COOK COUNTY CLERK TALKS ABOUT YEARS OF SERVICE

Karen Yarbrough is the Cook County Clerk. She is the first African-American woman to hold the position. Previously she was the Recorder of Deeds and an Illinois State Representative. Photo provided by Sally Daly
Karen Yarbrough is the Cook County Clerk. She is the first African-American woman to hold the position. Previously she was the Recorder of Deeds and an Illinois State Representative. Photo provided by Sally Daly

 Cook County Clerk talks about years of service

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Karen Yarbrough oversees one of the largest consolidated clerk’s offices in the United States as the Cook County Clerk. She is the first African American woman to serve in this position.
      Cook County Clerk is responsible for managing elections for more than 125 suburban towns and villages, as well as administering and maintaining Vital Records – births, marriages, civil unions and deaths.
      Prior to serving as Cook County Clerk, Yarbrough was Recorder of Deeds and also served as an Illinois State Representative for 12 years. Yarbrough has been a realtor and
insurance agent and found a symbiotic relationship between the two. It also connected her to community, which began her foray into local government and politics.
    In December 2020, Recorder of Deeds duties were included in the Cook County Clerk’s Office. Yarbrough said the whole idea was to save the taxpayers money. She said the office had to figure out how to do it.
    Yarbrough said the Cook County Clerk’s office plays a small but a large role in property taxes. It is the job of the Clerk’s office to bring all the documents of the levies from the taxing bodies together, then it gets sent to the Treasurer’s Office. “It is [an] important role, that we serve. We have a CPA who’s over that area and an attorney. It’s important that we get those numbers right,” she said, adding that taxpayers want to ensure taxes are fair. “People have real concerns about how we’re being taxed in Cook County.”
    Yarbrough said she thinks taxing districts in Cook County can be consolidated and added, “everybody wants to
save money.”
   Yarbrough first ran for Illinois State Representative in 1997. She had been successful in business and found that government has a huge role in our lives.
    “Why not be at the table, at the real table where decisions are being made, about the what, when, where, why and who,” she said, adding that she thought it would be a good time to
transition from business to government.
    Yarbrough ran the first time and lost, the second time she ran, she won. She said the plan was to only stay for 10 years to understand how state government works. She said during those 12 years, she passed some great legislation.
     Yarbrough passed the bill to abolish the death penalty in Illinois, to regulate smoking in public places. “I passed a lot
of legislation around housing because I really care about that whole issue,” she said. “Housing is foundational. What I have seen over that 12 years while I was there is housing policy has continued to evolve.”
   Yarbrough said what has happened with housing with Black people moving from the South and coming to the South and West sides of Chicago, they weren’t treated fairly and government played a role in that.
     Yarbrough said she made the leap to the county because “you do what you can while you can.” In the Recorder of Deeds Office, Yarbrough confronted property fraud and advocated for property owners. The Cook County Clerk’s Office established a property fraud department and did outreach on the West and South sides of Chicago.
    “What we found is, through our advocacy and education, we were able to help people to understand that when you are at the closing table, you get your deed,” she said, adding that you can get a copy of the deed from the recorder’s office for $10.
    Yarbrough said the property fraud was something that was happening on the South and West sides to people of color. She said she had to confront property fraud very boldly, educating
cashiers and clerks on how to spot frauds. The fraud department also was told what to spot. That work is being
continued by the fraud department even now.
    Yarbrough said she is proud of the work that she did in that office. “I love opening up the ears and eyes of the people so they can help themselves,” she said. “I think I’m the right person to do this job at this time.”

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