Dolton village board plans to hire Lori Lightfoot to investigate Mayor Tiffany Henyard, sources say
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Members of the Dolton Village Board plan to hire former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a onetime federal prosecutor, to investigate Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, who has been accused of misusing public funds while the village is millions of dollars in debt.
Sources confirmed a group of village trustees was working on a resolution proposing to hire Lightfoot to investigate allegations regarding Henyard's spending, including lavish personal spending, reportedly on the taxpayers' dime.
Lightfoot also would be tasked with investigating a village employee's claims that she was sexually assaulted by a Dolton village trustee on a trip to Las Vegas – and then retaliated against. The employee claimed after she told the mayor about the lawsuit, she was eventually fired.
The proposed resolution says that after Henyard, her security detail, two board trustees, and other village employees traveled to Las Vegas in May 2023 for what was purported to be a trip focused on "economic development," when they returened "there was a total failure to report anything relative to potential economic development, or any other events that took place in Las Vegas, to the Board of Trustees."
The resolution also states the board later learned of "serious sexual assault allegations" made by a former Dolton employee against a board trustee during the trip, and that Henyard and others in her administration "have gone to great lengths to cover-up and hide the alleged sexual misconduct and reporting of the sexual misconduct."
The board is expected to vote on the measure at a special meeting on Monday. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Dolton Park District Amber Room.
Lightfoot would be appointed as an "Additional Legislative Counsel to fully investigate" the Las Vegas Trip, as well as allegations that Henyard has misspent federal COVID-19 relief funds, hired contractors without seeking proper bids, overpaid vendors without approval from the board, and accepted large campaign contributions from vendors chosen by the mayor.
Lightfoot left the Chicago Mayor's office in May of last year. She joined Charles River Associates as a senior consultant to the Forensic Services Practice in March, according to the firm's website.
It's unclear how much Lightfoot, who was a federal prosecutor for six years and a partner at the Mayer Brown law firm before her lone term as Chicago's mayor, would be paid for the investigation.
Sources in Dolton said they have already been interviewed by the FBI, and have been in touch with the Cook County State's Attorney's office concerning Mayor Henyard's spending.
Henyard was elected to be Dolton's mayor in 2021 as the first woman mayor in the village's 103-year history. Henyard also serves as the supervisor of Thornton Township.
Dolton residents packed a village board meeting this week, voicing complaints about allegations of misconduct that have been swirling in the headlines for weeks.
Many people who spoke during the meeting's public comment period took issue with Dolton village government, and accused leaders of a lack of transparency and other failures. Some called for Henyard and other officials to step down. Some speakers also took issue with people not being allowed into the meeting, and one accused the village of failing to attend to the needs of residents in areas with infrastructure problems.
After Village Trustee Jason House expressed concern about the meeting possibly violating the Open Meetings Act, because of people who were not allowed in, trustees voted to postpone the meeting until next Monday, April 8, over Henyard's objections.
Henyard kept the Monday evening meeting going after most of the trustees got up and left. She criticized the news coverage of scandals in Dolton, claiming unvetted false information has been published.
"It's good to see the media out here, but I wish you guys would come for the positive things and, not the chaos, and not the media show – because that's all that's here. I get it. We're clickbait. We're hot right now, and I get it. This is what sells papers," Henyard said. "But I wish you guys would have came to our Easter event that we had on Saturday. We had over 500 kids out there – happy, running around, giving away baskets – it was amazing."
Dolton residents voted to recall Henyard in June 2022, but the mayor took her fight to court, and won when the Illinois Appellate Court later ruled that the votes to recall Henyard were not valid.
In February, Dolton village trustees called for an outside investigation into allegations that Henyard had been misusing public funds while the village was millions of dollars in debt. This accusation came at the same time the Illinois Attorney General's Office told Henyard's charity multiple times in recent months to stop improperly soliciting donations because it had not registered with the state as required by law.
Trustees said they need to see the proper documentation surrounding Henyard's spending – including lavish trips and extravagant dinners, taxpayer-funded billboards, and other advertisements.
According to published reports, Henyard vetoed the trustees' resolution calling for an investigation.
The allegations against Henyard come at the same time the Illinois Attorney General's office has told her charity, the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation, to stop improperly soliciting donations because it had not registered with the state as required by law.
The AG's office sent a cease-and-desist letter to the foundation, warning that they had already sent "several letters" to the charity stating that they were not registered with the state and needed to send in the legally required documents before further soliciting or receiving donations.
In addition, last month several former employees filed lawsuits against Henyard, claiming they were wrongfully fired.