Way up what’s up it’s way up with Angela ye I’m Angela ye and I have super mayor Tiffany henyard here with us how are you doing today I’m doing good thank you for having me all right well thanks for coming up and the reason they call you
The super mayor is because you’re the mayor Dalton Illinois but you’re also the supervisor of the township right which is 190,000 people yes and then the mayor of Dalton which is 23,000 residents okay so explain um the difference in both of those positions for people who are listening sure so if
You know anybody that’s a mayor they are over services so that means like if you got street lights out sidewalks pavement of alleys or streets things of that nature and if you are somebody that’s a Township supervisor you over resources okay so you have pay a light bill gas
Bill water bill I do mortgage and rental assistance I even help you bury your loved ones so that’s the difference and we have a food pantry that’s crazy that you have both of those positions yes is that a is that a rare thing it is it’s
Only I think two or three that I know of that has uh dual seats like me meaning mayor and supervisor but it’s plenty of elected officials that have multiple seats okay because I always think a mayor is like such a full-time job that kind of occupies all of your time and
And it does but it’s considered parttime in my community okay so I’m able to do other things too all right and you have been in the news a lot so that’s why I’m glad that you’re up here today to clear up some things yes I’m here to lay the
Mess the rest cuz the way they make it seem like you Cookie from you know what but you know that’s the way they make it seem like you’re walking around you got all the security dressed off fly and so I know part of your position is that you
Are able to have security detail corre with you and most Mayors do yes I know our mayor definitely does and I’ve been around to know see other people have security yes it comes with the seat but I also see that um I was able to get some of these messages because you do
Get voicemails but also uh emails of people that have been threatening you that’s correct um some of them are can I do you mind if I read because I know this could be triggering I don’t know how you feel about this but okay you’re a effing crook you ugly bee you will be
In prison soon so get that nasty greasy black vagina ready for Sheniqua the inmates will love to have origies with the racist crooked mayor all right to move on to some more um hey grifter maybe learn to effing speak English sometime your grammar is atrocious but I
Guess that’s what can be expected from a mayor who looks like you do I mean these are these aren’t even the worst ones by the way I just want to say there’s a lot more in here somebody called you a Despicable Savage monkey N word b MH and
Told you you better watch your back and then I did hear some of the uh voice me one just says F all you goddamn nword and you are the first black woman to be in this position yes in both positions in both positions and the youngest and
The youngest yes so did this start happening once the news was reporting on what and we’re going to get into what the news has been reporting but did this start happening before the news reported on you or after this happened when a news start reporting on me now we got
Something some emails or some things here and there but it wasn’t this bad it got worse once the news got involved because they got a national platform right so people tend to believe what they see on the news and they just report things anybody can go do an
Interview with them with no fact checking anybody can say anything and now that’s considered defamation of character and then now you have to go clean it all up because now people that put you out there in the bad light and people tend to believe what they see on
The news and that’s why I believe what Trump say when it comes to fake news fake news is true cuz I’m I’m living it I’m going through it right now he I believe Chum also said if you say something enough times people will believe it whether or not it’s true I
Believe that and he definitely does that but you did win 82% of the vote when you ran for office land Y and a l slide Victory so how in your town of Dalton do people feel about you now with everything that’s going on because I would assume that matters the most it
Does so that’s what I I do I still on the ground boots on the ground I never stop talking to my residents I constantly have conversation with the mayor um I also have a lot of Outreach things going on where Community is involved and Community is engaged um a
Lot of people tell me how they feel it’s good better and different and I take it and I either go fix what they’re telling me that I need to fix or work on or you got people that’s way Tiffany no no matter what hash I stand with Tiff all
Of I saying that so I love that cuz my Bas is my base just like everybody out in the world have a base no matter what people say people support them and you’re from Dalton Illinois born and raised there tell me something about the town because I’ve never been there I
Know it’s outside of Chicago but tell me if you had to describe where you’re from what it’s like sure so um back in the day it was a small suburb that everybody wanted to go to because we had every single restaurant you could name was on
