Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough has been under the microscope of a court-appointed monitor since last April.

A legal spat is intensifying between Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and a court-appointed monitor who found that her office is struggling to put in place some federally mandated reforms designed to prevent political insiders from being hired to government posts.

Cardelle Spangler, the “compliance administrator” assigned last year by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier to keep tabs on Yarbrough’s office as part of the decades-old lawsuit brought by anti-patronage attorney Michael Shakman, wrote in her latest public report on Feb. 16 that Yarbrough’s office has made “significant progress” on revamping some hiring policies. And the monitor has not unearthed any fresh allegations of clout-based hiring in the office, a point repeatedly emphasized by Yarbrough’s team.