The strange tale of Tiffany Henyard just keeps getting stranger.
Henyard, who is the mayor of the Chicago suburb of Dalton, has been under investigation since April by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for allegedly misusing taxpayer funds. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor hired by the village supervisors for $400 an hour, released some of the findings of her investigation on Aug. 8.
Lightfoot revealed at a packed village meeting that the village of Dalton's general fund has a negative balance of $3.65 million. A preliminary report showed more than $43,000 in purchases on Amazon were made on the village's credit card in one day with no explanation. Thousands of dollars in village funds were spent on gift cards, with no records of where the cards were spent. “We rarely ever get receipts for credit card purchases,” Lightfoot said.
With each new revelation from Lightfoot, the crowd held its breath.
About 600 cheques for more than $6 million have been approved to be paid to village store owners but, for reasons unknown, were not signed by Henyard. Lightfoot stressed that the $6 million does not include all store owners who have not yet been paid.
Nine separate village-funded trips involving dozens of people were organized in 2023, including voyages to Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Austin, Portland, New York and Birmingham, Alabama.
The meeting was packed, but Mr Henyard, who tried to veto the inquiry in June, did not attend.
Lightfoot stressed that the report's findings are preliminary and that “there is still work to be done.”
We have been working incredibly hard and diligently under difficult circumstances to obtain and share as much information as possible with you…
If you hear this is fake news, it's not. This is reality. This is reality.
The village has not completed any state-mandated financial reports or mandatory audits since 2021, when Henyard took office.
Police enquiries
Another big expense item under Henyard's tenure is police overtime. One officer will make $108,000 in overtime in fiscal year 2023 on a base salary of $72,000 and $114,000 in overtime in fiscal year 2024 on a base salary of $87,000. Another officer will make $87,000 in overtime in fiscal year 2023 on a base salary of $55,000 and $102,000 in overtime in fiscal year 2024 on a base salary of $73,000.
And Deputy Police Chief Lewis Lacey, whose collective bargaining agreement does not allow him to work overtime, has earned more than $200,000 in overtime over the past three years. Lacey has been placed on administrative leave and is now facing federal bankruptcy fraud charges. He claims he is the victim of a retaliatory legal battle because of his ties to Henyard.
In the past, Henyard has been accused of using village police officers as personal security, and residents have accused her of using police to harass residents who don't donate to her charity, the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation.
The village has struggled to pay its bills since Henyard took office, and at one point threatened to have six of the village's police vehicles seized due to missed payments.
“I was financially raped.”
“We've been financially raped, and when you rape people, you get what you deserve,” Dalton board member Kiana Belcher said after Lightfoot spoke.
Henyard is also under investigation by the FBI for allegedly using taxpayer funds for personal purposes. Former FBI agent Ross Rice said in April:
“The investigation is very broad in scope. The number of people and entities for which we are seeking records is very large. So there must be some serious allegations of wrongdoing that we are trying to uncover.”
Henyard, a Democrat, thinks so highly of himself that in 2023 he used taxpayer money to install a giant billboard of his own, ostensibly informing passersby about the village's services. In reality, it was a way to sell himself to the community.
“This is a blatant attempt at political publicity for itself,” election lawyer Bert Odelson said. “If the town paid these fees, they should not have paid them, and I'm sure they did.”
This is a very odd story, especially considering the history of corrupt politicians in Illinois. Henyard is certainly making a name for himself.
