By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff
Thursday, September 12, 2024 11:37 AM
Mayor Tiffany Henyard, a Democrat who is widely rumored to be “corrupt,” recently threw a party that cost as much as $85,000, and several colleagues and residents of an Illinois village have accused her of using taxpayer funds to pay for it.
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Henyard is mayor of Dalton, Illinois, but was stripped of his position by the Illinois State Comptroller after refusing to provide financial records to the state.
Mayor Dalton determined that spending $30,000 for a 30-minute performance by R&B artist Kike Wyatt and $20,000 for a 30-minute performance by rapper J. Holiday was an appropriate use of the funds.
“I'm shocked. I'm angry. It's my money. It's the people's money,” said local resident Jennifer Roberts.
Henyard's most recent event was called “A Taste of Thornton Township,” and he spent $36,000 on the performance fees, plus a sound system, staff, equipment, comedians and even a bounce house.
Video footage taken by Mayor Henyard also shows poor turnout, despite the huge expense.
“It was a mistake,” said former Dalton council member Valeria Stubbs, “I think there were about 65 to 70 people there. She loves to use our tax dollars to promote herself and she does these events to try to buy off voters.”
Excessive and improper spending is no stranger to Henyard: She has previously been found to have misused taxpayer money to fund her lavish lifestyle, paying for first-class flights, a team of professional hair and makeup stylists, and even a heavy security guard.
On another occasion, Henyard spent $40,000 in just one day on products and goods sold on Amazon.
Henyard's reckless spending has come to the attention of federal investigators, who are still investigating alleged excesses by Mayor Dalton.
“The list includes Mr Henyard, her political committee, her cancer charity, her boyfriend, two of her relatives, four board members who are her allies, her deputy police chief and even her closed burger joint. [FBI] According to the local network, WGN Television.
A year after Henyard took over as mayor, the city of Dalton posted a $5.6 million budget surplus in April 2022. But an investigation by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed last month found the city had posted a $3.6 million deficit during Henyard's tenure.
“This is all for the baby,” Henyard said confidently in a video from the event. “You don't see this side of Tiffany Henyard, which is the productivity.”
Thornton Township board members appear to have grown weary of Henyard's inappropriate spending, refusing to approve several planned events, citing her reckless spending.
“Without that in place, we can't continue to spend money,” said Trustee Chris Gonzalez about the need for the town to operate within its approved budget. “And to top it off, we've had a couple of incidents in the last month or so where huge amounts of money have been spent unnecessarily.”
In response to these budget cuts, Henyard fired back at the board, saying, “You just want to stop what we do in Thornton Township. There's no way you're going to do nothing.”
“But you're starting to say no to everything I and my team have come up with, and we're not seeing any ideas from any of you,” Henyard added.
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