Michael Ryan is used to hearing it from critics, but now they want his head.

Prominent officials are calling for the executive director of the city's Board of Elections to resign, including the city comptroller, the good-government group Common Cause, and Brooklyn City Councilman Jumaane Williams.

 

 

 

"I do think he should resign," Stringer told NY1. "And I am not somebody who says, 'Resign,' to people."

 

 

 

"I think Mike Ryan should resign," Susan Lerner of Common Cause said. "If he doesn't resign, there needs to be a very thorough investigation."

 

 

 

These calls come a day after a NY1 investigation revealed that Ryan was sitting on an advisory board for the maker of the city's voting machines. The company, Election Systems and Software (ES&S), was paying for Ryan's flights across the country, fancy dinners, and staya in posh hotels for so-called conferences. On top of that, Ryan was not accurately disclosing these trips on his annual financial disclosure forms.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson had already called for Ryan to step aside after chaos at the polls on Election Day. During an interview on WNYC on Tuesday, he doubled down: "I do not have confidence in Mike Ryan, and the latest news on this really reconfirms the issues I had with this before the news came out."

Mayor Bill de Blasio, too, said Ryan's moves were dicey.

"If a vendor does business with your agency, be careful," the mayor said Tuesday afternoon. "I think that needs to be looked at very carefully."

Ultimately, the 10-member Board of Elections will decide Ryan's fate. Those board members are often appointed and, perhaps, controlled by political party bosses in each borough.

A source told NY1 that the Republican county chairs are discussing Ryan's future. The Bronx Democratic County chairman, State Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, said Ryan's future is worth discussing.

Ryan, meanwhile, appeared to be trying to save his job. Because of our story, Ryan went back to the Conflicts of Interest Board.

A Board of Elections spokeswoman sent us an email addressed to Ryan from a lawyer at the city Conflicts of Interest Board. It says, based on the facts given in 2013 when Ryan first joined this advisory board, he did not need an official waiver to participate.

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