A year after a city watchdog documented that the head of the city Board of Elections (BOE) regularly made inappropriate sexual and ethnically biased comments to a younger Hispanic staff attorney, the BOE has yet to implement most of the oversight agency’s recommended reforms.
The boss involved, executive director Michael Ryan, also remains at the board, where he makes a quarter of a million dollars a year. Ryan is now the subject of a new civil rights lawsuit.
The board rejected the city Department of Investigation (DOI)’s call to require that all harassment complaints — including those directed at the director or board members — be referred to an outside agency to ensure there’s independent oversight of these types of internal complaints.
In a January 2025 report first revealed by THE CITY, DOI substantiated allegations by a BOE lawyer, Stephanie Jaquez, that Ryan, who is white, made numerous “unwelcome gender, race and ethnicity-based comments” in her presence.
That included Ryan singing a song in Spanish that translated to “come to bed.” Jaquez also alleged Ryan stated, “if a young woman wants me, I know why she wants me,” and conversed with another male employee about “how young is too young” when discussing dating.
Jaquez also alleged he picked up a container of Vaseline on her desk and said, “Oh rosy lips,” made a comment about “dimples” while trying to touch her face and told her she answered the phone “so un-Latina like.”
Ultimately Jaquez resigned and went to DOI to make a report. On Tuesday, Jaquez’s attorney, Annie Seifullah filed a civil rights lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the board, the individual BOE commissioners and Ryan, alleging the board “failed to establish an independent and functional reporting structure for its employees.” The system, as it existed, instead “rerouted the complaints to the very executive responsible for the misconduct.”
At the time, all complaints went directly to Ryan or his immediate subordinates. DOI recommended that, because of this, an outside entity should also review complaints, particularly if they’re directed at the director or board members. DOI also recommended that Ryan be terminated or resign.
The board declined to fire him or give him an opportunity to resign, and he remains in his $274,000-a-year position to this day. The board docked him three weeks pay and made him take sensitivity training.
“The Board exists to ensure fairness, accountability and public trust in the administration of elections,” the suit alleges. “Yet as this action makes plain, defendants failed to uphold even the most basic standards of integrity within their own agency when they allowed their senior leadership to engage in unlawful harassment and when they maintained policies and procedures that rendered their employees unprotected and without a safe avenue to redress their harms.”
DOI also recommended that the board should submit to regular audits by the New York City Equal Employment Practices Commission. The board rejected that suggestion, as well.
And DOI specifically suggested that the board appoint a formal EEO officer who reports to both the director and the board president. BOE told DOI it “partially accepted” this recommendation, but DOI records show as of this week had yet to implement it.
A spokesperson for the board did not respond immediately to THE CITY’s questions about its rejection of DOI’s recommended reforms.
