USA / ILLINOIS

Illinois mayor is accused of turning her town into a national laughing stock

January 2025: On the day former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot presented her final report on the mismanagement at Dolton Village, a town of some 22,000 people south of Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper wrote that Mayor Tiffany Henyard had been turning the town into a national laughing stock. The Mayor is accused of likely to have misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds - maybe millions - while defiantly refusing to detail where the money went and why.

 

Lori Lightfoot, a former prosecutor, delivered her findings to Dolton residents on Monday, 27 January. Despite a lack of subpoena power and cooperation from Dolton Town Hall employees, the former Chicago mayor said her investigation uncovered a pattern of mismanagement and deception by Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard. "There was a concerted, systematic effort on behalf of Mayor Henyard and others in her administration to hide the true financial condition of the Town of Dolton from the trustees and members of the public," said Ms Lightfoot.

 

Dolton trustees hired Lori Lightfoot in April 2024 to probe Tiffany Henyard's alleged misuse of public dollars. Mayor Henyard did not attend Monday's presentation.

 

Ms Lightfoot has found travel expenses, including for nine domestic trips taken by Henyard and other town officials. One of those trips to Las Vegas is the subject of a lawsuit alleging sexual assault and claims of retaliation. Ms Lightfoot has also found soaring expenditures in 2023 on at least half a dozen village credit cards, including more than $43,000 in Amazon purchases in a single day and thousands of dollars spent at other major retailers. On Monday, Lightfoot said those Amazon purchases, which she first told the public about last summer, were for ice rink supplies that were delivered to the village. The report also revealed that over $50,000 was spent at local restaurants.

 

Former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot also explained that Dolton had received some $3 million in payments from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), a COVID stimulus bill signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2021. According to Ms Lightfoot, hundreds of thousands of the original $3 million in ARPA funds went missing without receipts. Henyard also failed to appoint an official to oversee the massive sum of money, a requirement put in place by the Treasury Department, Lightfoot said.

 

"There's no inventory control system within the administration, so we have no idea what happened once the supplies arrived," Lightfoot said. Residents and multiple trustees at Monday's meeting said an ice rink was completed in 2023, but that the public had no regular access to it.

 

Lori Lightfoot also alleged a pattern of circumventing city policies, including failing to gain trustee approval for purchases over $5,000, failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests, and lacking a staff accountant.

 

Statement by Lori Lightfoot on her investigation’s findings

"Today (27 January 2025), we released the final summary of findings and recommendations on the investigation into Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard's financial management of the Village of Dolton's revenues and expenses, as requested by the Village Trustees. The report details consistent mismanagement of Village finances through excessive spending on non-essential goods and services, systematic attempts by Mayor Henyard and others at her direction to hide the true financial condition of the Village from the Board of Trustees and the public, as well as other efforts to thwart efforts aimed at transparency as mandated under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The report establishes the absence of competent governance and continued violations of governance norms during Mayor Henyard's tenure. The costs to taxpayers have been significant, starting with a substantial budget deficit, higher costs for necessities like liability insurance, and many lawsuits against the Village directly related to allegations of misconduct by Henyard and others.

 

Further reading: Code of Ethics for mayors |

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MEXICO

Women mayors in Mexico ready to respond to President Trump’s threat of mass deportation of immigrants

January 2025: Three of Mexico’s most influential female politicians are preparing to deal with the scare tactics of the newly installed American President. A day after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Mexican President and former Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, the current Mayor of the capital city, Clara Brugada Molina, and the Mayor of Iztapalapa (a district of Mexico City), Aleida Alavez Ruiz, said that if the US should carry out its plan of mass deportations, the country, the State and City of Mexico are ready to provide humanitarian assistance. Aleida Alavez underlined that help would be offered to Mexican nationals and migrants from other countries. “We are prepared to receive our compatriots, guaranteeing them security and certainty during their transit through the capital.”

 

Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, reassured the country’s municipalities that the federal government is ready to step in should the Trump administration make good on its threat to deport tens of thousands of immigrants. “Welfare staff will be deployed at the border.” The Mexican government has also encouraged municipal authorities to prepare shelters for vulnerable migrants and set up transit centres for people on the move.

 

Many of the country’s Churches have also offered to open their facilities to migrants. Mayor Alavez said the participation of Churches is vital in providing shelter and food. “We are united in our desire to help people who frankly have suffered enough.”

