Last year, homeowners in the village of Dolton paid the seventh highest property tax rate of any municipality in Cook County — 20.1% of assessed value. About a fifth of Dolton’s residents, more than 90% of them African American, live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
So it is particularly galling that Dolton’s controversial mayor, Tiffany Henyard, and other village officials spent much of last year jet-setting around the country and living lavishly on the taxpayer dime. Taxpayers spent plenty to cover the costs of the trips to Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Las Vegas; and Portland, Oregon, the Chicago Tribune reported after months of persistent demands for public credit-card spending records that should have been provided much faster than that.
Henyard seems to particularly enjoy upscale Ruth’s Chris Steak House. She and others ate at the chain in Austin and Portland.
Surely, more affordable hotel stays were readily available in Atlanta and Portland, but she and those accompanying her opted for the Four Seasons and Crowne Plaza, respectively. A quick check of a single room at the Four Seasons turned up a $665 rate. The hotel rooms for the Portland and Atlanta trips alone exceeded $4,500.
Henyard, who’s under federal investigation and is embroiled in a battle with trustees over continued access to government credit cards and other financial matters, isn’t the only local official who scratched her travel itch without having to cover the cost personally. Embattled CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. was out of town at conferences, both in the U.S. and abroad, for nearly 100 days from June 2023 to May 2024, according to Block Club, which like the Tribune had to wait months and persistently push for what should have been readily available public information on Carter’s schedule.
Carter chaired the American Public Transportation Association in 2022 and 2023, and much of his traveling was tied to the group’s activities. He visited Spain, Australia and New Zealand in addition to spending entire weeks in Orlando, Puerto Rico, Washington and Pittsburgh over the period Block Club examined.
His out-of-town travels well exceeded the time he spent here riding the “L” and buses and seeing firsthand how the CTA was functioning, which by all accounts wasn’t very well.
No doubt observing big-city transit systems elsewhere can be helpful to running Chicago’s. But particularly at a time when service is poor, the need to focus on operations at home trumps such luxuries. The news of Carter’s busy travel itinerary continues only to feed a narrative of an aloof transit boss who infrequently rides his own trains and buses and whose public appearances, before the City Council or otherwise, are remarkably few.
If operations at the CTA and the village of Dolton were running smoothly, and constituents had few complaints, there would be fewer questions for these officials on the need for such frequent time on the road, ostensibly on public business. But that’s not the reality in either case.
The CTA’s woes have been well documented, and calls for Carter’s removal have come from this page, as well as other editorial boards and various public officials.
Dolton is suffering under a deficit in the millions and owes more than $6 million to vendors that it can’t afford to cover, according to former Mayor Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whom Dolton trustees hired over Henyard’s objections to probe her administration.
Henyard and other officials’ July 2023 trip to Austin cost taxpayers more than $9,000, a sum that’s hard to imagine. The credit card records the Tribune obtained didn’t provide many details on who traveled with Henyard. Neither Henyard nor an attorney representing her would comment to shed additional light on how these bills could have been so high.
It wasn’t uncommon for monthly bills on the village credit card to run between $20,000 and $60,000, the Tribune reported.
With federal subpoenas having been served both on the village of Dolton and Thornton Township, where Henyard also serves as supervisor, we likely will learn eventually many more details about the finances she’s overseen in both jurisdictions.
As the extent of Dolton’s financial mess gradually becomes clearer, the unfortunate taxpayers of Dolton will have to wait another six months or so for the next mayoral election before having their say on Henyard. Discussions of questionable municipal finances can get mind-numbing in the abstract, but stays at five-star hotels and nights out at pricey steakhouses are the kinds of specifics voters remember.
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