Sibly and now it just turned into um a area where it needed a little love because it was always rain and it was always corrupt and that’s why people don’t know how to come out of the corruption uh for our village I’m fighting against corruption now and
That’s why I’m being uh slandered in the media because people want to have their way with me and they cannot and will not so my town is still uh comprised of majority black uh in the past it was majority white when we moved there um I had friends named Heather and Susan and
Also when we moved there we had Green carpet uh flower wallpaper cuz it was majority white so it just transition I know that was a definition of white I Green carpet and floral wallpaper okay yeah it was just that was just like a older definition of white but it was
Just a older crowd it was just a older crowd and it was more LAX and what I mean by LAX meaning you go there when you’re like retiring it’s more how dton was that was that type of suburb but it is not now okay so what are some things
That you feel like you need that you’ve been bringing to the city like you said do been doing a lot of different initiative boots on the ground so what are some things that are necessary in Dalton so right now um again we got to
Put love back in it and get a hold of our youth that’s what’s missing right now um people don’t raise the community and we need the village to be raising our kids again that’s how it was like I said when I came in town um your
Neighbors will watch you get you off the bus you will eat dinner with them so your parents come home things like that that’s missing and that’s all I’m trying to do is bring those roots back to my community which I love because I wouldn’t be in this if I didn’t love it
You got to love where you come from and you got to start at home before you start outreaching to other communities and trying to build them so when do you okay so we talked about the news and when they started attacking you but all right I want to talk about some of these
Stories that we see in the news and I want you to be able to speak to them so that people can know because I’ve even seen these stories you know here in New York so all right so let’s talk about it um there was a person who said that he
Didn’t contribute to your campaign and therefore he was not able to get his license for his business his business has not been able to operate so it’s basically equivalent to extortion from what he was saying and that other businesses haven’t been able to get their licenses because they didn’t
Contribute to the campaign so that’s false statement and that’s what I mean about the news not doing any research they just let people get on the news and talk and I’m going say this and then I’m going go further into your question Malcolm X once said the media has the
Power to make a guilty person look innocent and an innocent person look guilty that’s their power so that’s why I’m sitting here telling my story today because that’s exactly what they’re doing to me so with that being said they put people like that in front of the the
Cameras went and didn’t do no fact cheing if people want to know the truth I’m going do it on my podcast Tiffany h on the move on Spotify right yes ma’am and I’m going to tell and show the facts and the proof of whatever a business
Owner did not do as relates to their business if they’re not up to Cod if they had a ton of shootings at their establishments which a lot of them had these type of issues but no one put that out there but I am now and I’m not the
One to never like try to drag or talk about a business because you should handle it behind closed doors meaning you’re a business before people put it in a in the spotlight and now you’re being attacked right okay so you’re saying that this person’s business was rightfully not able to get his license
Until he cleared up whatever it is that he needs to clear up correct we have documentation of all of that and I can give it to you too and that way you can follow up and show the world yeah right cuz we all got to do our research now
You were on with Roland Martin and that interview aired yesterday and he was talking about you’re a nonprofit you have a charity well you said you don’t have a charity but there’s a charity it has your name on it right it’s what is it Tiffany haard cares Tiffany H cares
Yes Tiffany henard cares um and so he says you know it looked like it was your charity there was video of you promoting this charity but you’re saying it’s not yours somebody’s using your name that’s correct okay so just to clear it up um
When I say it’s not my charity I’m not a board member on the charity I can tell you what they do with they day-to-day what I’m responsible for is my mayorship and my supervis position and it’s amazing how people are pinpointing on a charity when it’s so much stuff going on
With me as relates to the two areas that I actually do govern um I do support the individuals that has the charity um I am always advocate for cancer because my mom had cancer I feel they are good um wielded people as it relates to what
They was trying to do or trying to accomplish and I think people make mistakes people didn’t file paperwork and they blew it up into a story like everybody else don’t file paperwork I give you prime example if you have a LLC or something like that and you don’t
File and you go check and I check to see if you registered and it go to say not in good standing until you paid a $75 or50 whatever it is then it put you in good standing it’s the same concept it’s just that people are are missing the the
