The Dolton police chief is appointed by the mayor with the advice and consent of the village’s board of trustees, and the same board approval is required to remove one. That rule, set by Illinois statute and mirrored in Dolton’s own village code, is the center of the leadership fights that have put the position in the news: Mayor Tiffany Henyard fired Chief Robert Collins in 2023 and later tried to install Ronald Burge Sr. in 2024 without the board votes the law requires, and the courts have been sorting it out since.
How the Chief Gets the Job
Illinois gives villages a choice. The default rule in the Illinois Municipal Code puts appointment of police officers, including the chief, in the hands of a board of fire and police commissioners. A village board can pass an ordinance assigning that power differently.1Illinois General Assembly. 65 ILCS 5 – Illinois Municipal Code, 10-2.1-4
Dolton did. The village code assigns the appointment to the mayor, but the appointment is not final until a majority of the trustees votes to confirm it.2Amazon S3. Collins v. Village of Dolton, Case No. 2024CH00571 A nominee also needs an active law enforcement certification from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB); without it, the person cannot exercise police powers or carry a firearm on duty.3Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. ILETSB – Home
How the Chief Can Be Fired
Removal tracks appointment. Under the ordinance-based process Dolton uses, the mayor may discharge the chief, but two things have to happen for the firing to take effect. The mayor must file the reasons with the board of trustees, and a majority of the board must confirm the removal. The statute is explicit: the removal “shall not become effective unless confirmed by a majority vote of the corporate authorities.”1Illinois General Assembly. 65 ILCS 5 – Illinois Municipal Code, 10-2.1-4
So a mayor who tells a chief he is fired, effective immediately, has not actually completed a legal removal. The chief keeps grounds to argue in court that he was never validly discharged. That is exactly how the Dolton disputes have landed in litigation.
The Collins Firing
Robert Collins was appointed police chief around May 8, 2021, by the mayor at the time, with the board of trustees voting its consent. On October 5, 2023, Mayor Henyard notified Collins that he was discharged, effective immediately. According to Collins’s lawsuit, Henyard did not issue written charges, did not state a cause, and did not bring the firing to the trustees for a confirming vote.2Amazon S3. Collins v. Village of Dolton, Case No. 2024CH00571
Collins’s complaint argued that the failure to follow 65 ILCS 5/10-2.1-17 and the Dolton village code made the discharge invalid because the board never confirmed it by majority vote.
The Burge Appointment and the ILETSB Warning
After Collins’s removal, Henyard appointed Ronald Burge Sr. as police chief in September 2024. A majority of the trustees said she lacked authority to do so without their consent, and they went to court. A judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Burge from serving without board approval.
A separate problem then surfaced from the state. ILETSB sent Henyard a letter stating that Burge’s appointment was “not legally valid due to missing paperwork and his lack of recent re-qualification.” The board warned that Burge was “currently not authorized to exercise law enforcement authority or to carry a firearm publicly,” and strongly encouraged the village to remove him from public service until ILETSB could determine whether he was eligible for reactivation and a training waiver.3Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. ILETSB – Home
A Cook County judge later ruled that employees appointed in violation of both the Illinois Municipal Code and the Dolton village code could not work in Village Hall. Trustees said Burge refused to turn over his keys, badge, and uniform. A motion to hold the mayor and Burge in contempt was denied, but the restraining order stayed in place.
The practical consequence of all this is that during stretches of 2023 and 2024, the legal authority of whoever was running the Dolton police department was genuinely uncertain. Orders issued by a chief without valid board confirmation can be challenged, and arrests or discipline carried out in that period can become legally vulnerable. Back-pay claims and attorney’s fees compound the exposure.
What the Chief Is Actually Responsible For
The chief runs the department: setting operational priorities, assigning patrol coverage, directing investigations, and writing the policies that govern use of force and traffic enforcement. The job carries real budget weight. Police spending has historically been the single largest line item in Dolton’s governmental budget, exceeding $11.7 million in the fiscal year ending April 2021.4Illinois Comptroller. Village of Dolton, Illinois Annual Financial Report FY2021
The chief is also responsible for making sure the department meets state training mandates, including the 20 hours of annual executive-level training that police chiefs and deputy chiefs must complete each year on top of the in-service training required of all Illinois officers.5Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. Forms and Information – Annual Police Chief and Deputy Police Chief Training Internal misconduct complaints, mutual-aid coordination with neighboring south suburban departments, and civil liability exposure from supervision and training failures all route through the chief’s office.
The Financial Picture the Chief Inherits
Whoever ends up permanently in the role takes on a department under real fiscal strain. Dolton’s most recent completed audit, for fiscal year 2021, disclosed a net police pension liability of more than $28.5 million. Combined police and fire pension liabilities and other post-employment benefits pushed the village’s unrestricted deficit past $46.5 million.4Illinois Comptroller. Village of Dolton, Illinois Annual Financial Report FY2021
That 2021 audit was the last one Dolton completed. A later investigation reported that the village’s general fund was approximately $3.65 million in the red, with hundreds of approved checks worth millions of dollars sitting unsent to vendors. The village has also faced a $33.5 million jury verdict stemming from a police pursuit. Those pressures translate directly into deferred equipment purchases, difficulty retaining experienced officers, and reduced capacity to meet state training mandates, which is the operational reality any confirmed chief steps into.