Brown lashed over employee 'jeans tax'

Opponents in the Democratic race for president of the Cook County Board pounced on Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown today over reports she's collected cash from employees for years for "informal dress" days.

Calling it "taxing her employees for wearing jeans," Chicago Hyde Park Alderman Toni Preckwinkle labeled it "odd," "peculiar" and "disturbing" and speculated that with 2,100 employees contributing on a weekly basis it might have collected hundreds of thousands or as much as $1 million over the last decade.

WFLD-TV Channel 32 reported Wednesday that Brown's office has been collecting a handful of dollars from employees for years for the right to engage in "casual Fridays" and wear jeans, with occasionally $10 charged to dress down for an entire week.

Brown has answered that the collected money went to charities or to employee parties. She scheduled a news conference at the Daley Center in Chicago Friday to "give full accounting" for the program.

"The employees of the clerk's office have voluntarily participated in 'Jeans Days,'" she said, "as a means to contribute to various goodwill causes over the years. ... It is unfortunate that this innocent practice that helps so many causes is being maligned by some members of the media."

Incumbent President Todd Stroger called on Brown to contact the county's inspector general immediately. "Clerk Brown must ensure the taxpayers of Cook County that this latest allegation is baseless and without merit," he said, "but she also must be held accountable if the findings have merit."

Preckwinkle, citing her record as a reformer on Chicago's City Council, has bristled at Brown's claims that she too is a reformer, and she cited the "jeans tax" to debunk those claims. "This is a person who touts her credentials as a lawyer and a certified public accountant," Preckwinkle said. "She ought to be keeping meticulous records."

Preckwinkle also raised previous issues with Brown's campaign using state workers to collect petition signatures and accepting political contributions from her employees. "All of this is disturbing," Preckwinkle said. "It has the appearance of impropriety."

Stroger attempted to turn the tables on Preckwinkle, issuing a statement that she "has chosen to exploit this news story for political gain, instead of cleaning up her own house." Stroger raised the specter of about $57,000 in campaign contributions made to Preckwinkle from disgraced former Chicago developer Tony Rezko, since convicted on corruption charges.

Preckwinkle dismissed that as old news, saying, "Tony Rezko hasn't contributed a dime to me in a decade." She added that candidates like Barack Obama and even Rod Blagojevich returned Rezko contributions in more recent years when he was facing indictment and they no longer wanted to be associated with him. She said there was no point in now returning money given in the '90s when he was a legitimate developer of low-income housing.

The other Democratic candidate in the race, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien, seemed content to let the others beat one another up and did not issue any formal statements on the matters.