Would you like to take more than two months off work, kick back over the winter holidays and still rake in almost $14,000? Of course, who wouldn’t? That’s what former Denver Election Commission technology chief Anthony Rainey did while on “investigative leave” after the Nov. 7 election. Rainey finally “left the payroll” Jan. 21, the Rocky Mountain News reported last week. Rainey’s leave was originally supposed to last five weeks, but apparently it took twice that long to decide he shouldn’t be employed by the city. Here’s a look back at Rainey’s history with the city of Denver:
2001: Rainey lies about his experience on a resume he submitted for a job with the city of Denver. He claims to have been Denver Health’s chief information officer, but he actually worked in the hospital as a tech consultant and middle-manager for a different company called Interlink. He isn’t hired.
May 2003: Rainey gets a job with the commission as an on-call administrative support assistant. It’s been suggested Rainey was recruited by the commission’s former executive director, Karon Hatchett, because they were friends and fellow churchmembers.
March 2004: Rainey is hired full-time as the commission’s technology chief.
March 2005: City Council aide Lynn Pressnall gave a letter to Mayor Hickenlooper stating Rainey was unqualified for the tech chief position, had threatened employees and was driving away qualified workers.
June, 2006: Amid doubts of Rainey’s expertise, John Gaydeski, executive director of the commission, defends him. Rainey again claims to have been the CIO for Denver Health.
Nov. 2, 2006: Wayne Vaden, the recently resigned Denver Clerk and Recorder, brought two city tech experts to help Rainey ensure the high-tech election goes smoothly. “But soon after they arrived, Vaden heard Rainey yelling at the tech experts, demanding they leave.” Rainey insisted the city experts didn’t know anything about Sequoia Voting Systems software.
Nov. 7, 2006: Election Day in Denver is a disaster. The electronic poll book used to look up voter registration repeatedly crashes and is agonizingly slow, causing hours-long lines and an unknown number of voters to give up and leave the polls.
Nov. 9, 2006: Rainey brushes off criticism over Denver’s election problems, calling the glitches with Sequoia’s computerized poll book “normal,” and saying, “There’s no perfect software out there.”
Nov. 11, 2006: Rainey is placed on “administrative investigative leave.”
Jan. 21, 2007: Rainey finally leaves the city’s payroll. He’s collected almost $14,000 since being placed on leave.
