CHICAGO — A federal judge won’t let two Cook County Recorder's office employees continue a lawsuit in which they allege their failure to throw political support behind Karen Yarbrough — former recorder and current county clerk — cost them professional advancement opportunities.
Megan Cook and Sheena Williamson sued Yarbrough, Chief Deputy Recorder William Velazquez, the office and the county, alleging discrimination related to the hiring of Erica Sanchez, Velazquez’s executive assistant, as well as the salaries for all three women. In a decision filed May 5, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras granted summary judgment in favor of Yarbrough and the county defendants.
Cook was an executive assistant to the Recorder's office's labor counsel from 2013 to 2017. Williamson had a similar position for the deputy recorder for finance from 2013 to 2016. Although the positions in question may not be filled for political reasons — according to the 1972 federal Shakman Decree barring Illinois agencies from letting politics improperly control government jobs — Kocoras said the women’s complaint didn’t show how they were similarly situated to Sanchez.
Jaclyn Diaz
| Ed Fox & Associates
“It is significant to note that neither Cook nor Williamson applied for the higher paying position occupied by Sanchez,” Kocoras wrote. “Notwithstanding their consistent complaints about the pay discrepancies between their positions and that of Sanchez, the differences in duties between their positions and the office Sanchez occupied is basically ignored.”
Kocoras further said Cook and Williamson didn’t factor “the countywide grade and pay structure applicable to all employees based essentially on the relative importance ascribed to the duties of the grade and positions described.”
He detailed the key differences between the positions, such as that each woman reported to a different person — Sanchez directly to the deputy recorder, the second-highest position in the office. Also, Sanchez had to communicate with officials from the county president’s office and county commissioners and attend meetings on behalf of the chief deputy recorder.
“Simply put, the job of an assistant to a high-level executive necessarily entails job duties different from an assistant to a lower-level executive," Kocoras wrote. “Thus, any differences in pay grade, which were set by the county and not the recorder’s office, were not based on any nefarious political reasons.”
Complaints of politicially-motivated patronage hiring have dogged Yarbrough during her political career. She has faced complaints in court, laying out allegations both from her time as the Cook County Recorder of Deeds to her current post as Cook County Clerk.
However, in this case, the judge said the plaintiffs couldn't establish their claims.
Although Cook and Williamson alleged Yarbrough and Velazquez were personally involving in their hiring and pay rate, Kocoras said the complaint lacked supporting evidence. Although Velazquez did set Sanchez’s salary, there is no evidence he was even aware the office hired Cook and Williamson.
With regards to the political affiliation of each woman, Kocoras wrote Cook and Williamson “spill buckets of ink” to argue the defendants knew Sanchez was connected to Yarbrough through her role as an elected committeeperson of the Proviso Township Democratic Organization. Among the evidence is that Sanchez’s husband and father-in-law own Mariella’s Banquets, the site of several Yarbrough political events, including some at which Sanchez was photographed, and that Yarbrough attended Sanchez’s wedding.
However, Kocoras continued, the complaint doesn’t offer specific allegations Yarbough or Velazquez had any knowledge that Cook and Williamson weren’t aligned with them politically. Rather, they say a Shakman compliance administrator would’ve noted it while reviewing their hiring, or it would have come up during 2013 inspector general investigations.
“These arguments, however, rely on speculation,” Kocoras wrote. “There is no evidence that could lead a reasonable jury to find that Yarbrough and Velazquez knew of plaintiffs’ non-affiliation at the time plaintiffs were hired and their salaries were set.”
With no underlying deprivation of constitutional right, Kocoras concluded, the county and recorder’s office bear no liability. He granted summary judgment and terminated the lawsuit.
Cook and Williamson have been represented by attorney Jaclyn N. Diaz, of the firm of Ed Fox & Associates, of Chicago.
Yarbrough and the county defendants have been represented by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.