Small Illinois town is cut off by the state in desperate effort to stop out of control mayor's spending
By Joe Hutchison For Dailymail.Com Published: 14:44 EDT, 16 August 2024
The Illinois State Comptroller has cut fund payments to a small town after the town's embattled mayor refused to hand over finance reports.
Susana Mendoza said that she would be immediately suspending 'offset' fund payments to Dolton after the village failed to hand over financial reports.
The money is on pace to total $135,000, according to The Chicago Tribune, and is she threatening to fine them a total of $78,600 if they don't hand over the reports.
Mayor Tiffany Henyard has been clinging onto power despite criticism over her management of Dolton and her alleged lavish spending.
Mendoza said that Henyard had 'willfully refused to turn over the annual reports all municipalities are required to file' with her office.
The reports include a financial report, financial audit and reports on the performance of Dolton's three tax increment financing districts.
The offset money is collected from parking tickets and parking fines, that a person in the community hasn't paid.
That money is then withheld from the state income tax refunds by the comptroller, before it is then distributed to towns. Last year Dolton collected $120,000.
Mendoza said in a statement: 'When municipalities around Illinois are having legitimate problems filing their annual reports with us, based on staffing or other issues, we earnestly work with them to get them into compliance.
'Dolton is different. The Mayor’s office has refused to communicate with us or address the problem.
'If Mayor Henyard refuses to follow state law, my office will use the tools at our disposal to safeguard the interests of Dolton’s citizens.'
Dolton's self-proclaimed 'super mayor', Henyard is said to have racked up eye watering costs including $40,00 spent on Amazon in a single day.
Last week, a probe by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot uncovered a $3.6 million deficit in the town's budget which has emerged under Henyard's tenure.
Just a year after she took office in April 2022, Dolton had a $5.6 million budget surplus.
'The village has been unable to pay all of its monthly expenditures with its available cash balance,' Lightfoot told a special meeting on Thursday, the Chicago Sun Times reports.
Among these expenses was a $7,700 spent at Target, Walgreens, Wayfair and other retailers on September 1, 2023.
Lightfoot does not identify Henyard as making the transactions and said her officials rarely provided purchase receipts.
Other concerning revelations center on 'rampant' police over time which saw two officers double their 2024 pay by raking in six figures' worth of overtime each, Lightfoot said.
Deputy Chief Lewis Lacey was fired from the force last week and now faces nine counts of fraud.
Prosecutors say Lacey, 61, hid his true income to better position himself in multiple bankruptcy lawsuits.
Henyard was banned from using Dolton village credit cards earlier this month after the Illinois village board of trustees brought in measures against her.
The trustees said that they will only allow the Director of Administrative Services to use the village's credit card on 'board-approved purchases' only.
The high-rolling mayor, who earns $300,000 for her public duties, has spent thousands more on first class trips, a professional hair and makeup team and a security detail.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13751343/illinois-town-state-cut-mayor-spending.html