Ryan defends top aide’s purchases
In a lengthy interview this afternoon, Westchester Board of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan defended his chief adviser, Gary Kriss, and chastised legislators “who have rushed to judgement.”
Ryan said the more than $12,000 in taxyaper-financed purchases made by Kriss — which included electronics and hollywood script writing software — were appropriate and part of the board’s effort to utilize new technologies.
“I’d like to see our legislature on the cutting edge of technology use when it comes to our website and how we operate,” Ryan said. “And in the process of getting there, we have bought a certain number of products, some of them software, for Mr. Kriss to experiment with.”
Ryan also expressed disappointment with The Journal News’ coverage of the matter, saying the newspaper’s story detailing the purchses implied theft.
“We had an individual who was going about his job and was doing things that he had been authorized to do,” Ryan said. “All of a sudden there is a request for information about him and for reasons that I don’t understand, The Journal News decided to take that information and rather than just present it as a fact, kind of constructed the article in a way that implied theft.”
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so the fault lies with the reporting…that means the
board should be willing to open its purchase records and
document what the money was used for and what the purchases
were used for..ie did Mr Kriss take them home to experiment
or were they kept at the board..what were the experiments
in technology he needed to make and why experiment when
there are plenty of ways not to reinvent the wheel
I’ve hard enough of this Spano/Ryan technology BS. This county was better run when the “technology” was a pad and a number 2 pencil.
What color is the sky in Ryan’s world? How does script writing software help the legislature be on the “cutting edge”? Geesh, Ryan could rationalize lint if it meant protecting the status quo.
Ryan can defend it all he wants….today it was reported that grand jury subpoenas were served on the board for
its records regarding the purchases…that means
that there is at least a question as to their propriety