{"id":23983,"date":"2024-02-21T02:59:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T08:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23983"},"modified":"2024-02-21T02:59:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T08:59:57","slug":"brazen-mayor-tiffany-henyard-shows-why-local-elections-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23983","title":{"rendered":"Brazen Mayor Tiffany Henyard shows why local elections matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely, but power doesn\u2019t change someone \u2014 it only exaggerates what\u2019s already inside the person who wields it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, many elected officials do this by standing on the necks of the people who helped put them into power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a matter of a few years, Dolton, Ill., Mayor Tiffany Henyard\u2019s<\/u><\/a> designer shoes have snapped the neck of prosperity of this small village outside Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 40-year-old self-proclaimed \u201csuper mayor\u201d is ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests to see the 20,000-resident village\u2019s budget even as she plasters her face on billboards around town<\/u><\/a> \u2014 a somewhat ominous Happy Valentine\u2019s Day message read, \u201cI love you, and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, she\u2019s turned Thornton Township\u2019s bank account \u2014 she\u2019s also the 190,000-resident township\u2019s supervisor \u2014 into her personal piggy bank by taking lavish first-class trips to cities around the country,<\/u><\/a> including New York and Las Vegas, spending upwards of $67,000 of township funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Dolton trustee, Brittney Norwood, says the embattled mayor refuses to open the books for the board and the public to scrutinize her spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA few months ago, we were $7 million in debt,\u201d Norwood complains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Henyard, a former burger-joint owner, took office in April 2021, Dolton had a budget surplus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They passed: 56% of voters wanted her removed as mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Cook County courts ruled the referenda invalid, keeping the village tyrant in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Dolton\u2019s finances are so out of control,<\/u><\/a> a leasing bank is threatening to repossess village vehicles, including police cars, due to nonpayment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Henyard has no shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She basically bragged about her exorbitant spending and disregard for the rule of law with a costume tribute to Nino Brown<\/u><\/a>, the anti-hero of the 1991 movie \u201cNew Jack City.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She strutted into a village board meeting dressed like the drug-lord character and had a DJ play Rhianna\u2019s song \u201cBitch Better Have My Money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s idol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind every tyrant lies his biggest weakness: his insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henyard plasters her face on billboards throughout the village, paid for by taxpayers, just like dictators have statues of themselves scattered throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all need constant external recognition of their \u201cgreatness\u201d because they cannot generate it from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way for these strongmen to get the people\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do we prevent being trampled over by an audacious ruler who masquerades as a public servant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must show up for local elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too often our municipal elections are decided by low voter turnout, especially in the off years of a presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve forgotten how detrimental one local election can be in such a short period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201csuper mayor\u201d is far from the only municipal politician motivated by personal enrichment who abuses her might \u2014 she\u2019s just incredibly brazen about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s always been morally corrupt; she only needed to obtain the power to exploit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is our news has become so nationalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve ignored how many immoral actors in government get a pass because we\u2019ve been obsessively focused on \u201cwhat\u2019s happening in DC\u201d instead of \u201cwhat\u2019s happening near me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local elections matter because if you don\u2019t show up, tyrants can make your community hell much faster than the president can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nypost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely, but power doesn\u2019t change someone \u2014 it only exaggerates what\u2019s 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\u2019s designer shoes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26743,1555,7147,1582,26741,26742],"class_list":["post-23983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-super-mayor","tag-chicago","tag-local-elections","tag-mayor","tag-small-villages","tag-tiffany-henyard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23985,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983\/revisions\/23985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}