Thornton Township, Ill. (ECWd) –
Thornton Township was scheduled to hold it public meeting last night, but things didn’t turn out as they should have.
Upon arriving for the meeting, residents and media were forced into the basement by Tiffany Henyard’s “security” based on a lie that the meeting was in the basement. Additionally, one trustee was locked out of the meeting room until the moment it began, and the residents and media present for the meeting were not permitted in the room – although there were plenty of empty seats.
Henyard never ensured the audio and video worked in the overflow room and did not permit public comment.
This equates, in our opinion, to an illegal closed session meeting in which public business was conducted, and this meeting should be declared in violation of law with all actions taken voided.
It is apparent Tiffany Henyard is feeling the heat of recent local, national, and international news of her embarrassing, outrageous antics as township supervisor and village mayor.
Meetings must be public; nothing can be voted on except during a public meeting and shutting people out of a “public” meeting constitutes an illegal closed meeting. She knows better but will apparently do what she wants until she is in handcuffs.
Here is an email sent to us from a township resident who showed up for the meeting and was denied entrance:
“I attended a Thornton Township board meeting tonight. The meeting was scheduled to start at 6pm. I arrived around 5:55. When I walked inside, there was a security guard standing at the bottom of the stairs that go up to the board room. I was directed downstairs. I asked him if the meeting was downstairs today he relied yes. I walked down and sat for a few mins before I looked around and realized that the room was not set up for a board meeting. I asked if anyone knew if this was the over flow room. No on knew. There were about 4-5 residents there, 2 guys from the media, and a few of her employees. I went back up to the security guard and asked him how I was supposed to sign up for public comments. He said he didn’t know. I asked him to go find out because myself and a few other residents downstairs want to sign in. He came back down and said that someone will bring it down.
I went back downstairs and told the residents that they would bring the sign in sheet down. After about 5-7 mins a township employee comes down. I know him so I asked him why he was not up in the board room. He stated that the meeting was over already. It was only like 4 mins long.
A few minutes later Trustee Chris Gonzalez comes down and I asked him what happened. He said that he didn’t even know there were people downstairs until the meeting was over. He said that they made him stand in the hallway outside the Board room until exactly 6pm then they opened the door, let him in and closed the door behind him. I asked him why the couldn’t come up? Who was in the seats that took up the entire board room? He told me that there were 4 employees in the chairs and that was it.
So they had an entire board meeting without letting us in a room that wasn’t full? There was no video and no audio downstairs. And We weren’t allowed to speak?
This type of government can’t be acceptable. The attorney general needs to step in.“
