THORNTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. (WLS) — A special meeting of the Thornton Township Board of Trustees on Wednesday evening was canceled, but that did not stop Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard from addressing the public.
She criticized the trustees’ recent actions to restrict spending and introduce a new credit card policy.
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In the absence of the township’s five incumbent trustees, Henyard’s attempt at a special session was more like a monologue.
“I’m going to address a few things in a moment. There will be no comment, nothing, just me turning to you and telling you what’s going on,” she said. “If you want to leave, you can leave. Here’s my explanation. You don’t want to hear it? There’s the door.”
READ MORE: Illinois State Auditor Freezes Payments to Dolton Township Due to Overdue Audits
Henyard said she called the special meeting in response to a series of ordinances the council passed last week, including one to manage event spending. At that Aug. 20 meeting, Trustee Chris Gonzalez said, “If the administration can’t meet some financial limits, … we don’t necessarily want to cut things. But if you decide to do things that benefit the administration instead of helping the people, that’s your decision.”
When that ordinance was passed, Henyard said, the municipality’s services came to an abrupt halt.
“They couldn’t get any services, products or gift cards for the big bingo,” she said. “On Monday, this city couldn’t even buy ice cream for the seniors. There was an ice cream meet in Calumet City and they couldn’t buy ice cream.”
RELATED: Dolton’s general fund has a debt of $3.65 million, compared to a surplus of $5.6 million when Henyard took office: Lightfoot
“It was thought to be just a way to stop Tiffany Henyard, but essentially it was a way to stop church services here in Thornton Township,” she added.
The issue of township credit cards was also discussed at last week’s meeting; the trustees moved to issue a township credit card in Henyard’s name so he could be accountable.
“We need to put some safeguards in place to regulate what is spent with the credit card,” Gonzalez said at the Aug. 20 meeting.
“I don’t want a credit card. I have nothing to do with money,” Henyard said at the same meeting, drawing shocked reactions from the crowd.
Earlier this month, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed that hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card purchases were made in the village of Dolton, where Henyard is mayor, including $43,000 spent on Amazon in a single day last year.
After Henyard’s critics left the room on Wednesday evening, one remaining township resident said she still had confidence in the supervisor.
“I trust Tiffany personally because she’s really direct and down to earth,” Bennetta Garrison said. “She’s really trying to help people, whereas the trustees – I don’t know what they’re doing? Why haven’t they shown up?”
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