Ulrich eyes new job as BOE executive director
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Councilmember Eric Ulrich is eyeing a move to the top job at the Board of Elections. City Council photo by Emil Cohen via Flickr.
By David Brand
With two years left to go in his City Council tenure, term-limited Queens Councilmember Eric Ulrich is eyeing a move to the top job at the city’s embattled Board of Elections.
Ulrich is interested in becoming the executive director of the BOE, Gotham Gazette first reported Sunday, but the lone Republican in the Queens delegation will have his work cut out for him — getting elected BOE executive director takes approval from six of the city’s 10 commissioners.
Each commissioner — one Democrat and one Republican per county — is appointed by the corresponding county organization. The Bronx Republican seat is currently vacant, which means Ulrich would have to win over at least two Democratic commissioners to get the necessary six votes to replace current Executive Director Michael Ryan, who has served since 2013. Ulrich said his unique position as a Republican lawmaker in a heavily Democratic county and city would be an asset as BOE executive director.
“I don't have the same political constraints that someone else might have,” he told Gotham Gazette. “I would really be able to go in there and truly be independent and manage the agency more effectively than it is currently being managed.”
On Monday, the Eagle asked Ulrich what made him first start pursuing the job.
“They pursued me,” he said. He declined to disclose who had approached him, but said that the conversation was “very organic.”
A spokesperson for the BOE declined to comment on Ulrich’s interest in the executive director position.
The BOE has faced intense criticism in recent years for election problems, including purging tens of thousands of New Yorkers from voter rolls in 2016. Good government groups have called for a change in structure, or at least in leadership.
“How well is the partisan system working for the voters when we have disaster after disaster in the election system?” Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner told the Eagle in July.
Rumors have circulated for months that Ulrich was seeking another job as the end of his City Council tenure approaches. Some local leaders and politically active individuals in and around Ozone Park went so far as to say Ulrich had already accepted a role in the private sector. Ulrich repeatedly refuted those rumors.
“When I land my dream job everyone will know — but for now I’m just keeping my nose to the grindstone and serving my constituents,” he told the Eagle in a message last month.
