One of the country’s most controversial mayors is back in hot water after a Tuesday evening Thornton Township, Illinois, public board meeting went completely off the rails, leading to police being called.
Tiffany Henyard, the Democrat mayor of the Village of Dolton and the supervisor of Thornton Township, argued with her board’s attorney and accused the trustees of attacking her for bringing up her spending habits, video from the meeting shows:
As controversy swirls around Henyard’s lavish $85,000 party with musical performances by singer Keke Wyatt and rapper J. Holiday, her egregious online shopping bills, her alleged participation in a cover-up after one of her colleagues was accused of sexual assault, and other scandals, Thornton Township has been operating without a fiscal budget, CBS News reported.
The board’s trustees are “demanding” that Henyard “become more transparent with her spending,” the outlet stated.
Just minutes into the meeting, Henyard went back and forth with attorney Eric Stach about budget items supposedly already being “approved.”
“No, these matters are being brought before the board now to comply with the new event ordinance because these are events that have to be approved pursuant to the new event ordinance,” Stach said.
“Okay, so I disagree with what the lawyer’s saying,” Henyard said with a smile on her face.
A special investigation conducted by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed that, under Henyard, Dolton’s general fund balance dropped from $5.61 million to a deficit of $3.65 million in just two years, Fox News reported.
Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on Amazon orders in just one day:
“Lori Lightfoot did such a great job in Dolton,” Thornton Township Trustee Carmen Carlisle said of the investigation at Tuesday’s meeting. “I would welcome her to come and do the same thing here at Thornton Township.”
Henyard fired back, claiming that the township already had a deficit before she entered office.
“This is what I mean about my board,” the disgraced supervisor said. “It’s a lot of hate, jealousy, and envy amongst them towards their supervisor.”
At one point, Henyard made the claim that “I am Thornton Township” as the crowd gasped.
“I am the leader for Thornton Township. I am the supervisor of Thornton Township,” Henyard said. “And I’m going to make sure you all give me my respect and stop playing these games every time you come to the meeting.”
“Respect is earned. It is not demanded,” Carlisle shot back.
As the board continued to discuss her spending, Henyard said Carlisle “lies all the time.”
“No, you lie all the time,” the trustee replied.
Resident Paul Robertz made a public comment calling out Henyard towards the end of the meeting and suggested she acts “like an animal,” which led to an outcry from the crowd. A clip of the chaotic moment, shared to social media by an X user, shows the moment Robertz became surrounded by other residents as they shouted at him:
According to CBS, that is when police were called to the meeting. It is unclear if any arrests were made.
Police were called to break up Village of Dolton town hall meetings “multiple times” in the last year, Fox News reported.
In one April incident, cops had to break up a meeting after arguments between Henyard and residents spun out of control.
In June, cops again had to shut down a “scuffle” between pro-Henyard and anti-Henyard residents.