Point of it and I get that people really really meant to help people people not hert people right running a nonprofit we know uh a lot of times there are always issues with that but they need to be able to account like where the money was
Going but like you said that’s not your nonprofit that is somebody else’s but your name is not on that they just use your name I guess as a way to Garner attention correct just what’s your a way up so somebody go use that today does that mean you got anything to do Angela
Ye nonprofit I would be like hold on that’s like I would not want that but way up anybody could use that but if it was like my personal name on it I probably would not I would not want somebody unless I was involved in it and
They came to me cuz you would feel like that’s my name cuz you do know if something goes wrong that’s your name and I agree and it’s a learning curve and that’s what I try to tell people I’m not perfect no one’s perfect so when you find out mistakes or things happen you
Go and you try to fix it but people got to be giving you the chance to fix it and I just beat you up so much right it’s just that a lot of these things are in the headlines that’s why I’m asking cuz I want you to discuss it head on
Firsthand all right then there was a situation where was a city council meeting and people said they were not allowed to come up and voice their opinions in this meeting they were blocked downstairs from being able to to ask questions well that’s not true as it relates to being blocked if somebody was
Blocked or felt they was blocked they can always reach out to us um because our meetings are like four or five hours long so I don’t know who’s blocked in in my Village you know coming to comment you can go pull our board meets up and you can see that everybody’s allowed to
Speak cuz it’s before it’s before we start our board meeting okay public comic all right good and then and I trust me as a media person I know that sometimes things are inaccurate and I know that when there’s a story being painted of somebody you do have to go to
The source and do some research yeah which I don’t like clickbait so I always encourage people to make sure you read the full story before you do that all right the next thing um people did talk about was finances right and they said oh she’s traveling first class staying
At the Four Seasons uh blowing this money and that money now the company the the town used to be have a surplus of money but now there’s a deficit but then I also see on the paperwork that I have from your team that you guys have gotten
The largest in the history of the city with $50 million in Grants from people and despite the adversity and the resilience you know your commitment is undeniable and you have all these initiatives that you’ve done so let’s talk about the disparity between those two stories okay so one thing about me
Is I won’t stop I don’t sleep I’mma keep going while they talking about me I’m still working so when I’m still working I still manage to get money to come to our communities we was award $15 million I had the largest in the history for th Township and then the largest in the
History for uh the village of Dalton so more than any mayor more than any supervisor throughout all the controversy so if a person was that bad people W keep on supporting them because no matter what this is all about helping the people and that’s why I think we losing F Focus
Stor about what done and say hey how be do not one good thing not one good thing in any story they write about me every story they write is negative and I don’t know nobody that can just deal with all negative stuff all day long with nothing
Positive in their brain I just I just can’t get with it and that’s why you see me just constantly push through it because I told them before we going to go through it but we got to grow through it at the same time and that’s kind of
What I’ve been doing and I just glad that you was able to mention some of the things that um we actually created can I can I go a little further with yeah please this is your this is your platform now so we did a um and I’m
Sorry I’m a little horse we built a outdoor skating rink and um roller rink uh ice skating yeah ice skating and roller rink so in the summer they can roller skate we had the JB skaters out there and in the winter they can ice skate what I love about that concept is
Now we’re giving people the opportunity to go to the Olympics be who they want to be to practice in our own backyards in the black black and brown communities we normally have to go to a different community in order to engage or get practice or um have swimming lessons
Things like that my job is to create things for our community so that they can grow into what they want to be another thing that I do love about um what I’ve done is now uh the youth are following Tiffany henu the youth knows who a May is the youth know who’s a
Supervis they did not know that before no one could point out oh that’s the mayor of Dalton oh she does this oh she came to our school and spoke to us doing Black History Month oh she helped us with mental health we do a mental health tour that’s something really big that’s
Going on Nation whyde but no one’s really talking about it um on bigger platforms yeah they go get the celebrities here and there and people might give a little something about it but it’s happening everywhere so when we went in there in the schools and we did
