Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has 90 bodyguards babysitting her and her family as she rules over a city of 2.7 million. People understand the need for bodyguards for big city mayors, even if 90 seems like, well, overkill.
But why has the mayor of a small town a half-hour outside of Chicago, a little burgh with population of only 20,000, had a three-person security detail for over a year? Particularly when three officers represents almost 10% of the city’s police department?
Dolton, Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard has spent over $258,000 so far since May of 2021 making sure that least three officers are dedicated to ensuring her safety and security in the suburb south of Chicago.
From Edgar County Watchdogs . . .
Since May of 2021, Tiffany Henyard, Mayor of Dolton, Illinois has had her personal security detail follow her around nearly 24 hours a day.
The three individuals indicated in Dolton’s response to a FOIA request are Village employees (click name to view payroll) Kori Wright, Terry Young, and William Reed.
Payroll has exceeded $258,000 paid by Dolton taxpayers between May of 2021 and September of 2022.
At this rate, the Dolton taxpayers will have paid more than one million dollars for her “security” detail over the life of her 4-year term of office.
A lot of Dolton residents are wondering why that is. Three bodyguards every day to protect a small-town mayor since shortly after she took office.
To put that into perspective, that’s the same number of bodyguards that protect Birmingham, Alabama’s mayor but that city has almost ten times the population of Dolton.
At the same time, Mayor Henyard’s armed personal security detail affords her far more protection than the residents of her city enjoy. One of her first acts after taking office involved organizing an “anti-violence” march. She was joined at that march by anti-gun activist and accused pedophile Father Michael Pfleger.
Is all of this taxpayer-funded security just an ego trip for the mayor or are there real and credible threats against her? A couple of weeks ago, I called and left a message for the mayor asking her to comment on the story. Surprise! No one returned my call.
Madame Mayor has worked hard to make herself a celebrity, and landed a big spread in Essence Magazine.
‘It’s About Generational Change:’ Meet the Woman Who Became The Youngest And First Black Mayor Of A Chicagoland Town
Imagine living in a town that’s 93% Black and majority women, but has been mostly run by men–many of them white. That’s the story of Dolton, Illinois—a town about 26 minutes outside of Chicago—and why it was such a big deal when Dolton’s new mayor, a Black woman who is a single mom, was sworn in last year.
A longtime resident of the Chicagoland suburb, Tiffany Henyard, 37, always knew she wanted more for the town. …
Henyard has always been a leader.
In college and high school, she launched a small-scale baked goods operation that sold cookies and cakes to students on campus. She loved the sense of autonomy and financial security running a business afforded her. But she recognized the only way she would truly effect change is claiming political power.
That glowing portrait was printed seven months before the mayor’s business, Good Burger, was involuntarily dissolved by the Illinois Secretary of State a few weeks ago. And that dissolution put their contract with a local community college at risk.
And it was printed two months before 56% of the local residents voted to recall the mayor this past summer. However an appellate court decision invalidated those results, leaving Mayor Henyard in office.
Part of the reason residents have soured on the mayor involved her hiring a registered child sex offender as a municipal code enforcement officer and home inspector. Lavelle Redmond was convicted of kidnapping a raping a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old girl in 1991.
There’s other issues that smell of potential malfeasance by Dolton’s first black female mayor as well (1 2 3 4 5).
All of that aside, the spectacle of a small town mayor who advocates for gun control for the little people while she’s protected by a trio of publicly-funded armed bodyguards in reeks of elitism by the mayor.
She will face re-election in 2025, assuming she isn’t indicted before then.
