Tiffany Henyard, the scandal-plagued Democratic mayor of Dolton, Illinois, has suggested she’ll seek to arrest political opponents, many of whom have raised concerns about her lavish spending on the taxpayers’ dime.
The embattled mayor, who is also facing eviction from her rented home, has made national headlines due to her alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, with former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot previously investigating her extravagant spending habits.
“I will be seeking arrests for individuals involved,” Henyard said, during a rambling 90-minute video she posted on Facebook Tuesday.
“I will be pressing charges. It’s a lot. And that’s just me telling you a little bit because all this pointing the finger at Tiffany – or lying on me – I’m over it. Now it’s time for me to speak, as I say, truth speaks.”
Henyard, who introduces herself as “super mayor” in the video, did not say what crimes her opponents may have committed.
She took to the social media platform after a meeting of the Thornton Township, which she also leads as Supervisor, was canceled due to lack of quorum as trustees raised safety concerns about the meeting venue. It’s the second time in a row that the gathering has been canceled, according to the Chicago Tribune.
She also blasted the “fake news” for the media’s coverage of her time in office and bashed dissenting officials.
“Why is it with me and my life… y’all don’t hear my side? Y’all judge off the one side of the narrative that’s out in the world, but never hear from me… I was always told… ‘if you want the tea get it from me,’ you have to get it from the horse’s mouth.”
Henyard has promised proof of her opponents’ misdeeds in the past, pitching a podcast and brief national media tour but failed to deliver, per WGNTV.
In her Facebook post, Henyard says that those bringing allegations against her are doing it as a distraction.
“Why do we have all this attention on Tiffany Henyard? What the hell [are] they doing that they don’t want us to know about, while they [are] distracting us over here,” she asks.”
Meanwhile, Henyard’s landlord tells Fox 32 Chicago that the mayor and her boyfriend Kamal Woods haven’t paid their rent since August and wants them out.
The pair are together pulling down well over $300,000 from taxpayers, according to Fox 32 Chicago, citing public payrolls.
Their landlord, Genetta Hull, said she was forced to raise the rent by $200 to $2,400 a month because her property taxes went up again and then Woods told her he couldn’t afford it, per the outlet.
Hull said Henyard and Woods refused to pay the extra rent in August, then stopped paying altogether, failing to deliver rent checks for September and October.
Hull said she is owed thousands of dollars off them while they also changed the locks and garage door code so she couldn’t get inside, per Fox 32. The landlord filed an eviction lawsuit against the pair, but Cook County sheriffs have tried and failed to serve the lawsuit both at the home and the village hall.
Hull tells Fox 32 she once considered Henyard a friend and did campaign work for her.
Henyard recently took to Facebook to announce she will run for a second term for mayor of Dolton.
She was first elected mayor of Dolton, a south suburb of Chicago, in 2021 after serving two terms as trustee on the village’s board. She won the election in a landslide – receiving more than 80% of the vote.
Dubbed by residents as “the worst mayor in America.” She earned the nickname after her term was plagued with controversy, including money mismanagement.
Her reelection announcement came as she’s heading a lawsuit against several village trustees, the Dolton Park District, the village clerk, and the village administrator.