An attorney for embattled Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard said Tuesday that “corrupt” village trustees are trying to take control of her authority and “are claiming powers they do not have.”
At what was to have been a regularly scheduled Village Board meeting, Beau Brindley, an attorney hired some weeks ago by Henyard, said trustees who are at odds with her have “taken it upon themselves to try to take away the power of the mayor,” and labeled it “political corruption of the worst kind.”
Brindley said that Henyard “is under attack by a corrupt board of trustees that believe they can subvert the will of the people.”
Henyard has not been charged with any wrongdoing but federal authorities subpoenaed the village and Thornton Township, where Henyard serves as supervisor, along with Thornton High School District 205.
Investigators have asked for financial records and other documents concerning Henyard, her political campaign committee and an alleged charitable organization under her control meant to help cancer patients.
While the website for Brindley’s Chicago law firm notes his experience in criminal defense, he said that he does “not represent Mayor Tiffany Henyard in a criminal capacity” because she has not been charged with any crimes and “has not committed any crimes.”
Brindley said Henyard “has hired me to stand up to these people and to help her take back the mayor’s office.”
“She will stand up to a board of trustees that stand up for illegality over order,” Brindley said.
He did not respond Wednesday to a message seeking more comment.
Four trustees who say Henyard is misusing village funds and driven Dolton deep into debt opted to cancel Tuesday’s meeting and scheduled a board meeting for Sept. 12 at a Dolton Park District facility.
They said they needed additional time to work on issues such as drafting a tentative village budget. Dolton’s budget year for fiscal 2025 began May 1, but the Village Board hasn’t discussed or adopted a budget.
Henyard moved to appoint a village attorney Tuesday’s canceled meeting, also attended by Trustees Stan Brown and Andrew Holmes. She also said she was appointing Michael Smith as village administrator to replace Keith Freeman.
Although Freeman, indicted for bankruptcy fraud, continues to serve administrator, Henyard had supposedly fired him Aug. 5, although trustees took no action to approve her decision.
Apparently talking to TV cameras or the camera recording the village’s livestream of last month’s meeting, Henyard said “Keith Freeman, I know you’re watching, you no longer work for the village of Dolton.”
With just two of six village trustees present Tuesday, the appointments are likely to be challenged by other trustees at a future meeting.
Henyard said Tuesday the board cannot cancel a Village Board meeting and that “I’m still going to move forward with the process,” such as making appointments.
Brindley said trustees who acted to cancel the regular meeting did not give sufficient public notice, and “we had to find out through underground means” the meeting had been rescheduled.
Metal detectors that members of the audience have had to pass through to enter recent board meetings were in place at Village Hall, as were some uniformed police officers, who have also been present at several board meetings.
Henyard spent a good portion of Tuesday’s gathering recounting her accomplishments and said “we ought to fight now to take our community back.”
“If we don’t change it, it will never, ever change,” she said.
Henyard promised she will present a “State of the Village” address.
“It’s time to clear up the misinformation,” she said.
Separately on Tuesday, the Illinois attorney general’s office said Dolton violated the state’s Open Meetings Act during Village Board meetings June 3 and July 1 by failing to make them accessible to the public.
The ruling came after the office had received complaints about access to the meetings.
In the decision, the office said it “was clearly foreseeable that large crowds would attend the Board’s meetings due to the array of controversies and conflicts involving the Village administration and Board.”
The board “again and again held meetings in the same space without taking measures to accommodate” larger audiences, noting regulations limit capacity in the Village Hall meeting room to 43 people, not including board members.
The attorney general said the board and village are directed to take “measures to make all future meetings convenient and open to the public, including holding meetings at a location with enough space to be reasonably accessible.”
The village and board are also directed “to refrain from unnecessary security measures such as street closures, parking barricades, and an excessive police presence that physically impedes members of the public” from attending, according to the ruling.
mnolan@southtownstar.com
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