Dolton, Ill. (ECWd) –

Tiffany Henyard, Thornton Township Supervisor and Mayor of Dolton, Illinois, held a political fundraiser for her “Friends of Tiffany Henyard” political campaign last November 4, 2022, at Olivia’s Restaurants in Dolton, Illinois.

The cost to attend this political fundraiser ranged from $150 for a single “entrance ticket” to $20,000 for “sponsorship.” Incidentally, there are no reports filed with the State Board of Elections reflecting any donations for this fundraiser (we checked the website prior to publication).

During the course of her fundraiser, Henyard presented, or caused to be presented, an invoice to the Thornton Township Trustees for payment of various DJ work performed by “The DJ Experience” – the invoice indicated DJ services to Thornton Township in the amount of $5,500.00. There is no indication of a dollar amount per event, simply a total.

Incidentally, this invoice was dated six weeks prior to some services being performed.

Two of the “service” dates were November 4 and were listed on the invoice as “Township Events” and “Fundraiser.”

It is our opinion, that each and every Thornton Township taxpayer and each elected official of every public body within Thornton Township should be contacting their police and sheriff departments to file complaints of alleged illegal use of township public funds for this political fundraiser. Anything short of that is acquiescence to Henyard’s corrupt activities.

The use of public funds for political campaign-related services violates the Illinois Constitution and other Illinois laws and needs to be prosecuted.

The Township Board needs to be extra diligent to ensure they are not paying these invoices for non-public and non-township purposes. Just because they vote to approve payment does not make the invoice legitimate.

From the Illinois Constitution, Article VIII, Section 1:

(a)  Public funds, property or credit shall be used only for public purposes.  (b)  The State, units of local government and school districts shall incur obligations for payment or make  payments from public funds only as authorized by law or ordinance.

There is no public purpose for public funds to be spent on a political campaign fundraiser for Friends of Tiffany Henyard or anyone else.

We reached out to Thornton Township officials, including Kieth Freeman (the township and village administrator), for comment but have not received a response.