Thornton Township, Ill. (ECWd) –
In what has become the usual experience with anything related to Thornton Township Supervisor / Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, records of receipts are rarely provided, unless you file a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. She always makes it a point to tell everyone she has all the receipts, and nearly always fails to provide them.
Last year she touted a “million dollar give-a-way” rent and mortgage assistance, which turned out to be more of her false or grossly exaggerated announcements, bordering on electioneering.
Copies of how that “million dollars” was spent were requested under the Freedom of Information Act, with no applicable records provided by the township. This should simply become another lawsuit against the township.
We believe the Attorney General’s office should use their subpoena powers under Section 9.5(c) of the Freedom of Information Act to force the township to account for those funds.
From the original requester:
“The Illinois Attorney General’s office emailed me this morning to close out my FOIA request inquiring how Thornton Township spent this $1 million of public funds. On 5/31 the township publicly announced that they used at most $450,000 for the intended purpose of rent and mortgage assistance. I had sent a FOIA request to the township May 1 asking for an accounting of how they spent the $1 million the state of Illinois gave them for this purpose. The IL AG asked township Clerk Wells, Keith Freeman, and Gerald Jones to respond, several times. The only response was Clerk Wells saying she is not the FOIA officer. Now the township’s email address ([email protected]) bounces but that is where the IL AG sent this morning’s long letter. It “requests that the Township take immediate and appropriate action to search for the records Mr. Robertz requested”, yet says it “does not require the issuance of a binding opinion” and closes this matter. In other words, the public access counselor in the Illinois Attorney General’s office let Tiffany advertise that she was giving away a million dollars when it looks like she kept half for herself, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
81416 IL AG FOIA Million Dollar Giveaway_Redacted
2 Comments
Scott L
Posted at 09:26h, 30 JulyHere you go again…” We believe the Attorney General’s office”….well the AG’s office closed the matter already. Your headlines are clear yellow journalism and strictly the opinion of 2 men who live nowhere near our community, understand our community, and have a misogynistic agenda against a strong minority woman political force who is not afraid to stand up to people and the press like you. Your views and opinions are clear and clearly you’re right, but stop pretending like you are watchdogs. You have an agenda just like most, portray yourselves as that. And as we have said before, we don’t need your “watchdog investigative journalism” in our community, we are just fine with what we have, You don’t understand or have anything in common with our community, so if you don’t have anything good to say, go away. You have cost our community money with your frivolous FOIA lawsuits that have only served to enrich a downtown Chicago law firm who has no ties or cares about our community. And in the process, your misogynistic harrassment of a young vibrant woman political force have gotten in the way of her vision and work on behalf of seniors and the marginalized in our community. Instead of writing about that and contributing to a positive nature for our community, you cost us money with frivolous and unnecessary litigation.
John Kraft & Kirk Allen
Posted at 10:07h, 31 JulyYou are obviously a confused individual. Nothing we file is frivolous; all she has to do is provide the records requested. There is no “misogynistic” agenda with anything we do. You sound like you are on her payroll.