SOUTH HOLLAND, Ill. (June 21, 2024) – Just a couple months ago, the meeting agenda for the June 20 Thornton Township Board of Trustees would likely have taken a half hour or less to work through. Previously, bills were approved without discussion by a majority vote, and the meetings were usually moved along quickly by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard.
On Thursday night, some Thornton Township trustees flipped the script, asking questions, listening to department heads, and making decisions as informed elected officials — a shift that stretched a simple agenda to nearly three hours of often-fiery discussion.
Rescheduled meeting gets contentious
Tensions were high in the packed Thornton Township Board Room before the meeting even started Thursday. Many of the attendees had been in the room on Tuesday, waiting over an hour for the regularly-scheduled meeting to start, only to be told it was canceled. As on Tuesday, there were not enough seats for Thursday’s attendees, and maintenance and security staff scrambled to bring extra chairs into the board room.
Ignoring the proper rules and order of a public meeting, some residents — most of whom were critical of Henyard — yelled expletives, shouted racial slurs, played disparaging music on their phones, referred to Henyard’s daughter, and stood up to gesture aggressively at others in the room.
Henyard also shouted at residents and at one point told security guards to clear the room and end the meeting, which didn’t happen.
The atmosphere seemed to settle as the 8 p.m. meeting continued deep into the night, though moments of disruption still occurred.
Public comments cut short
Henyard told residents they had two minutes for their public comments, something she’s done before.
The change is an apparent violation of Thornton Township Ordinance 22-004, which states, “When recognized to comment, each speaker must begin by stating his or her name, and shall be permitted three (3) minutes to address the board. This period shall not include the board members’ responses, if any, to the speaker.”
Ten residents spoke during public comment, the most contentious portion of the meeting.
The bills: amended, discussed, re-amended, re-discussed
Of the meeting’s 164 minutes, 99 were spent on approving the bills for the township’s general fund.
Trustees received the bill amounts prior to Tuesday’s canceled meeting, meaning they had two extra days to review the list of over 400.
Trustee Chris Gonzalez has long voted against bill approvals, citing inadequate time to review them. At Thursday’s meeting Gonzalez moved to approve the bills, excluding 31 of them. Trustee Carmen Carlisle seconded the motion.
Supervisor Henyard invited vendors or department heads to address the board regarding the bills that would be unpaid, leading to a heated argument with Trustee Gonzalez:
Trustees Gonzalez, Jerry Jones, and Carmen Carlisle made the case that the township needs to come to the board for approval to enter into contracts with vendors before they perform services, not after. Supervisor Henyard, some of the township department heads, and some vendors countered by saying any change in procedure should take place in the future, without penalizing vendors who have already performed the work.
Grass cutting services — contractors and township youth
Some of the vendors on the list of exclusions had provided grass cutting services for Thornton Township. Questions arose among trustees about why the township should pay for contractors when the Henyard Assistance Program (HAP), formerly the Zuccarelli Assistance Program (ZAP), is designed to hire local youth to cut lawns, particularly for seniors.
Stanley Brown, who runs HAP, explained that the program has a limited number of kids, and residents’ grass needs to be cut beyond just the dates that kids are out of school. Additionally, Brown said youth hires need to pass a drug test, which can limit the amount of eligible workers.
“The contractors basically takes the pressure off of us for April and May until the kids get out. Because for the most part, this year, real strong, the majority of the youngsters are inexperienced,” Brown said. “The contractors are not taking any work from these youth.”
Trustees Gonzales and Jerry Jones discussed the idea of paying the youth per cut, rather than an hourly wage, as an incentive to make more money and increase interest in the program.
Supervisor Henyard said paying contractors is often cheaper than hiring youth. “This is not just a hand-out or ‘We just want to help.’ Yes, we help anybody and everybody, but you still have to have it make sense,” she said.
Media companies
Multiple representatives from various media companies used recently by Thornton Township spoke, stressing the importance of the work they do and the necessity of regularly getting paid to support their families.
“What would you do if someone randomly … picked out your name and said, ‘You shouldn’t get paid even though you did the work?’ Does that makes sense to you?” said an employee of one of the media companies.
