The Cook County Board Thursday approved a $165,000 settlement for a woman who said she fired after she objected to being overruled in her recommendation for the selection of a watchdog charged with helping to keep politics out of hiring in the office of then Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough.
Jeannette Soto was the director of human resources in the recorder’s office, and in late March of 2017 she was tasked with helping to find a new director of compliance for that office, according to the suit, which was filed in 2018.
In court filings, Soto said Yarbrough and Erwin Acox Jr., who was then the chief of human resources, discriminated against her politically and, during the search for a new director, Acox involved himself at multiple points in the process even though he wasn’t supposed to.
Yarbrough, who was elected as Cook County Clerk in 2018, said she had nothing to do with Soto’s firing.
The settlement sailed through the Cook County Finance Committee Wednesday and was approved unanimously by the full Board of Commissioners Thursday.
