Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown Dumps `Jeans Day'

Chicago - Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown says her employees will no longer have to pay cash to wear jeans on Fridays. But she's still defending the hundreds of thousands of dollars collected and wrote in a memo that "an innocent and good program has been eliminated."

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ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:

EXPERT: Andy Shaw on "Jeans Day"

STORY: Jeans Day Investigation

  VIDEO: Brown's January 21 Press Conference

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Fox Chicago News began asking questions about "Jeans Day" months ago, after several circuit court clerk employees told us they were tired of being asked for cash to wear jeans to work. The money was collected in envelopes and was supposedly going to charities and employee parties. But some employees said it felt like a shakedown.

Brown never did fully explain where all the cash went.

Now, nearly three months later, the clerk's 2,200 employees are getting a memo titled a "Special Briefing on Past Jeans Day Practice" signed by Dorothy Brown.

In it, Brown defends the program, but writes: "I received an anonymous letter from an employee laced with disrespectful profanity and false accusations, and concerns were raised by anonymous employees to the news media who alleged that they did not know how the money was disbursed. As a result of these misconceptions, an innocent and good program has been eliminated."

In a series of meetings over the past week, employees have been told "Jeans Day" will be limited to the last Friday of each month. But employees won't have to pay anything to dress in denim.

"Jeans Day" became a hot issue in the four-way race for County Board President. After leading in the polls, Brown finished third.

Since that time, insiders say Brown is rarely seen in her Daley Center office, and has just recently fired a number of her top managers.

Brown would not talk to us for this story.

In a separate statement, she said it's been decided the best way for employees to donate to charitable causes is for them to give the money directly to the charity itself.