 

In a strongly worded reply to Trump’s threat of mass deportation, Mexico City’s Mayor Clara Brugada reminded the American President that walls do not stop migration but address the structural causes. “The fact that more than 120 million people in the world were on the move in 2024, shows that human mobility is a global phenomenon that requires comprehensive solutions”.

 

Meanwhile, President Sheinbaum dismissed Trump’s decree to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “For Mexico and the rest of the world, the Gulf will always be the Gulf of Mexico.” FULL REPORT

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Further reading: Mexican Mayors versus Donald Trump |  Mexico's women mayors

 

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USA / ALEXANDRIA (VA)

High hopes for Alexandria’s first Black woman mayor

January 2025: Alyia Gaskins has been described as one of America’s new watch-out-for mayors. Sworn in on 2 January 2025, she is the first Black woman mayor in the City of Alexandria’s 275-year history. The Washington Business Journal named her as one of the under-40-year-old stars of 2025.

 

Alexandria, in Virginia, lies some 11 km south of Washington DC’s federal government quarters. The newly elected mayor promised to make education and housing one of her priorities. In 2024, as a city councillor, Alyia Gaskins supported a controversial move to abolish single-family-only zoning in the city. Instead, she insisted, the authorities should support tenants’ rights, stop displacement and help locals become homeowners.

 

Mayor Gaskins graduated from Vanderbilt University with a medical, health, and society degree. She subsequently obtained an MA in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA in Urban Planning from Georgetown University, and a Professional Certificate in Municipal Finance from the University of Chicago.

 

The new mayor has worked on hunger policy at DC Hunger Solutions, advanced health policy at the National League of Cities, and managed an affordable housing investment program at the Center for Community Investment. Before her election in November 2024, Gaskins was a senior officer at the Melville Charitable Trust, a national philanthropic organisation devoted to ending homelessness. She is also the founder of CitiesRX, a consulting firm specialising in cross-sector partnerships with cities to foster healthy, sustainable environments.

 

Alexandria needs more commercial growth to diversify its tax base and alleviate the burden placed on homeowners, a fact Gaskins acknowledges. The city’s most promising and potentially most valuable land for development is the Potomac Yard, once one of the busiest rail yards in the eastern USA. Since the 400-acre (1.6 sq km) piece of land was identified as a toxic waste site in 1987, several plans for re-development have come and gone. After the proposals to build a new arena for the professional basketball and hockey teams the Washington-based Capitals and Wizards were rejected by Virginia’s general assembly in March 2024, new solutions are sought. Mayor Gaskins has said she would support building a ‘bustling’ mixed-use venue incorporating homes, restaurants, retail, entertainment, and open spaces.

 

Further reading: American women in municipal government

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USA / OAKLAND

Former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao is accused of taking bribes

January 2025: Sheng Thao, Oakland’s former Mayor, recalled by her fellow residents last November, has now been charged with maintaining a corrupt relationship with her boyfriend Andre Jones and David and Andy Duong, two of the Californian city’s best-known businessmen. After a lengthy investigation by the FBI, which included a search of the former mayor’s private residence, federal prosecutors allege that Sheng Thao promised the City of Oakland would extend its contract with the recycling company owned by the Duongs and purchase housing units from its politically connected owners in exchange for financial benefits.

 

The indictment alleges that Sheng Thao and Andre Jones accepted bribes from the Duongs in exchange for promising to extend their recycling services contract with the city and purchase modular housing units from a company the Duongs ran if Thao was elected in 2022. The Duongs own California Waste Solutions, which has a multi-million-dollar contract with Oakland to provide kerbside recycling services, and the company has a deal to take over part of the old Oakland Army Base to build a new recycling centre.

 

The Duongs allegedly paid $75,000 for leaflets attacking Thao’s opponents in the 2022 election, the government authorities say. Allegedly, father and son Duong also promised $300,000 to the mayor’s boyfriend for a ‘no-show’ job and allegedly paid him $95,000 in cash after the election.

 

At the time of the allegations, David Duong was – and is believed to still be – the president and CEO of Cal Waste Solutions. He is also co-owner of a housing company. His son, Andy, also works at Cal Waste Solutions and co-owns the same housing company.

 

Once Sheng Thao was elected mayor, prosecutors allege she used her influence to help appoint a high-level city official selected by the Duongs.

 

The evidence also alleges Thao, Jones and the Duongs tried to cover up the scheme. Thao allegedly directed the Duongs to make payments to Jones to avoid a paper trail leading back to her.

