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NYC Board of Elections head keeps job after watchdog found he made racial, sexual jokes
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jan 8, 2025
Modified Jan 8, 2025
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Brigid Bergin
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jan 8, 2025
Modified Jan 8, 2025
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The New York City Board of Elections rejected a city watchdog’s recommendation to fire its leader after an internal city investigation found that he made repeated racial and sexual jokes and innuendos toward two women working under him, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The city Department of Investigation found that Mike Ryan, the executive director of the Board of Elections, created a hostile work environment that drove one staffer to quit after she complained that he had puckered his lips at her, used a phrase from a Spanish-language TV show that means “come to bed,” and characterized the Puerto Rican and Dominican staffer as “un-Latina-like” in how she did her work.
Board of Elections commissioners opted to suspend Ryan for three weeks without pay, send him to sensitivity training and put him on probation for a year. The Department of Investigation's recommendation to fire him and the election board’s refusal to do so was detailed in a final version of the report.
“Upon learning of the serious claims made by a former employee, we took swift action by meeting with our colleagues and then referring the matter to DOI for review," the board's president and secretary said in a statement released after the report. "In doing so, we sent a strong message that these types of unwelcomed and insensitive comments will not be tolerated by anyone at the BOE."
The agency added that Ryan had already served his unpaid suspension. Ryan said he disputes the allegations.
In a footnote in their final report, investigators noted Ryan, who is white, last completed the city’s mandatory training program for equal employment opportunity and sexual harassment prevention in May 2024, while the alleged harassment was taking place. A confidential report detailing the Department of Investigation's findings was first reported by news outlet The City.
Stephanie Jaquez, a former associate general counsel for the Board of Elections who left after complaining about Ryan’s harassment, plans to sue the agency after the city investigation substantiated her allegations of harassment, according to her lawyer.
Jaquez complained to senior managers and board commissioners about Ryan’s alleged conduct and resigned from her position shortly thereafter, according to the report.
The Department of Investigation said that during the probe it identified another elections board employee, a woman of South Asian descent, whom investigators determined Ryan had also subjected to harassment and a hostile work environment.
Jaquez told Gothamist she was grateful that investigators had substantiated her claims, but said the report was “still difficult to read.”
“It’s just a reminder of how horribly Mike Ryan made me feel at work. And proves that the city has prioritized the job security of a scandal-ridden man over making any effort to treat someone like me equally,” she said.
The investigation found that between April and July 2024, Ryan repeatedly joked about, remarked on, and told stories related to Jaquez’s ethnicity and gender.
In one instance, Jaquez told investigators that Ryan had described a Spanish-language TV show featuring “dancing girls” and re-enacted how the male host danced while singing “pa' la cama," which translates to “come to bed.” Jaquez said Ryan also made a comment like, “A young woman wants me, I know why she wants me."
Ryan told investigators he did not make that statement. But he did confirm that the conversation happened, and recalled standing in the doorway of the office of the board’s administrative manager Michael Corbett, according to the investigation.
In that same conversation, Jaquez said Ryan and Corbett, who is also a white man, began discussing what was an acceptable age difference when people were dating. Corbett said the rule was “half your age plus seven.” Ryan was 58, Corbett was 42 and Jaquez was 34.
Jaquez told investigators that the conversation made her uncomfortable and that she wanted to leave but felt like she could not because both men were part of the agency’s senior leadership. At one point, she recalled telling Corbett and Ryan “enough” and Ryan left the office doorway.
Ryan told investigators that conversation was inappropriate, but “not over the top.”
Corbett, who has not responded to a request for comment, was suspended for one week without pay and ordered to attend additional sensitivity training.
In another instance, Ryan told Jaquez that the way she picked up the phone was “un-Latina-like” and that he “missed the sass.” Jaquez told investigators the comment made her feel “like s---,” and said she would never call Ryan and tell him he “sound[s] Irish.”
The complaints end a period of relative calm for the beleaguered Board of Elections. The agency, which is outside the mayor's purview, has repeatedly rebuffed calls for reform despite a litany of illegal and embarrassing conduct, including an illegal voter purge in 2016, jammed voting machines in 2018, misprinted absentee ballots in 2020 and the botched reporting of the first-tally of ranked-choice-voting results in the 2021 mayoral primary.
The agency has faced less criticism over the past year, and has even won praise from city councilmembers and good government advocates for taking steps to improve voter outreach and communications as the 2025 citywide election looms.
In a statement responding to the Department of Investigation report, Ryan said, “I want to express my deepest apologies to my family, my colleagues and to anyone that I unintentionally offended. While I dispute these allegations and disagree with the report’s conclusion, I accept the determination of the Commissioners in the best interests of the Agency.”
In their final report, investigators noted Ryan did not seem to understand the significance of his comments or how they could have affected Jaquez and others at the agency.
“He was at minimum reckless or careless as to how his comments and conduct could reasonably be received by others,” the report stated. “Whether Ryan ‘intended’ to harass is irrelevant to whether he violated law or policy.”
Investigators found Ryan’s conduct violated the Board of Elections’ equal employment opportunity policies as well as city and state human rights laws. The board also lacked a trained equal employment opportunity officer and had no protocol to keep complaints confidential from the executive director, according to the report.
While the Department of Investigation recommended terminating Ryan, the board's 10 commissioners unanimously agreed on a lesser punishment.
Beyond suspending him and ordering him to complete sensitivity training, the board agreed to review and update its equal employment opportunity policies. It did not say when it would make any of the changes.
“The BOE’s punishment is insulting,” Jaquez said. “And I believe he has already taken that sensitivity training class, which would prove that he gained nothing from it."
This story has been updated with additional information.
Tagged
new york city
public safety
Politics
elections
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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