The mental health tours we was able to help kids and parents uh identifi that they needed help and give them help that’s what I do but they don’t tell the heart of Tiffany h they want to tell the smoking mirrors and the clickbait no matter what people do if they write
About me I’m gold and I get it I get why everybody doing it they make money off of clicks and I didn’t know that I’m learning social media a little further but I didn’t know that that’s how big it has gotten how is this hand uh how are
You handling this since we just talked about mental health and you discussed how important that is but for you being in the position that you’re in and like you said this is the first time a black woman has had this position the youngest person in this position you’re still
Trying to do your day to job but yet there’s a lot of articles that are disparaging towards you how does that how do you deal with that how do you cope with that so basically I have tunnel vision to the mess I just keep going ignore it it’s almost like a horse
In a race and they had a blinders on so they can’t look left and right that’s Tiffany he I just focus on my goal my goal is to make sure I uplift the village of Dalton and the other 16 municipalities that I’m over I’m over 190,000 people I have to make sure I
Plant the seed now so that the kids can follow I have to set the tone as relates to the footprints so they can walk in my footprints and they know what to do and I want them to see what controversy look like adversity looks like and how I’m
Going to come out of it in the end and show them that no matter what you do never never ever give up cuz you going to always have somebody that don’t like you uh upset with a decision you made but the the point is you made a decision
That’s life you have to make decision and you have to give your your testimony and that’s what the test is right now this is my test and at the end of the day I’m going to be able to my testimony a year later two years later it’s just
Like the the Giants before us you gottin Luther King he had a dream but I am the dream and this is what I’m trying to show America that you got to have hope and you have to Prevail no matter what people say about you it’s interesting because even though a lot of the
Attention that they’re giving you in the media is negative it it is bringing a lot of attention yeah to your Township and also for a lot of people to say oh that’s the mayor yes you know a young black woman is the mayor of and also the
Supervisor of the township so that is something that hopefully is going to be on the flip side of this something positive when did you know you wanted to run from airor well after dealing and fighting with uh corruption uh and people that was in the seat prior to me
I fought against it and the people believed enough in me that they came out by 82% and voted for the first female and people uh got it all twisted when they say oh you just voted because she’s black because she’s woman no that’s not true I’ve always been boots on the
Ground I’ve always helped people that’s what people not telling I feel like that’s the opposite usually people won’t vote for you cuz you black or a woman so yeah you know so I don’t see how that is but the are other importances for people
To be able to see you right and be like I could one day also be a mayor and see that so I had someone come to my board meeting and he bought his daughter he wanted to show her that women are leading now which we are we are in
Politics um we are at the front and not in the back and that’s what I appreciate about residents that see through the smoke they still appreciate me and they still want me to be a mentor to their daughters and I love it now there’s also a federal investigation that’s being
Called for so where are you with that and did you know about it like ahead of time because I know previously I’ve seen you say I don’t know anything about being investigated so basically um there are no subpoenas at my office and also we don’t know anything as a relates to
What people are just alleging or saying but we don’t have any subpoenas and from our understanding there’s no other what do they call law enforcement that we know of having any investigations okay so this is something that’s a new story but it hasn’t hit you
Or if if it’s true or not if it is true you don’t know anything about it you haven’t been subpoena or nothing correct I also see in Illinois they trying to keep Trump off the ballot right I want to know what your thoughts of about Donald Trump running for office again oh
Wow I don’t have a a leg in that race so I didn’t know what you think I didn’t know anything about that I don’t know anything about you think he should be able to run he should be eligible to run for president or do you think with all
Of the legal issues he has and things that he’s been found guilty of and convicted of that that shouldn’t even be something that should be allowed well this is America everybody have the freedom to do what they want look at what I’m going through I can only speak
To me um everybody got freedom of speech right look at people just say whatever so but I just think like somebody who’s been convicted of so many things there’s so many jobs you can’t have you know what I mean I don’t think president that shouldn’t be a job that somebody should
Be able to even run for especially with the things that he’s been convicted of I I find it to be wild but I only ask you that because in Illinois I know that’s been a Hot Topic um also just recently yeah yeah well I have time to indulge
