NYC Board Of Elections Director Fined For Violating Ethics Law

Two days after the chaotic pandemic primary, the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board delivered another blow to the New York City Board of Elections. The agency’s Executive director Michael Ryan was fined $2,500 on Thursday for violating the city’s ethics law.

In 2016, Ryan served as an unpaid member of an advisory board for Election Systems and Software (“ES&S”), a vendor that the Board purchases its election machines and other supplies from. He had approval from the Board’s ten commissioners, all of whom are nominated by the leaders of the political parties in each of the five boroughs. His position with the vendor was first reported by NY1 in 2018, when it was revealed that Ryan took nine trips paid for by ES&S.

Ryan sought guidance from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board who advised him that ES&S could pay for his travel expenses to attend board meetings as needed for him to fulfill his city duties. But Ryan committed an ethics violation while attending a meeting in Manhattan in 2016. Although Ryan lives in Staten Island, ES&S paid for him to spend two nights – August 3 and 4, 2016 -- at the midtown Marriott Marquis, which cost $762.80.

In the settlement document, Ryan notes, “I believed there was a City purpose for the first night of my hotel stay at the Marriott Marquis because it would have been inconvenient for me to commute from my home in Staten Island to give a presentation to the Advisory Board at 8:45 a.m. on August 4, 2018 [sic], after socializing with other Advisory Board members in Manhattan the night before.”

He added, “I had no similar belief to justify the second night of my hotel stay. I now acknowledge that there was no City purpose for my stay at a hotel in New York City given that I commute every workday between Staten Island and Manhattan in order to perform my BOE job.”

Under the settlement, Ryan acknowledged that accepting the hotel stay violated the “valuable gift” portion of City Charter Section 2604(b)(5). He paid a $2,500 fine to COIB. Ryan resigned from the ES&S advisory board in 2018.