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Having employees pay up to $10 a pop to wear jeans to work was not Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s bestest idea. The excuse that the money raised funds for anything from office picnics to Hatian Earthquake relief isn’t really flying. (Hmm, Hacky Sack or Hatians? Decisions, decisions.) The county investigator general is looking into the matter. Pop the hood.

It was a questionable office fund-raiser in Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office, and today the Jeans Day charity program faded away.

Brown’s office confirmed [Wednesday] that Jeans Day is over — sort of.

“No Jeans Day has not gone away,” said spokeswoman Jalyne Strong. “The clerk’s office still has a Jeans Day once a month — the last Friday of the month,” Strong said, adding “But we’re no longer collecting money for Jeans Day.”

For years — including under Brown’s predecessor Aurelia Pucinski — employees kicked in anywhere from $3 to $10 for the privilege of wearing jeans to work. The money paid for anything from office picnics to relief for victims of the Haitian earthquake, according to the clerk’s office.

But in January, as Brown was locked in a four-way Democratic race for Cook County Board president, some of her employees complained to several media outlets, including the Chicago Sun-Times, that they not only felt compelled to participate in Jeans Day, but that they aren’t quite sure where the money goes.

That’s because the donations, largely in cash, were collected by bosses, stuffed into envelopes and whisked away, employees said.

Brown held a news conference in January defending the fund-raising program, but her staff now says she killed it that very month. At her January news conference, Brown could not provide a full accounting for Jeans Day events for 2009, beyond saying there were 22 scheduled Jeans Days last year that netted $40,000 in donations.

After some prodding by reporters, Brown acknowledged there were other Jeans Day organized events, but an exact number wasn’t available.

Brown also didn’t provide a full accounting of contributions before last year.

WFLD-TV Chicago is reporting it has a obtained a memo from Brown’s office, saying she’s shut the Jeans Day program down because of disgruntled employees and the news reports.

Strong acknowledged the memo, but said it was an “internal document” and refused to provide a copy of it.

Strong was asked repeatedly whether news reports led Brown’s office to shut down the program.

She would only say: “Basically because it was determined that if people wanted to give to charitable, benevolent causes, it would be best if they made contributions directly.”

But what about the picnics and other events?

“So the employee morale programs, we’re not using Jeans Day for those programs,” Strong said. “We decided employees will bring their food, lunches and sandwiches,” to the picnic, Strong said. “Before we had food and games, horseback riding. Now there will be, I don’t know, backgammon. You’ll bring your own bat and ball and things like that.”

The money stuffed into envelopes sounds like some mobbed-up foolishness.

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