Anything else right now I’ve been focused on my myself and how yeah how distracting is all of this for you Bas as you’re trying to get your job done too at the same time um it just showed you that God got his hands on me me
Because he won’t give you more than what you can bear it’s just to make me wiser make me stronger um because you learn through controversy you learn what to do what not to do and I feel that’s what’s going on right now so and you grew up there are there people that you’re
Surprised like damn we grew up together I know you yeah it is it’s it’s a lot of those cuz you be shocked off of Gossip people really tend to believe gossip and that’s said because that’s a true statement of lack of knowledge our people will perish that’s true and
That’s kind of what’s happening so that’s why you see me going out telling my story giving them facts and I tell them never judge a person and you shouldn’t judge but if you are to judge at least get both sides because right now it’s only a one-sided narrative
Which is a negative Narrative of Tiffany and you is that why you decided you decided to do your podcast so you could fight all of these allegations but also for people to get to know you yes it’s basically to give them another perspective cuz right now the news won’t
Allow me to give my side we’ve reached out to several people and no one has wanted to even interview me and Norm people want to interview the crazy I would think that if somebody’s writing a story about you they would love to they or even reach out to you for comment
Like they reach out for comment some of them but they don’t always put them out okay and PR team they they give comment and sometimes they cut half of the comment off of things that we’re trying to put out and they put what portion they want the public to know and that’s
Why that Michael M statement is really true like it’s they they are gearing and shifting people to what they want them to believe or want them to know would you run for office again I I am I’m definitely am going to run again for both my seats so that’s why they doing a
Smear campaign because they cannot beat me they cannot and will not beat me so I just want them to know bring it but they bringing it a different way cuz they can’t beat me I do have the hearts of the people people do believe in me I am
A big influencer and that’s why you see all the smoke and mirors because they want to stop what my voice is and make them say don’t believe her because she this this and that with no truth no facts all right now explain this one to me too now I also saw another article
About um your salary was being called into question and then also something that you put forth that the next person that is in office if it’s not you would be getting $25,000 which is a lower salary than what you’re getting now so talk to me about that and what that
Story like where did that come from okay so for my salary a lot of people don’t tell the truth so I’m going to set the record straight my salary was already there it was from my precess he had that salary and all I did when I got sworn in
I took over whatever salary he had so no one said nothing 30 years ago he had for 30 years right no one ever question that he make too much money but today when a woman take over a young black woman it’s a problem why is that why all the noise
Over what someone make long as they doing the work and they qualified for the seat why do you have a problem with what they make we all choose our career paths it come with different amounts so M came with that stifen and then um the other amount was 50,000 from my
Mayorship so I got two different positions right cuz the way they make it seem like you make 200 and it’s 224 for supervisor and it’s 50 for uh mayor but it’s two different seats but they I didn’t make the salary up already so I just want to clear that up cuz people
Think that I came in and made up a number I did not now as it relates to ordinance um I said this too on his show um it’s a ordinance that was already on the books that no matter who would have ran against him he the the S would went
To $50,000 no matter what but no one researched it again they just ran a story and they put ordinance up because everybody was complaining that I make too much money okay cool we went we went pulled the ordinance CU that’s how I found out about it pulled the ordinance
And then we just cut it in half we went from 50,000 to 25,000 they making it seem that we went from 224,000 to 25,000 that’s not true we went from 50,000 to 25,00 that’s it and then that’s something else I’ll give you I’ll give you the documents you can put it on your
Screen to show the public CU again the media is misleading the people and that’s what I have a problem with this feels like a documentary or something yeah that that that’s coming oh it is coming yeah cuz I feel like just from me hearing you talk about doing the the
Podcast and then now all these things that I haven’t seen necessarily happen and I want to say like I know Hill Harper is running for office in Michigan right for Senate but he’s been going through a lot that he said he was very shocked at um happening you know in
Politics like you hear about it all the time but until you experience it you don’t know what it’s like you could have never anticipated any of these things happening I’m sure no but I knew that um politics had a lot of corruption in it but that’s the issue um when you don’t
