Testimony of Paul Seamus Ryan, Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, to the New York City Council Committees on Finance and Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation

05/15/2025

Good afternoon Chair Brannan, Chair Restler, and members of the Committees on Finance and Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation. My name is Paul S. Ryan and I am the Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), and I am joined today by Amanda Melillo, First Deputy Executive Director. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), which I am proud to share as the first budget developed under my leadership. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.  

Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) represented the biggest year in the four-year election cycle, as it covers the November 2024 presidential election and the June 2025 citywide primary. Presidential elections are consistently the highest-turnout elections in New York City with around 60% of the electorate participating, which increases voter demand for our services. In the agency’s 7-year strategic plan, adopted early in FY25 as one of my first priorities as executive director, we articulated a strategy to leverage high interest in the presidential year to spread awareness about NYC Votes, the CFB’s voter education and engagement initiative, and build our audience so we could encourage New Yorkers to participate in citywide elections. 

In FY25, the CFB delivered on its mission to inform New Yorkers and engage them in elections during a high-intensity, high-visibility election year. We collaborated closely with the City Council on the passage of Local Law 30 of 2017, a pivotal piece of legislation that significantly expanded and formalized our language access practice. FY25 saw the publishing of the agency’s first Language Access Implementation Plan and the translation of key resources into 13 languages other than English. We set a new standard for accessibility at public events, developing internal expertise and securing vendor support to provide ASL, live captioning, in-language interpretation, and more. We further enhanced our groundbreaking youth leadership programming with an outstanding cohort of 16 Youth Ambassadors in 2024. The Partnerships team held more than 400 events in our priority neighborhoods throughout 2024. We also scaled our outreach, sending millions of texts, kept in touch with thousands of New Yorkers regularly by email, and for the first time, we supplemented our on-the-ground outreach work with a paid canvassing operation. This outreach resulted in collecting and mailing more than 7,000 pledge cards to voters we spoke to in-person and another 15,000 pledges we collected online for the general election alone. 

Looking ahead, the CFB’s FY26 Executive Budget of $109,460,239 reflects a total decrease of $44,953,597 compared to the FY25 current modified budget of $154,413,836. The bulk of the budget decrease comprises a decrease of $60,400,000 in the Election Funding unit of appropriation which totals $22,200,000 in FY26 compared to $82,600,000 in FY25. This substantiates the cost of public funds for the general election held on November 4, 2025, and the potential for a special election in FY26. There is no primary election for covered offices scheduled to be held in FY26; the primary election held on June 24, 2025, falls in FY25. 

The breakdown in each unit of appropriation is as follows: $59,863,829 for Other Than Personal Services (OTPS) and $27,396,410 for Personal Services (PS). Fiscal Year 2026 will continue to be shaped by our 7-year strategic plan that will target improvements across the agency to meet ambitious North Star goals for 2030, including faster audit completion, higher satisfaction among candidates and voters, increased civic participation, and stronger staff engagement. The CFB remains committed to fulfilling its charter-mandated responsibilities with transparency, efficiency, and equity. 

Strategic Plan and Technology Improvements 
During FY26, the implementation of the CFB’s new 7-year strategic plan, which takes the agency through the 2029 citywide election cycle, will continue in earnest and translate the strategic plan goals into programmatic changes.  

As I have testified already before the Council, we have an agency North Star goal of completing 90% of audits within 1 year of the election for candidates who do not request and receive extensions, with minimal increased risk. In the short-term, we’ve committed to a benchmark of completing 50% of audits within 1 year of the 2025 election and have commitment to starting post-election audits immediately after the June primary for candidates who are not in the general election. We are also engaging an outside consultant to help us develop a roadmap for improving the candidate experience and optimizing the audit process. This effort will support a more efficient and streamlined matching funds program. 

In FY26, the CFB will continue development on updating our legacy process and technology systems. This multipronged approach begins with process mapping, leading to process improvements, and then the implementation of supportive technology. We are also addressing a high vacancy rate within our tech team. While we work to fill these roles and bring more technical capacity in-house, we continue to rely on vendors to ensure continuity and progress on critical projects.  

Voter Education and Outreach for primary (FY25) and general (FY26) 
Through FY26, the CFB is committed to providing comprehensive voter-facing education on the matching funds program to highlight its benefits – including the first-time public funds education mailers that began to arrive in New Yorkers’ mailboxes as of just last week. Some highlights of our plans include the Voter Guide, printed and digital educational materials, and a targeted multi-media advertising campaign. The Voter Guide is mailed to all registered voters and published online for the general election. This information will be communicated in all 13 mandated citywide languages besides English. We will also have a video Voter Guide with ASL interpretation and closed captioning available on our website.  

Beyond the matching funds awareness campaign, we built campaigns around ranked choice voting (RCV) education pursuant to Local Law 21, which was passed by the City Council in 2021 and runs through 2025. We also supporting the visibility of our Debate Program throughout the year with marketing and advertising. 

Scaling Administrative Capacity with Agency Growth 
Our increase for PS represents a headcount increase of 45 new positions, representing a 21% increase from our current headcount of 213 positions. The 45 additional positions will support work related to our technology contract portfolio, strategic plan implementation, and to support CFB general operations. 

As our budget has grown to accommodate expanded mandates -- particularly around language access and other legal requirements -- we recognize the need to scale our internal infrastructure accordingly. While we have built new programmatic teams, we have not scaled our staffing levels in operations and finance in tandem. Adding staffing in these areas will provide the necessary support to carry out our mandates and contract with outside vendors who are partners in this work. To support timely production schedules and ensure compliance with legal mandates, we have begun strengthening our People Operations functions to better manage hiring, recruitment, and onboarding. We have also prioritized laying the groundwork for more specialized roles and a more robust administrative foundation to support the agency’s expanding structure. 

As always, our work is guided by a deep commitment to empowering New Yorkers to make a greater impact on their elections and strengthening our local democracy. We are grateful for the support of the Council in advancing these goals. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.