N.Y.C. Election Board Refused to Fire Leader Who Harassed Female Workers
The New York City Board of Elections refused to remove its executive director after a city investigation recommended in November that he be fired for sexually and racially harassing two employees, according to a report released by the city’s Department of Investigation on Wednesday.
Investigators said that the Board of Elections’s response to their findings, coupled with a previous episode in which its former general counsel was found to have subjected two employees to physical examinations and asked them to wrestle him, suggested severe shortcomings in the agency’s approach to nondiscrimination.
In the report, investigators said the board’s executive director, Michael J. Ryan, made inappropriate sexual and racial remarks toward two female employees, one of whom later resigned, over a period of several months last year. The report found that his behavior had created a hostile work environment and “more likely than not violated applicable state and city human rights laws.”
The allegations against Mr. Ryan, and the results of the investigation, were first reported by The City, a local news website.
The Department of Investigation noted that the inquiry into Mr. Ryan marked “the second set of substantiated allegations of which D.O.I. is aware that involve misconduct by a senior member of B.O.E. leadership.”
“One instance of conduct of this nature would be too many and two such instances make clear the need for significant reforms,” investigators said.
The Board of Elections released a statement on Wednesday defending its decision not to fire Mr. Ryan, who was instead suspended without pay for three weeks and ordered to attend sensitivity training. The board said he served that suspension from Dec. 9 until the end of the month, “totaling 15 days in lost wages.”
In the statement, Mr. Ryan apologized for his actions, and said he had not intended to create a hostile work environment, as the investigators’ report determined that he had.
“I want to express my deepest apologies to my family, my colleagues and to anyone that I unintentionally offended,” he wrote.
Addressing the Board of Commissioners, the agency’s governing body, he said: “While I dispute these allegations and disagree with the report’s conclusion, I accept the determination of the commissioners in the best interest of the agency.”
According to the report released on Wednesday, Mr. Ryan made a series of sexual comments to one female employee over a three to four month period, some of which were accompanied by physical gestures such as puckering his lips at her or touching her face with his hand.
He also engaged in a conversation with Michael Corbett, the Board of Elections’s administrative manager, about what the best age gap might be in a heterosexual relationship. While they were in the presence of the female staff member, the two men determined that the age gap between her and Mr. Ryan would be appropriate, investigators said.
Investigators said Mr. Ryan’s conduct caused the woman to suffer from “significant anxiety and emotional distress,” which contributed to her decision to leave her job at the Board of Elections.
Investigators also found that Mr. Ryan had made “ethnicity- and gender-based comments toward” a second female employee, including some that trafficked in racial stereotypes.
The report found that Mr. Ryan engaged in these behaviors at the same time as he was attending sensitivity training last year.
The agency’s Board of Commissioners was informed of the investigation’s findings on Nov. 19. Roughly one month later, it sent investigators a letter saying it had voted unanimously not to fire Mr. Ryan.
Instead, he was suspended for three weeks without pay, placed on probation for one year and ordered to attend sensitivity training.
Mr. Corbett was also suspended for one week, placed on probation for one year and ordered to attend sensitivity training.
On Wednesday, Rodney L. Pepe-Souvenir, the president of the Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that she believed the penalties faced by Mr. Ryan “sent a strong message that these types of unwelcomed and insensitive comments will not be tolerated by anyone” at the Board of Elections.
