Dolton Mayor Destroyed Public Property – Trustees Hold Meeting In Parking Lot –

Dolton, IL. (ECWd) –

In recent weeks in the Village of Dolton:

• Trustees scheduled a special meeting, only for the mayor to say it was canceled and threated them with arrest if they held the meeting
• Mayor held a meeting and the trustees did not attend, resulting in no meeting
• Mayor held another meeting with the trustees, who did not pass an Ordinance to lease village property to a private company – the mayor had already signed the lease
• Mayor blocks off the street in the block she lives in and forced police to have 24 hour protection on her at her home, and at the community college where she works
• Mayor holds a “mandatory” landlord meeting and has 5 citizens arrested for protesting a block away from her meeting
• Trustees schedule another special meeting, and according to trustees the mayor repeatedly rips the meeting notice/agenda from the front door, tells them it is canceled, and tapes a notice of canceled meeting on the door
• Trustees hold special meeting in parking lot of village hall (see video below)
• Citizen shows up at parking lot meeting, and is obviously upset they were holding the meeting (see video below – warning on foul language)

Our thoughts:

• Trustees have a right to call a special meeting, and a Mayor has no authority to cancel a special meeting called by the appropriate number of trustees
• Ripping a properly posted meeting agenda from where it is posted is considered destruction of public property and destruction of public records – the trustees should file a police report on the incident
• Arresting nonviolent protesters is uncalled for and those people arrested should find a good attorney to work with them
• All village elected officers should have a key to access village hall, and the trustees need to put that on the next agenda for action
• All village meetings, whether regular meetings, or meetings called by trustees, should happen at the regular meeting location without threat of arrest
• Dolton police officers need to read up on what is and is not an arrestable offense when it comes to meetings of the village board
• Mayor should quit threatening to arrest trustee for holding a meeting, and should quit locking them out of the building – the building does not belong to her

DOLTON Village meeting:

Citizen showed up angry towards the end of the meeting: