West Boylston’s new town administrator, James Ryan, is off to a rough start.
The town’s website announced his appointment in January 2025. Here we are–just weeks later–and a childish spat between Ryan and the town’s police chief is all over the news.
According to Boston 25, Ryan toured the town’s police station in January. When he entered the station’s third-floor gym (which only police can use) he observed a Trump banner hanging on the wall.
The next day Ryan contacted the chief. Ryan reportedly claimed that the banner amounted to a civil rights violation and ordered the chief to take it down.
The chief reluctantly took the flag down and handed it over to Ryan. Where it went from there, we can only guess. (I don’t know Mr. Ryan. But judging from his town photo, he’s probably not a fervent Trump supporter.)
The chief told Boston 25 that Ryan then sent an employee into the gym to confirm that no more offensive Trump propaganda was back on display.
The employee discovered that, after the original banner was taken down, some unidentified member of the police department put up a new Trump flag. The chief again took down the flag.
The town’s select board will consider the issue at tonight’s meeting. For a link to the meeting, click the document below.
UPDATE 2/21/2025 – Boston 25 reports that the town may fire Mr. Ryan due to his recent tiff with the police chief. The select board scheduled a “termination hearing” for Ryan on Monday (Feb. 24) at 4 p.m.