Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Thursday she is immediately suspending what are called “offset” fund payments to Dolton for the village’s failure to turn over annual financial reports to her office.
The money this year is on pace to total $135,000, and Mendoza said she is also threatening fines if Dolton doesn’t file the required reports. Those fines could total $78,600.
The “offset” money comes from things such as parking ticket and traffic fines that an individual who lives in the community has not paid, according to Abdon Pallasch, a spokesman for Mendoza’s office. The money owed is withheld from individual state income tax refunds by the comptroller, then distributed to municipalities.
Pallasch said many Chicago-area communities, including Chicago and Dolton, contract with the comptroller’s office to collect and distribute the money.
The money that went to Dolton last year totaled $120,000, according to her office.
In a news release, Mendoza said that for about two years, the administration of Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard “has willfully refused to turn over the annual reports all municipalities are required to file” with her office. That includes an annual financial report, financial audit and reports on the performance of Dolton’s three tax increment financing districts.
“When municipalities around Illinois are having legitimate problems filing their annual reports with us, based on staffing or other issues, we earnestly work with them to get them into compliance,” Mendoza said in the release. “Dolton is different. The Mayor’s office has refused to communicate with us or address the problem. If Mayor Henyard refuses to follow state law, my office will use the tools at our disposal to safeguard the interests of Dolton’s citizens.”
She said her office has been notifying the village of this delinquency over the past two years.
In a report she presented to the public and Dolton trustees at a meeting Aug. 8, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the village had not been in compliance with state law requiring the filing of annual financial reports.
Hired by trustees as a special investigator to look into village finances and Henyard’s administration, Lightfoot said there is no annual report for Dolton beyond fiscal year 2021 and that no audited financial statements are available after that point.
The village’s fiscal or budget year runs from May 1 through April 30, and Lightfoot noted at the meeting that the Village Board has yet to adopt a spending plan for this fiscal year.
Dolton Trustee Jason House, a candidate for Dolton mayor next year, responded to the comptroller’s action saying it “goes to many of the issues the board of trustees has raised already.”
“It is unfortunate it has come to this,” he said. “We’re going to press the (village) administration to take all steps necessary to provide the state with the required information.”
Mendoza said state statute requires the comptroller to initiate forced audits of municipalities that stop complying with laws to file annual reports with the office. It also has the authority to level fines.
If Dolton continues failing to file reports, Mendoza said her office will initiate forced audits and fines.
She said her office can assess fines of about $7,000 per year per unfiled report, totaling $78,600 for Dolton as of now. That would be in addition to the roughly $135,000 the village could lose in offset fines our office sends the village on an annual basis if its administration does not resume filing reports.
Mendoza said her office notified the village Thursday of the immediate suspension of offset funds and that a forced audit and fines will begin soon if the village does not come into compliance with the law.
The actions by the comptroller, a Democrat, represent the first such penalization of Dolton by a state agency, particularly by one headed by someone of Henyard’s own political party.
Mendoza said Dolton Village Clerk Alison Key emailed her office, frustrated that the village is also not complying with the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
“As Village Clerk, I have been unable to reply to FOIAs because the Village Administrator, Keith Freeman, has instructed department heads not to reply to any FOIA request coming from me,” Key said in an email to the comptroller.
Key, in her email to Mendoza, said that Freeman “has illegally removed me as FOIA officer without board of trustees’ knowledge or vote of approval. He has continued to interfere with the FOIA process for the past 2 years.”
In February, in response to a lawsuit filed by Nexstar Media, Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a binding opinion ordering Dolton to turn over documents the state requested of the village via the state FOIA law, but Dolton disregarded the order.
A Cook County judge Thursday found Dolton acted willful, intentional and in bad faith in failing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and ordered Dolton to turn over documents. The case will back in court Sept. 23.
mnolan@southtownstar.com
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