Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard sues village trustees over board meeting at Park District facility
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Dolton Mayor Tiffany Heyward has filed a lawsuit against a group of village trustees, accusing them of illegally holding a board meeting this week.
Henyard's lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday against Village Clerk Alison Key; Village Administrator Keith Freeman; village trustees Tammie Brown, Brittney Norwood, Jason House, and Kiana Belcher; and the Dolton Park District.
The lawsuit comes after the four trustees named as defendants in the lawsuit held a board meeting at a Park District building on Monday, while Henyard and two other trustees – Andrew Holmes and Stanley Brown, who also are plaintiffs in Henyard's lawsuit – tried to hold a board meeting at Village Hall.
In September, the Illinois Attorney General's office issued an opinion calling on the village board to make sure meetings at Village Hall were more accessible to the public. That opinion noted many people who had wanted to attend earlier meetings were unable to do so because of security measures set up by the village, including police blocking off the parking lot and street parking outside Dolton Village Hall.
According to Henyard's lawsuit, she instructed Village Administrator Keith Freeman to make sure Monday's meeting complied with the Attorney General's directives, but Freeman refused to acknowledge Henyard's instructions or communicate with her in any way. In response, Henyard claimed she worked with other village officials to make sure Village Hall could comply with the Attorney General's directives.
The lawsuit claims that, on Friday, an agenda for Monday's meeting – signed by Henyard – was posted at Village Hall, calling for a regular meeting at Village Hall; but another agenda "was mysteriously posted" alongside it, signed by Norwood, Belcher, and Tammie Brown, calling for a Monday meeting at the Dolton Park District Lester Long Building.
When Henyard, Holmes, Stanley Brown, and other village officials showed up for the scheduled meeting at Village Hall, Freeman, Key, and the other four trustees were not there, according to the lawsuit. Because there weren't enough village board members to establish a quorum, Henyard told members of the public that the meeting would have to be canceled.
After learning of the meeting going on at the same time at the Park District building, Henyard went to that meeting to preside over the meeting, but was met with "was met with chaos, jeers, and disruptions" that were encouraged by the village clerk and other trustees, according to the lawsuit.
Henyard's lawsuit seeks a court order declaring the Village Hall as the proper location for village board meetings, and prohibiting the Park District from hosting future meetings. It also seeks to have any business that was conducted at the meeting held at the Park District deemed invalid.
The lawsuit claims, by opening its facilities to parallel board meetings outside of Village Hall, the Dolton Park District's actions "can only go to fester and encourage continued division between the members of the board of trustees for the Village of Dolton and to a disservice to the people of Dolton."
CBS News Chicago has reached out to the defendants named in the lawsuit, one of whom said the lawsuit was an attempt by Henyard to get attention.