The city Board of Elections reversed course Tuesday and picked Staten Island Democrat Michael Ryan to fill its long-vacant executive director job.
Our Jordan Melendrez and I report:
Ryan, a lawyer and two-time district attorney candidate who briefly served as a Board commissioner himself, scored the votes of the bipartisan agency’s five Republicans and one Democrat to win the job.
Staten Island Democrat Maria Guastella, who abstained last week when Ryan
missed locking down the job by a single vote
, entered her colleague’s name for the post.
“As we all know he served as commissioner with us, he is an attorney, he has a government background, a law enforcement background, as well as budgetary background to be a very strong executive director for this board and to continue pushing this board forth in a positive way,” Guastella said.
She was the only Democrat to vote for Ryan, giving him the six votes he needed to put him over the top. In opposition: Julie Dent of Brooklyn, Naomi Barrera of the Bronx and Jose Miguel Araujo of Queens. Manhattan Democratic Commissioner Gregory Soumas showed up shortly after the vote.
Ryan wasn’t on hand at the BOE headquarters for the vote, but told the Daily News by phone immediately afterward that he’s “excited about the challenges that I’m facing at the Board of Elections. More importantly than that, I look forward to serving the voters of the city of New York.”
The ex-commissioner, who vowed to continue seeking the position after last week’s failed vote, said today’s action came as a surprise.
Still, “I had confidence that the process was going to work out and I’m grateful that it worked out as quickly as it did,” he said.
“The first thing I have to do is get in there, meet with the staff, find out what the immediate priorities are and then I look forward to working with them diligently,” Ryan said.
“This is a very important election year.”
Ryan’s hiring for the $173,000 per year job lays to rest the buzz that Brooklyn City Councilman
might snag the role.
As the News first reported last week
, if Dilan had gotten the job, he could have taken with him a pivotal vote to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of a Council bill making it easier to sue NYPD cops for racial profiling.
