Watching Dorothy Brown implode with a stream of stories about gifts to her and donations raised from her employees for both personal and political purposes, it’s not that amazing that she does it, it’s amazing that if she is going to be essentially ‘legally’ corrupt, she goes for such small potatoes:
Brown, who’s seeking a promotion to County Board president, recently told the Tribune that all the money collected either goes to charities or into a fund that pays for an annual employee appreciation awards ceremony.
“It’s a voluntary thing,” said Brown, noting the jeans practice is not held every Friday. “If they want to do it, fine, because blue jeans is not our attire, and you have to have on a tag saying I’m wearing blue jeans because…But they want to wear blue jeans and not pay — is that what it is?”
Coughing up cash for jeans days, however, isn’t the only example of Brown raising money for pet causes from workers in her office, which has more than 2,100 employees.
Brown has raised tens of thousands of dollars from employees for her Friends of Dorothy Brown campaign fund.
In addition, many top-level employees have helped organize annual birthday parties that double as fundraisers. Brown has accepted cash gifts and other presents from employees at those birthday parties and on Christmas — a practice she halted after the Tribune asked her about it.
“The stories that come out of that office are in some ways little ones, but they just keep coming,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
Some of the best news of the week is that Toni Perwinkle has pulled into a pretty substantial lead for the Cook County President’s race. Even better, Todd Stroger is in the running to compete with former Saint Louis Mayor Clarence Harmon as the incumbent to do the worst in a campaign for reelection. Stroger is polling at 11 percent while Harmon came in around 8 percent. That’s something to shoot for.