 

The former mayor’s attorney accused the authorities of putting forward allegations but not providing any evidence. "The case is built on allegations from an unknown co-conspirator that we believe, when evidence is revealed, will show my client has committed no crimes," Jeff Tsai said.

 

Attorneys representing David (the father) and Andy (the son) Duong released statements saying their clients were innocent. “We have kept quiet despite the media frenzy over the past months in the hope that the government would correctly come to see through objective investigation that the allegations are baseless and being fanned by nothing more than gossip and supposition stitched together by the fabrications and delusions of those who lack all fundamental credibility,” attorneys for Andy Duong wrote.

 

In court, on Friday, 17 January 2025, Thao, Jones and the Duongs pleaded not guilty.

 

“The public needs to know it can trust those in charge of City Hall to work for the public interest,” said First Assistant US Attorney Patrick Robbins at a press conference Friday (17 January). Robbins is in charge of this case because US Attorney for Northern California Ismael Ramsey had to recuse himself from the investigation. The office declined to answer questions about the reason for the recusal or when Ramsey was recused.

 

Since the June 2024 search of her home, former mayor Thao has adamantly maintained her innocence, even telling reporters that she was not the target of the FBI’s probe. Thao was recalled from office in November by voters frustrated with crime and the city’s flagging local economy, and the FBI raids may have played a role in turning the public against her.

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Further reading: American women in municipal government

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USA / LOS ANGELES

Angelenos and American media remind the LA Mayor of her election pledge to forego international travel

January 2025: Upon taking office as Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who was a member of the US Congress from 2011 to 2022, told the New York Times that her international travel was behind her. As a member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Bass spent years travelling and working on US-Africa relations.

 

Three years ago, Bass was candid enough to admit that she would miss meeting people in other countries and on other continents but promised Angelenos that she would not travel abroad. “The only places I will go to are Washington, Sacramento, San Francisco, and New York." After her trip to Ghana, while her city was burning, the media and her voters reminded her of those words.

 

The New York Times reported that the pledge had been spectacularly broken. Since Karen Bass became Mayor in 2022, she has travelled internationally five times, once to Mexico, three times to Paris for the Olympics and now to Ghana for the inauguration of the country’s new president.

 

Bass told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday that she was communicating with City Hall throughout her flight back to LA. "I was on the phone, on the plane, almost every hour of the flight back to the US," she said. "So, although I was not physically in Los Angeles, I was in contact with many of the officials from the fire and police departments. When my flight landed, I immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades."

 

Further reading: American women in municipal government

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USA / LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles Mayor castigated for her trip to Ghana while the city was burning

January 2025: Los Angeles’ Mayor Karen Bass has been heavily criticised for the absence when the worst fires in the city’s history started to take hold. Residents told journalists and wrote on social media that the Mayor should have cancelled her trip to Ghana. “Why does the LA Mayor need to fly to Africa to attend the inauguration of the President of Ghana?” Paraphrasing the quote, ‘Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome was burning’, one commentator wrote, “Mayor Bass partied while Los Angeles was burning”.

 

According to the LA Times, Bass left Los Angeles on Saturday, 4 January 2025, as part of a presidential delegation to Ghana, just as the National Weather Service began ratcheting up its warnings about the coming windstorm. On Tuesday, she attended the inauguration of the Ghanaian President, leaving the City Council President as LA’s acting mayor when the fire broke out in a back garden in Palisades.

 

In the wake of the catastrophic wildfires that have now ravaged Los Angeles, claiming five lives, destroying more than 1,500 properties and forcing some 135,000 residents to evacuate, Mayor Karen Bass is facing mounting criticism of her leadership during the crisis.

 

As the firestorm intensified, questions arose regarding her actions - or lack thereof - when it came to preparedness and emergency response.

 

Criticism of the mayor intensified when reports revealed that crucial firefighting resources were stretched thin. Fire hydrants in affected areas, including Pacific Palisades, reportedly ran dry as first responders fought to control multiple blazes. Residents have expressed frustration over the lack of water pressure during critical moments, and many are pointing fingers at Bass' office for budget decisions made earlier in her tenure.s

 

The controversy centres around the Mayor’s decision to cut funding from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). In the most recent budget cycle, Bass slashed US$17 million from LAPD’s funding. This reduction follows an earlier proposal to cut as much as $23 million, which was ultimately scaled back after strong opposition from the United Firefighters Union of Los Angeles.

 

Further reading: American women in municipal government | American women mayors

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