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A behind-the-scenes Department of Investigation probe documented evidence that the white male director of the city’s election board routinely made racially insensitive and sexually suggestive remarks to two top-level minority female staffers, prompting the independent watchdog agency to recommend that he resign, THE CITY has learned.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the Board of Elections, tried to touch the face of a Hispanic employee and once made comments to her about “how young is too young” for an older man to date a younger woman, according to a confidential DOI report obtained by THE CITY. In another incident, according to the report, he recounted to her jokes he said he’d made to friends about not trusting Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.
Ryan also allegedly asked another top BOE staffer, who is South Asian, “What type of Indian are you?” and told her Indians are “non-confrontational.” The staffer also told city investigators that she witnessed Ryan making a joke to a visiting Department of Justice lawyer about his son thinking a bearded Sikh gas station attendant looked like Santa Claus. The visiting DOJ lawyer is Sikh, the report notes.
The DOI completed its report in November, but it has not been publicly disclosed previously. It concluded that Ryan “created an unlawful hostile work environment for two BOE employees and that BOE did not have sufficient policies and protocols in place to adequately prevent or address such incidents.”
Ryan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from THE CITY. A DOI spokesperson said the department will be issuing a public report on this issue on Wednesday and can comment at that time.
The report, under the leadership of DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber, specifically recommended that Ryan — the top official at the board, who with an annual salary of $265,000 is paid more than the mayor — needed to step down or be removed.
“Ryan’s demonstrated misconduct falls far below the high standards to which agency heads are held, and it is DOI’s view that his resignation or removal from office is, at a minimum, required to address DOI’s findings in this case,” the report states.
The report states that the investigation began in August, when the female Hispanic employee filed a complaint with BOE. Board Commissioner Carol Edmead forwarded it to DOI, and the staffer then followed up directly to the investigative agency accusing Ryan of harassment, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
DOI investigators interviewed multiple BOE staffers, including the two alleged victims and Ryan, and examined communications on BOE electronic devices to corroborate the allegations. In the process of examining the initial complaint by the Hispanic staffer, they discovered the accusations of more ethnically biased behavior against the South Asian employee.
The Hispanic BOE employee said she was psychologically traumatized by Ryan’s behavior, consulted a therapist and ultimately resigned to escape what she characterized as his constant sexually and racially inappropriate interactions with her, the report states.
The South Asian staffer told DOI investigators Ryan’s ethnically biased comments to her “were unwanted and unwelcome and that she found them to be offensive.”
Regarding the Hispanic employee, the DOI determined Ryan “made numerous unwelcome gender, race and ethnicity-based comments to her or in her presence, including discussing a Spanish language show in which the male host walked around followed by Latin women and sang in Spanish “Pa la cama.”
Ryan claimed he did not know what that meant. The staffer told him it meant “Come to bed.”
In that same conversation, Ryan said “(If) a young woman wants me, I know why she wants me,” then discussed with another male staffer “how young is too young” for an older man to date a younger woman.
At one point in April, the staffer said Ryan came into her office and commented to her about a container of Vaseline on her desk, stating, “Oh rosy lips,” making a sound like, “Mmm, mmm, mmm,” then puckering up his lips.
On another occasion, he entered her office and made a comment about dimples. When she asked him to clarify, she said he told her she had dimples, then walked past her desk so he was standing over her and moved to touch her face. She says she froze and doesn’t recall whether he actually touched her.
“To her this incident and the incident involving Vaseline container…demonstrated that Ryan had no boundaries in terms of appropriate behavior,” the report states.
In his interview with DOI, Ryan acknowledged he may have made a comment to her about dimples but denied trying to touch her face.
In another encounter in May, the staffer said Ryan asked “What are you?” She said she identified as Puerto Rican and Dominican. This, she told DOI, prompted Ryan to describe a married couple he knows, one of whom is Puerto Rican, the other is Dominican. He told her he would say to the Puerto Rican husband “Don’t trust Dominicans” and “Don’t trust Puerto Ricans” to the Dominican wife.
Confronted about this, Ryan acknowledged the conversation but claimed the staffer had laughed at this.
The employee of South Asian descent did not file a complaint against Ryan but raised concerns about his conduct when DOI interviewed her about his interactions with the Hispanic staffer, the report states.
At one point, Ryan asked her “What type of Indian are you?” and remarked that individuals of Indian descent are raised to be “non-confrontational.” She also described him telling a story to a visiting Department of Justice lawyer, who is Sikh, about his young son thinking a Sikh gas station attendant was Santa Claus.
The BOE staffer said the DOJ lawyer responded, “We have been called a lot of things. I’ll take Santa Claus,” but that she was “mortified” by Ryan’s story. Ryan told DOI he told the story “to relate with the DOJ attorney.”
Both employees felt they had little recourse to confront Ryan about his comments because of his position at the top of the managerial hierarchy, according to the report. Both ultimately reported to Ryan and felt he had the power to harm their careers if they filed a complaint.
That lack of accountability at the BOE was of concern to DOI, which noted that the board had no written policy or practical mechanism “that could effectively address complaints of harassment, sexual harassment and hostile work environment against members of senior management.”
BOE directs employees to report all allegations — even those against the executive director — to the Director of Personnel, the deputy executive director (both of whom report to the executive director) or to the executive director himself. There’s no alternative reporting structure to avoid executive management winding up investigating themselves.
In contrast, the city’s general equal employment opportunity policy requires allegations against senior management be investigated by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
The DOI report recommended that Ryan resign or be removed from his position, noting that his responses to investigators minimized the significance of conversations he acknowledged had occurred, shrugging them off as normal workplace banter.
“Our findings indicate that he may not, even now, appreciate the seriousness of his conduct or understand why it was both a legal and a policy violation,” the report states. “Ryan seemed to be of the mistaken view that it was somehow appropriate for him to make race- or ethnicity-based jokes to individuals of the race about which he was joking, and this reflects at best extremely poor judgment and at worst willful engagement in improper and illegal behavior.”
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