Janet Rainey retires after 47 years of keeping records vital

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Keeping records of the births, deaths, marriages and divorces that occur in Virginia may seem like dull work.

Don’t tell that to Janet M. Rainey.

Retired as of Jan. 31, the 66-year-old spent her life in what she describes as an “intriguing field,” rising to lead the records office of the Virginia Department of Health for 18 years.

Ms. Rainey was the sixth state registrar since the office was established in 1912 and the second Black woman to hold the office’s top post.

Today, Ms. Rainey looks back at a 47year career that emphasized accuracy and attention to detail.

She participated in the technological revolution that computerized the records collection and had a ringside seat on societal changes, ranging from racial integration to gay marriage.

VDH credits her with helping the Office of Vital Records evolve from a paper-based operation to a computer-driven information center that takes in and safely makes records accessible electronically at local health department offices and through the Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

“Her dedication to ensuring the integrity and security of the state’s vital records has benefited all Virginians. Hundreds of thousands of vital records requests are processed every year, and she and her team have worked tirelessly to make them more available,” said Dr. Colin M. Greene, outgoing state health commissioner.

“During her tenure, the state began recording marriages and divorces between

American Federation of government Workers union officials removed

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Turmoil in the 2,500-member union representing workers at the Richmond Veterans Administration Medical Center in South Side is offering a cautionary tale for city employees who are now in the process of unionizing.

Since 2019, two presidents and an acting president of Local 2145 of the American Federation of Government Workers have been removed.

At this point, the AFGE’s national president, Everett Kelley, has installed a trustee to handle the local’s affairs after a union investigative committee found “probable cause” to uphold member complaints of illegal spending from the local’s treasury. The committee also referred the evidence it found to the U.S. Department of Labor for review and potential prosecution through the U.S. Department of Justice.

Separately, the Labor Department last year ordered that members of the local receive a refund of a dues increase that an administrative judge found was improperly imposed two years earlier.

The AFGE’s deputy counsel, Rushab Sanghvi, ahead of the ruling, stated in an email that the dues increase did not pass muster after finding that the president at the time, Gloria Dunham-Anderson, had not first put the dues to increase to a secret-ballot vote of the local’s members.

Mr. Kelley has not responded to a Free Press request for comment about the situation at the local.

But turmoil is not unusual for the AFGE, which represents 280,000 federal employees, or two-thirds of unionized federal workers, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In 2020, Mr. Kelley’s predecessor, J. David Cox, was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and misuse of union funds for his personal benefit.

In a recent report titled “AFGE Corruption Warrants Investigation,” the arch-con- servative Center for American Freedom found that AFGE ranks first among all unions for prosecutions for embezzlement and other criminal misdeeds.

But criminal prosecutions of union officials are not unusual. In 2022, the Department reported conducting more than 50 prosecutions of mostly people of the same sex, which “is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime,” Ms. Rainey said, and changed birth records for those who had sex-change operations.

She also ensured that adoptions by two parents of the same sex were properly recorded after the Virginia Supreme Court in 2005 overturned a ruling by her predecessor, Deborah Little-Bowser, the first Black woman registrar, to prevent both parents from being named.

Ms. Rainey also was part of the office’s team that has worked to undo the damage from the 1924 Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. That law allowed the state’s first vital records registrar, avowed racist Walter Plecker, to virtually eliminate

RPS to launch 200-day school year in July

By Holly Rodriguez

Fairfield Court Elementary School is the first Richmond Public School that will participate in the district’s 200-day school year pilot program, beginning July 24.

The School Board voted March 6 to launch the program. Funded by one-time dollars received as part of the American Rescue Plan, participation in the program is contingent upon a majority of teachers, staff and families being onboard. Fairfield received a 96 percent approval.

Three other elementary schools, Cardinal, Overby-Sheppard and Westover Hills, have been approved by the administration to participate as well. Cardinal and OverbySheppard are still counting votes of families willing to participate. At Westover Hills, with only 37 percent willing to participate, the pilot program will not proceed there.

Mr. Kamras said he will have the final vote count for Cardinal and Overby-Sheppard at the next School Board meeting. With the exception of the start date, students at schools participating in the 200-day school year will have the same scheduled holidays as their traditional 180-day peers, and will