They say absolute power corrupts absolutely, but power doesn’t change someone — it only exaggerates what’s already inside the person who wields it.
Unfortunately, many elected officials do this by standing on the necks of the people who helped put them into power.
In a matter of a few years, Dolton, Ill., Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s designer shoes have snapped the neck of prosperity of this small village outside Chicago.
The 40-year-old self-proclaimed “super mayor” is ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests to see the 20,000-resident village’s budget even as she plasters her face on billboards around town — a somewhat ominous Happy Valentine’s Day message read, “I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
Meanwhile, she’s turned Thornton Township’s bank account — she’s also the 190,000-resident township’s supervisor — into her personal piggy bank by taking lavish first-class trips to cities around the country, including New York and Las Vegas, spending upwards of $67,000 of township funds.
One Dolton trustee, Brittney Norwood, says the embattled mayor refuses to open the books for the board and the public to scrutinize her spending.
“A few months ago, we were $7 million in debt,” Norwood complains.
Before Henyard, a former burger-joint owner, took office in April 2021, Dolton had a budget surplus.
In 2022, the village board put two questions on the ballot. The first asked voters if Dolton should have a recall mechanism; the second asked, if the first succeeded, if Henyard should be recalled.
They passed: 56% of voters wanted her removed as mayor.
But Cook County courts ruled the referenda invalid, keeping the village tyrant in power.
Now Dolton’s finances are so out of control, a leasing bank is threatening to repossess village vehicles, including police cars, due to nonpayment.
But Henyard has no shame.
She basically bragged about her exorbitant spending and disregard for the rule of law with a costume tribute to Nino Brown, the anti-hero of the 1991 movie “New Jack City.”
She strutted into a village board meeting dressed like the drug-lord character and had a DJ play Rhianna’s song “Bitch Better Have My Money.”
Nino Brown is a community terrorist who drugs his people for profit, kills whoever threatens his growing empire, even those from within his circle, and laughs in the face of the law because his power elevated him above punishment: This is Henyard’s idol.
Behind every tyrant lies his biggest weakness: his insecurity.
Henyard plasters her face on billboards throughout the village, paid for by taxpayers, just like dictators have statues of themselves scattered throughout the country.
They all need constant external recognition of their “greatness” because they cannot generate it from within.
The only way for these strongmen to get the people’s adoration is through either forced compliance or faux charity: Nino Brown handed out turkeys during Thanksgiving, and Tiffany Henyard gave out free gas for votes during her campaign.
So how do we prevent being trampled over by an audacious ruler who masquerades as a public servant?
We must show up for local elections.
Too often our municipal elections are decided by low voter turnout, especially in the off years of a presidential election.
We’ve forgotten how detrimental one local election can be in such a short period.
Henyard won the mayoral Democratic primary by four points over incumbent Mayor Riley Rogers and five points over candidate Andrew Holmes, resulting in fewer than 150 votes separating the top three candidates.
The “super mayor” is far from the only municipal politician motivated by personal enrichment who abuses her might — she’s just incredibly brazen about it.
She’s always been morally corrupt; she only needed to obtain the power to exploit.
The problem is our news has become so nationalized.
We’ve ignored how many immoral actors in government get a pass because we’ve been obsessively focused on “what’s happening in DC” instead of “what’s happening near me.”
Local elections matter because if you don’t show up, tyrants can make your community hell much faster than the president can.
