Chicago-area village credit cards frozen, deputy chief laid off as Lightfoot concludes investigation into controversial mayor

Chaos in the Chicago-area village of Dolton continues, as trustees voted to freeze municipal credit cards and lay off staff while former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wraps up her investigation into fellow Democrat and self-described "Super Mayor" Tiffany Henyard.

A meeting of Dolton officials had already been scheduled for Monday, but one meeting turned into two after some trustees claimed that Mayor Henyard, who is also the supervisor for Thornton Township, would not let them add items to the agenda. So they arranged to host a separate meeting at Village Hall before the other meeting there began.

'Y'all are being hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray.'

As has been the case at most Dolton public meetings for the past several months, the meetings on Monday quickly got out of hand. For one thing, shortly after the series of meetings began, Henyard forced attendees to stand up, exit the area, and walk through metal detectors that had apparently malfunctioned earlier in the day.

"You guys have to go through the metal detectors so that everyone is secure in the building," Henyard ordered.

Then when Henyard entered, she took a seat normally reserved for the village attorney. She also had two defense attorneys sit next to her and even attend a closed-door session, though attorney Burt Odelson, who serves as the legislative counsel for the Dolton Board of Trustees, claimed they had no legal standing to attend such a session.

How these criminal defense attorneys are being paid is unclear, but Odelson asserted that paying them out of village funds would be illegal. One of the attorneys later stated he had not been paid by the village.

Henyard is the subject of a federal investigation but has not yet been charged with any crime.

The main focus of the meetings was curtailing spending. To that end, Dolton trustees voted to freeze the use of almost all village credit cards, claiming too many people had abused the privilege while the village wallows in debt.

"There’s thousands and thousands of dollars for Amazon purchases, for PayPal, for Target, for Walgreens, for [regional supermarket chain Jewel-Osco] in the hundreds and thousands of dollars," said Michael McGrath, lawyer for Dolton’s trustees.

"Speaking to the accounting department, we are in financial disaster," added trustee Kiana Belcher.

For now, only the director of administrative services will be able to use the village credit card and only for purchases preapproved by the board.

Another significant financial drain is Henyard's extravagant security retinue, including four security SUVs that cost the village $250,000. Trustees suggested off-loading the vehicles to relieve themselves of the payments, but the final decision about the vehicles will be made at a later date.

Finally, the board voted 4-1 to lay off certain municipal employees, including Deputy Chief Lewis Lacy, a supposed Henyard ally. Henyard slammed the layoffs as thinly veiled "political retaliation," but the trustees countered that they had to trim as much fat as possible to stay afloat.

"It’s unfortunate, but we have to make these decisions so we can make payroll," claimed trustee Brittney Norwood.

Because of Henyard's history of lavish spending and the village's poor financial circumstances, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was tapped to conduct a formal investigation into Henyard, notoriously nicknamed the "Dolton dictator," and the village itself.

Lightfoot is expected to give a preliminary report of her findings on Thursday.

"Y'all are being hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray," one resident said during the meeting.

"We deserve a mayor that truly cares about our village and not a mayor who sees our village as her personal playground," claimed another.

"The village is bleeding," agreed trustee Norwood. "If residents knew the truth, they’d hit the roof."

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