Play their game because it is the boys clubs no matter what people say this is what happens they do smear campaigns on you they try to put doubt in the people that support you minds of your character it’s character assassination it’s defamation of character it’s all of
Above that is true so that’s why I always try to go talk to the kids because I want to encourage them to still believe in public service no matter what it is believe in that because they might want to run for office everybody don’t have the
Credentials or have the money to um go to school to be a doctor a lawyer anything like that they can actually still help the public um by being a public service but they can start small Park District Library board school board and then work their way up to a
Municipal seat or a city seat but just know that if you got the seat the screwy come with it it’s new levels new Devils that’s what’s happening right now and you also you have a daughter right I do foury old and what so what do you tell
Her about what’s going on I know she’s really young to really understand all of it but are there times that you have to explain things like yeah well I one thing I say about my baby uh justice is she’s a beacon of light and she uplifts
Me she say the darnest things at the right times and she has a personality out of this world and she always tell me mommy never never ever give up keep going I don’t care and she just said that to us yesterday it was just kind of
Weird I was like who Justice it was just shocking because kids they go off your energy and they know what to say so all right well good I’m glad you came up here because like I said I’ve been reading a lot of these things in the
News so I might have had a different perception but I also wanted to make sure that you had a chance to come up and clear up anything because I also know how tough it can be as far as like what the news is saying and then when I
Saw these emails that you were getting and these voicemails I think you know people don’t understand they’ll act like things are good there’s no more racism and we’re on a Level Playing Field pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you see stuff like this you see how alive
And thriving racism really is it is it’s still here and it hurts because um you wouldn’t think we will be going through this because it’s 21st century um we’re going through the same thing that our ancestors went through and it’s sad to see it in the 21st century because you
Would think it was it’s all over so what I want people to know or take from this interview is that hey you need to get on board and help defend right don’t sit here and let people just get dragged because oh that ain’t my fight it ain’t
Your fight today but it may be your fight tomorrow or in a year or your kids fight so that’s why you supposed to stop it now before it gets down 10 years later and now you could have prevented what now your kid might go through because they might want to be a public
Service or might want to be a radio host or be anything but you don’t want them to have to go through them same barriers and that’s what my goal is to knock down a lot of things uh like you said the person that’s running for office people
Don’t know till you sit on this side of the fence a lot of people would not withheld the storm like me U because people not built for this people would have been broke been crumble they mental would have been gone all type of things so a lot of people especially women give
Me a lot of um strength by saying I commend you on your uh fight against this because I would have been quit that’s what a lot of people say so I say I just smile and say hey God didn’t bring me this way this far to leave me
So I’m going keep going and I just stay prayed up I keep him first and he’s been ordering my steps and I love the fact that um he gave me this opportunity cuz without him I would not have this opportunity to have two big seats and be
Um a trend Sater and be a Trailblazer so I love that I have to ask what do you do to take care of yourself like when you need a break for some selfcare so uh my baby uh he takes care of me he makes
Sure that I’m good um I do a lot of uh massages got a decompress I do a lot of that and and my daughter I’m telling you that they my biggest support and my dad and my mom of course but them that Circle right there them my biggest
Support they uplifting and my team certain people my team they give me spiritual um guidance they pray over me um and also they always always send me scripture which I need I love that yeah I always tell people the team is so important it like you really got to pay
Attention to the team somebody has around them that means a lot and says a lot too so yeah I agree all right well thank you so much mayor Tiffany henyard uh super mayor sorry pardon me um and how can people find more information and follow you to get firsthand information
So if you want if you want the tea get it from me go check now Tiffany hener on the Move podcast uh I’m going drop the first one this week um it’s going to be epic it’s going to burn up the internet uh and remember I tell them if I ain’t
Come for you U if no if I didn’t s for you don’t come for me so I just want people to know um be prepared cuz I’m not g to stop I’m a fight her uh oh she not gonna hold back we cannot wait to hear this first episode of this podcast
All right well thank you so much for joining us thank you so much for having me up
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