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A scandal-ridden mayor of an Illinois village announced that she was running for re-election.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, who is embroiled in multiple lawsuits and accusations, announced on Tuesday in a Facebook post that she will be seeking re-election as mayor of the 21,000-person village.
“It’s time to be the change that is needed for the South Land,” she wrote.
Henyard, who describes herself as “the most powerful woman in the Southland of Chicago,” has served as Dolton mayor since 2021 and Thornton Township supervisor since 2022.
The announcement comes as Henyard faces accusations of mishandling the village’s finances — and calls to resign.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfood is leading an investigation into Dolton’s finances. In August, Lightfoot revealed part of her report, finding that the Dolton Village General Fund has a negative balance of more than $3.5 million.
Her report also showed unaccounted credit card spending, including $40,000 spent on Amazon on the same day.
“In our understanding, the village does not have an Amazon account. This is someone using one of the credit cards and choosing these amounts using your tax dollars,” Lightfoot said.
This isn’t the only ongoing investigation she’s involved in.
Federal investigators are probing both Dolton Village Hall and Henyard in relation to the management of finances, Fox32 reported. The specifics of the investigation are not clear, but Henyard, her political committee, cancer charity, boyfriend, a few of her relatives and others have been subpoenaed, according to WGNTV.
On top of this, she, alongside her live-in boyfriend, was warned that they face the threat of eviction, with reports suggesting that they were $3,350 in arrears on their rent and must either pay up or vacate the property.
“This is a claim brought under false pretenses,” Henyard’s attorney Beau Brindley told WGN last month. “I don’t believe proof of missed payment can be produced. This is being driven by other motives and is not a complaint brought in good faith.” A court date for Henyard and Woods’s eviction proceeding has been set for October 22.
Separately, Henyard sued village trustees and Dolton officials on October 8, accusing them of violating Illinois law when holding a board meeting. The lawsuit states that Mayor Henyard had arranged for a regular board meeting on October 7 at Village Hall.
An agenda for the meeting was “conspicuously posted on the doors at the entrance of the Village Hall” on October 4, but on that same day, another meeting agenda was “mysteriously posted on the same doors” and was signed by three village trustees. Due to this “parallel meeting,” the mayor’s meeting didn’t have enough members present, so it had to be cancelled, the suit says.
The filing adds that these trustees who called a separate meeting were acting on the order of Jason House, who serves as mayor pro tem. He is also running for Dolton mayor.
The election will be held in April 2025.
