings from Lightfoot “reminds us we have a lot of work to do and we’re going to do it,” House said.

Federal investigators have

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at Dolton Village Hall and at Thornton Township, where Henyard is supervisor. She faces a

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in seeking a second term as supervisor, having not qualified for the Democratic caucus and losing a lawsuit challenging the result.

An attorney representing Henyard said Tuesday she had no comment on Lightfoot’s report.

Lightfoot said she has been in contact with the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago regarding her findings. She told the audience that, unlike law enforcement, she does not have subpoena power and there were “consistent challenges” in getting the needed documents and other information to show a clearer picture of village finances.

Dolton resident Lydia Miller said she was astonished after hearing Lightfoot’s findings.

“I don’t know how we got into this mess and I really don’t know how we can get out of it,” Miller said. “We need outside help, maybe from the state.”

A revelation from Lightfoot’s report was in the village’s insurance coverage.

She said many longtime insurance companies that provided coverage to Dolton opted not to last spring. The village was able to get insurance for 2024 and into this year, but it is costing more and the coverage is lower, as far as maximum payout on claims for departments such as police.

Apart from spending more, the village also had to make a concession that insurance coverage for village officers not include the mayor, Lightfoot said.

With an insurer unwilling to include Henyard in coverage, that “puts the village and taxpayers potentially at risk,” Lightfoot said.

She said the village’s financial condition has improved slightly in recent months.

Through the first six months of this fiscal year, average monthly spending is running at $2.1 million, down from $2.6 million in fiscal 2024.

So far this budget year, through October, both revenue and spending in the village’s general fund are in alignment, at just under $13 million. In fiscal 2024, spending outpaced revenue by nearly $5 million, according to Lightfoot’s report.

At the end of October, the village was running a negative cash balance of just under $5.5 million, which had improved from a negative balance of $5.68 million at the end of last May, according to her report.

Lightfoot’s report also touched on spending in Thornton Township, particularly credit card bills.

“In the course of our investigation, we received information that there was significant use of Thornton Township funds to cover expenses for the benefit of the Village,” Lightfoot said in the report.

The investigation was unable to verify the allegations of township money being used to help keep the village financially afloat, but records do show a “similar pattern of financial operations” between the village and township, Lightfoot said.

She said there were multiple credit cards issued in the names of township employees, and 2024 records show monthly charges ranging from about $88,000 to more than $100,000. The cards were used for “a significant number of food purchases and other expenditures that warrant more investigation as to whether there was a legitimate governmentpurpose for the expense,” according to Lightfoot’s report.

The report also looked into issues with Dolton’s history of responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Village Clerk Alison Key had been responsible for handling FOIAs, but the volume received by the village grew to a point where it made getting responses difficult, Lightfoot said. Key also said village staff were not always responding to her requests for documents needed to fulfill FOIA requests.

In a Sept. 7, 2023, email from Village Administrator Keith Freeman, Key was told she was being removed, effective immediately, as FOIA officer due to her “inability to process FOIA request(s) in a complete and timely manner.” Freeman said the village “redirected FOIA officer duties to another party.”

Lightfoot said she was unable to determine who took over as Dolton’s FOIA officer, but that the change did nothing to improve the village’s responsiveness.

She also said that there are

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centered on village FOIA practices.

Lightfoot was also tasked with

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taken by Dolton officials, including Henyard, in May 2022 and May 2023.

Lightfoot said that several village and township representatives made the trips to conventions hosted annually by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The village said the trips were intended to bring new commercial development to Dolton.

In her report, Lightfoot said there is “no evidence any business development opportunities came to the village as a result of either of these trips.”

However, a now-former Dolton employee filed a lawsuit naming Henyard, the village, Thornton Township and a village official, accusing the village official of performing

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with the employee after she had “blacked out” during the trip.

Lightfoot said authorities in Las Vegas closed an investigation into the matter last fall. The woman has a complaint pending with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over her dismissal from the village.

That complaint alleges the woman was fired “as a result of making an outcry to Mayor Henyard directly about the alleged assault, among other allegations,” according to Lightfoot.

She said the woman, the village official named in the lawsuit and other “key witnesses” declined to cooperate with her investigation.

Lightfoot said she did learn Henyard authorized an investigation to beconducted by R.E. Walsh & Associates, Inc., of Oak Brook.

She said the investigation was not authorized by the Village Board and results have not been shared with trustees. Lightfoot said the firm would not cooperate with her investigation because it had not been paid by the village.

Lightfoot was hired last year by Dolton trustees as a special investigator, at a cost of $400 per hour.

Although many village vendors have gone unpaid, Lightfoot said after her presentation that she has been compensated for her work, but did not know offhand how much she has received.

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