New York City’s Board of Elections refused a watchdog’s recommendation to fire its executive director after a probe found he had harassed two of his female employees with sexually suggestive and racially insensitive comments, the city’s Department of Investigation said Wednesday.
The DOI investigated Michael Ryan between August and October 2024, concluding that he had created a hostile work environment. After DOI decided to take the “unusual step” of informing the BOE that “termination or resignation in lieu of termination is warranted,” the board declined to fire him or ask him to resign — instead suspending him without pay for three weeks, directing him to attend sensitivity training and putting him on probation for a year.
One woman told investigators that Ryan made suggestive comments and talked about her appearance when in her presence, sometimes paired with inappropriate physical gestures, like puckering his lips and trying to touch her face with his hand, according to the report released Wednesday. Ryan also commented on her ethnicity and discussed “offensive stories and stereotypes” about people with similar heritage, according to the report.
The employee is not named in the report but has identified herself as Stephanie Jaquez, the board’s former general counsel. Jaquez left her job after complaining of the harassment and now plans to sue the department, her attorney told Gothamist.
In one instance, Ryan and the board’s administrative manager Michael Corbett began discussing age differences in romantic relationships, with Corbett telling Ryan that “half your age plus seven” was an appropriate standard, the report states. Jaquez, who was present during the conversation and was subordinate to both men, was almost exactly half Ryan’s age plus seven. (Corbett was later suspended without pay for one week, and was ordered to attend sensitivity training.)
While investigating the claims, DOI learned that Ryan had made a second woman uncomfortable with comments about her ethnicity and gender. The DOI report does not mention those comments, but the news site The City reported Tuesday that Ryan had joked to one employee about not trusting Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and commented, “Oh rosy lips” after seeing a container of Vaseline on her desk.
The second employee, who is of South Asian descent, told investigators that Ryan had asked her “What type of Indian are you?” and described Indians as “non-confrontational,” The City reported.
Ryan has been the board’s executive director since 2013 and was paid more than $265,000 last year.
In a statement posted online Wednesday, the BOE said Ryan served his suspension at the end of 2024. Board president Rodney L. Pepe-Souvenir and secretary Frederic Umane said that after the board learned of allegations against Ryan, “we took swift action by meeting with our colleagues and then referring the matter to DOI for review.”
“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,” they said. The statement did not address why Ryan was not terminated.
Ryan, in a statement, said: “I want to express my deepest apologies to my family, my colleagues and to anyone that I unintentionally offended.”
The DOI interviewed 14 Board of Elections employees and found both women’s allegations to be credible. Ryan admitted to some of the conduct but denied or claimed not to recall others, like the instance of puckering his lips or trying to touch an employee’s face. He also told investigators he did not mean to harass the women — an excuse that the report calls irrelevant.
The report found that the Board of Elections, a city agency with a $138 million budget, lacked any confidential complaint system or a protocol for independent investigations of its senior leaders. And the board did not employ anyone charged with reviewing complaints and conducting investigations into Equal Employment Opportunity issues.
The BOE told DOI it would “review and update” its EEO policies and consider DOI’s recommendations, which include appointing an EEO officer and regularly training all personnel on workplace conduct.
