Ken Garcia: Ryan ready to start writing next chapter in life

In a lame-duck administration, it’s no surprise when people start looking for — and leaving for — other jobs.

But it’s fair to say now that Mayor Gavin Newsom is back for his final two years in office that the door at City Hall is starting to revolve — quickly.

On Monday, the mayor’s chief spokesman, Nathan Ballard, announced his resignation after three years on the job, setting off a flurry of press activity. And then Tuesday, Kevin Ryan, head of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, submitted his resignation after two years of trying to bring some sense of order to a department long mired in chaos.

As they say, this trend is continuing. And there’s nothing like a string of departures to fuel the rumor mill.

Ryan, for his part, said his leaving had nothing to do with an anticipated shakeup of the mayor’s staff. He said he’s been planning his “exit strategy” for months.

“When I originally took the job, I gave myself a year as a personal yardstick,” he told me. “It’s now two years and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought since the summer.”

In late June, Ryan’s younger brother William died after suffering a massive heart attack while surfing. Ryan called it a “real shock” to his family — his brother had a wife and two young children — and he said that’s when he started thinking about getting out of “public life.”

And that would be understandable, because not many San Francisco natives have led such a public life.

Ryan attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory, Dartmouth College and the University of San Francisco School of Law before becoming a criminal prosecutor. He then served as a San Francisco Superior Court judge for nearly seven years, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the U.S. attorney in Northern California.

It was in that position that he made headlines after he became one of eight U.S. attorneys fired in what was arguably the biggest domestic political scandal of the Bush administration. An inspector general’s report later called Ryan’s firing justified because of his heavy-handed management style, but by then it was like trying to pick a carrot out of the stew because Department of Justice officials came up with so many justifications for casting some of the nation’s highest law enforcement officials suddenly adrift.

As U.S. attorney, Ryan spearheaded the BALCO steroids case and launched the nation’s first investigation into stock-option backdating among corporate executives. He’s considered an expert in the field of white-collar crime and signed up to teach a course on the subject at USF’s law school next year.

Ryan came under Newsom’s radar after San Francisco police officials grew so frustrated with the inability of the District Attorney’s Office to deal with a host of violent career criminals that they sought help from federal investigators. Ryan filed federal racketeering charges against dozens of gang members that ultimately landed them in prison, prompting the mayor to once say to me, “Thank God for Kevin Ryan.”

Ryan was considered a steadying hand in the Newsom administration, who tried to fill a sizable gap in leadership under former police Chief Heather Fong. And it was Ryan who investigated problems in San Francisco’s sanctuary policy that resulted in juvenile probation officers personally deporting undocumented youths out of the country. The reporting policy regarding immigrant juveniles accused of felonies was changed by the mayor and then amended by the Board of Supervisors in one of the more controversial moves made by the board in recent years.

Ryan, after two years on the job, served longer than the previous four heads of that office, and he’s leaving, not coincidentally, at a time when The City’s homicide rate is at a historic low.

“It hasn’t been an easy job, but we’ve been fighting the good fight,” he said. “I’m sure some people will say I’m part of a mass exodus, but actually my departure has been in the works for a long time. I had no idea about Nate [Ballard’s] situation until I saw the press release.”

He said he plans to set up a private law practice and will do some consulting work. Some officials are urging him to pursue another shot at the bench, but he said he wants to focus on teaching and writing.

He’d have a lot to write about. He’s been a high-profile Republican in a town that uses the word as a curse, and yet Ryan has enjoyed bipartisan support at the highest political levels for years. And that’s mostly because he tried to stay out of politics, which in San Francisco can leave you dirtier than a chimney sweep.

But the Newsom administration is about to see a lot of new faces. How long they’ll be smiling is the only remaining guess.