Illinois village freezes credit card after ‘America’s worst mayor’ Tiffany Henyard’s spending frenzy

After making headlines for financing a more than $20,000 trip to Las Vegas with taxpayer dollars, Dolton, Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard has lost her privileges to the village credit card. 

Any purchases on the credit card must now be approved by the board of trustees first, and only Henyard’s director of administrative services will have access to the card. 

It was the intention of the board of trustees to completely cut off Henyard’s access to the credit card after she racked up more than $100,000 on trips in the past year. At the same time, one of the city’s trustees said the village faces a multimillion-dollar deficit, which is unable to be verified because, under Henyard’s leadership, the city has also fallen years behind in publishing financial audits and updates. 

“This village has so many people with so many credit cards, they’re swiping like crazy and that’s why it had to come to a complete halt,” lawyer Michael McGrath, who is representing Dolton’s trustee, told  WGNTV. “There’s thousands and thousands of dollars for Amazon purchases, for PayPal, for Target, for Walgreens, for Jewel-[Osco] in the hundreds and thousands of dollars.”

Henyard has been Dolton’s mayor since 2021 and is accused of misappropriating taxpayer money for her own personal expenses, including police officers for her security detail. She is currently under federal investigation, with the FBI issuing subpoenas in April for records of Henyard’s multiple business endeavors and the village’s records, including financial documents and information on security details.

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hired at $400 an hour to investigate the spending habits of Henyard. Lightfoot’s hiring was vetoed by Henyard, but the trustees overrode it. Lightfoot is scheduled to present her findings Thursday.

“The village is bleeding,” trustee Brittney Norwood told the Chicago Tribune. “If residents knew the truth, they’d hit the roof.”