[Chicago Tribune] Less than a year into office, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough faces potential federal court oversight of hiring amid a watchdog’s accusations that she’s “running an illegal patronage employment system.”Veteran anti-patronage attorney Michael Shakman said in a new legal filing that Yarbrough has put the politically connected into jobs that are supposed to be free from such influence, asked her employees for campaign contributions on their private cellphones and transferred certain supervisors to far-flung offices in hopes they’ll quit.
Yarbrough, who was under federal court oversight in her previous job as recorder of deeds, called Shakman’s latest allegations “outrageous” and “preposterous.”
“Everything that I’m being accused of is just simply not true,” said Yarbrough, who also is vice chair of the Illinois Democratic Party led by House Speaker Michael Madigan. “We’ll have our day in court.”
Shakman is asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier to appoint the first-ever federal monitor in the clerk’s office to investigate and recommend reforms as well as examine hiring and personnel practices under Yarbrough. At a Wednesday hearing, Schenkier ordered Yarbrough to file a formal response in 30 days and asked the two sides to discuss potential information available about the disputed matters for further review.