Residents in south suburban Dolton addressed the recent controversy surrounding embattled Mayor Tiffany Henyard on Thursday night at a village board meeting.
"I know you are going to ask for an investigation," resident Mary Avent said. "I hope the administration has nothing to do with it."
Henyard, who was absent from Thursday night's meeting, and an unnamed village trustee are at the center of an investigation by the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The probe is focusing on what allegedly happened on an economic development trip to Las Vegas last May.
Henyard's former assistant, who filed the complaint, claimed she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed Dolton trustee. We are not naming the woman because NBC Chicago does not name people who possibly were a victim of an unwanted sexual encounter.
In a statement, the village told NBC Chicago that it conducted a thorough investigation, which was led by a third-party company, into the allegations. The village went on to say, "This is nothing more than a disgruntled village employee trying to make off with the taxpayers hard earned dollars."
Trustee Jason House said trustees knew nothing about that investigation and have asked for their own probe into what happened on the trip to Las Vegas.
"We are also asking our attorney to find an independent body that has subpoena authority to conduct an …so we know it is independent and thorough," he said. "This puts the village at jeopardy because this was a village paid-for-trip."
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When it comes to finances, trustees at Thursday night's meeting said they recently won a court case to get the clerk's name back on the village bank account after it had been removed.
The next village board meeting was scheduled for April 1.
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