The whole story is here, courtesy of FIRE:
As I have to admit too often, I missed this debacle. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression got a court order against this ridiculous mayor (Guess what party!) in 2022 to force her not to interfere with her city’s citizens’ right to give their statements in a public forum. FIRE is now justly using the episode to raise funds for its excellent work, taking over for the ACLU, which has decided that it would rather be a tool of abusive government power (as long as their favorite party is in charge) than opposing it.
You’ll be pleased to learn that the mayor is no longer in office. The rest of the story: Owens, who had barely been elected mayor with just 32.5% of the vote in a five-way contest, was a human train wreck, with the lawsuit resulting from this meeting, a criminal conviction for making false statements on a grant application for her business, irregularities in her financial disclosure submissions, and other controversies.
My question above is a trick (sorry): Owens has claimed to be both a Democrat and a Republican depending on the situation and her mood: she’s a bi-partisan jerk. As with most of the horrifying individuals who end up in this Ethics Alarms category, the issue highlighted is irresponsible voters.
Ethics Alarms 
She is far outshadowed by Dalton, Il mayor Tiffany Henyard. Henyard is now accused of attempted murder. In addition to draining money from the city for vast amounts of travel (without receipts), paying the police to protect her 24/7 at outrageous reimbursement rates (a la Fanni Willis), signing a lease for an SUV for over $150,000 while stopping payment on the police cars, making ‘mistakes’ during her recall election that resulted in the successful recall being thrown out of court, shaking down local businesses, intimidating people with her gang-member associates, hiring a sex-offender (convicted child rapist) as a code-enforcement officer, locking the city council out of the building so they couldn’t hold a hearing on her behavior, she trapped a bunch of citizens in a basement so they couldn’t voice their concerns during a meeting and instead, Henyard’s friends got to praise her. In the last instance, the people were released once the meeting had ended. Oh, and she changed the law so the salary for the job is $250,000 if she holds it, but only $25,000 if anyone else is mayor. That is her way of keeping anyone from running against her.
Oh, Henyard traveled to the White House so Joe Biden could recognize her good work as mayor. It looks like there is no legal way to remove her from office or to stop her from her illegal activities.
Cook County eh? Wasn’t there another mayor from thereabouts who also had a checkered past?
I found it interesting that residents there are calling on the government to ‘do something’. If she’s been as blatantly out of line as it appears, do they not have access to the courts themselves? Or does Illinois law exempt Cook County mayors from being sued?
Apparently they can’t. I think she has immunity from lawsuits for her actions as mayor. I mean, they recalled her and the judges said they aren’t allowed to do that if she doesn’t cooperate.
Maybe she’s finally headed for a well-deserved fall:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/02/22/illinois-attorney-general-orders-dolton-mayor-tiffany-henyard-charity/