DOLTON, Illinois (CBS) –New financial problems have emerged in the southern suburbs Dolton—has to do with tax money and the fact that the village does not let the population know what the money is being spent on.
According to the state of Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s Administration not only refuses to conduct an audit, but also does not even communicate with the state agency that oversees government spending.
The firm in question is that of Illinois accountant Susana Mendoza, and Dolton is now on that firm’s radar.
“There are definite red flags that other stations have noticed at your station,” said Abdon Pallasch, a spokesman for the Comptroller’s Office. “I think anyone who pays attention can see that there are serious problems at Dolton.”
When CBS News Chicago sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Springfield seeking Dolton’s financial records, the Office of the Comptroller responded that it had “not received any audits or financial reports from the City of Dolton for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.”
That was a year after Mayor Henyard was sworn in. For two budget years, no one has checked the incoming and outgoing tax dollars.
“If they continue to fail to do the documentation, they will start a forced audit process, where we send people to check the books,” Pallasch said. “And if that still doesn’t work, they will get fines.”
But for now, the state is halting Dolton’s compensation payments — funds that Illinois deducts from state payments that go to people, like income tax refunds or lottery payouts. For the village of Dolton, that’s about $135,000.
Dolton is not the only municipality behind on providing an audit report. Yet CBS News Chicago has learned that it is the only municipality in the state that has flatly refused to speak with the auditor.
“It has never come to this before in our administration,” said Pallasch.
David Gonzalez is mayor of another southern suburb, Chicago Heights, but he is also a certified public accountant who performs more than 75 municipal audits annually across the state.
“The audit will tell the truth because it is done by an independent,” he said. “They are not involved in politics.”
According to Gonzalez, an audit provides a clear picture of the books.
“Because any mayor can go out there and say, ‘Look, my finances are great. We’re doing great, you know, that we’ve stopped the deficit.’ Well, that’s just a lot of talk,” he said. “But the independent audit is the evidence of what’s really happening in a city or town.”
It is important to emphasize that the audits in question are legally required.
A source close to the Dolton investigation has criticized the Illinois Auditor’s Office, saying it initially failed to answer questions about the village’s audits and failed to provide evidence that the state had previously made efforts to address the financial problem.
Meanwhile, Dolton village officials said in a joint statement that this development is another reason they pushed for former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to dig into the records. She revealed that the village has a deficit of $3.6 million.
Jermont Terry