He continued later in the meeting: “I just want you all to understand, that if you all decide to go through with not paying these people that are on that list that you singled out, these people could go into poverty.”
Ultimately, Trustees Gonzalez, Jones, and Carlisle added back some bills from lawn care providers to the approval. Those trustees voted to approve the revised limited list of bills, while Trustee Darlene-Gray Everett and Supervisor Henyard voted against.
Other bills and approvals
Without discussion, the board voted to approve the bills of the General Assistance Fund, as well as the Road and Bridge Fund. The board also voted to approve the minutes from the two budget hearings and the special meeting that took place on May 31.
Other agenda items included a settlement agreement with Erskine Tillman, which was unanimously approved without discussion, as well as a motion to award lawn care bids to the lowest bidders. The lawn care motion was briefly discussed and passed unanimously.
Trustee Gray-Everett’s lack of clarity
Throughout the meeting, Trustee Gray-Everett sided with Supervisor Henyard. During the discussion of bills, she didn’t actively engage in the discussion and didn’t seem to understand what she was being asked to vote on when the roll was called, once saying, “What are we voting on?” after an extended discussion.
At one point, Gray-Everett stood up and threatened to leave the meeting for an unapparent reason. Later, she did pack up her belongings and left the board room for about 12 minutes before returning without explanation.
After an extended discussion on the lawn care topic, Gray-Everett made a statement about having more frequent board meetings, and the importance of providing food to residents:
Supervisor Henyard’s report
At 10:40 p.m., Henyard gave a 13-minute report, praising recent township events, including a bike ride, a Father’s Day barbecue, and “Big Bingo.”
Henyard’s report included some of her most frequented topics — negative news coverage, combatting evil forces, and the lack of scrutiny of former Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarrelli. For example:
- “There’s so much hate in this room as it relates to the great things that we do,” said Supervisor Henyard, “because you know, the devil do have people working for him, and people come out — I see a lot of y’all’s horns today.”
- In promoting a future Township Talk event, Henyard said, “Let me educate you, those are my famous words. And I say that because a lot of people are misled, they are led astray, they are bamboozled, hoodwinked, and you guys don’t even understand what has really transpired here at Thornton Township.”
- “I am the youth. I am next,” she said. “When Frank Zuccarrelli was here for almost 30 years … I didn’t see one of y’all, hear from one of y’all, because I came to the meetings. It was quiet as ever in here. Nobody showed up, nobody said anything to that man, including board members.”
Henyard also spoke out against people making reference to her daughter, saying, “Please watch that, when you’re thinking it’s cool and you’re joking about it. Because I don’t joke about my daughter.”
Watch the full meeting
Thursday night’s meeting adjourned at 10:54 p.m. Video of the full meeting is provided below:
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Thornton Township Board is scheduled for Tuesday, July 16, at Thornton Township headquarters, located at 333 E. 162nd Street in South Holland.
Related
- Thornton Township board meeting canceled without explanation, rescheduled for Thursday (June 19, 2024)
- Surprise twist: Thornton Township trustees vote against Tiffany Henyard (June 3, 2024)
Very informative report on the meeting, except something sparked my interest.
My questions are:
Who is Erskine Tillman?
What was the settlement agreement (details please)?
Why was there a settlement?
Was there Township (our tax dollars) money involved?
Where there any Township employees involved in the settlement?
Why was there no discussion or details provided about this at the meeting?
Why such lack of transparency regarding this matter with Erskine Tillman & Thornton Township?
To those reading these questions I have, you may have some of you own to add.
Perhaps there will be answers to those questions, my guess is there will be none unless the good people of the township push for answers. Good Luck!!
Thank you, Josh, for video taping the Thornton Township meeting(s). You are providing a great service that nobody else is doing to keep residents informed.
Thank you also for all of your previous coverage and videos. We will miss you!
Tom Shepherd
Former Thornton Township Trustee
If you don’t like the job that Tiffany is doing, vote her out. You don’t have to go to the meetings and act up. Wait til elections time. Stop all that , it makes it harder for tiffany to do her job.