These comments were sent into the Newburyport Political Blog:

“I would agree with the person who wrote to say that they are not convinced about Ryan being on the preservation commission – I don’t know what the nominating group, NRC, was that appointed him (still trying to find out what those abbreviations mean).

A couple other things:

1 – 4 Points Planning – I checked out Ryan’s 4 points planning website. There is limited info that we can get to. For example, if you click the ‘About’ link on his site, you can only access the first item in the ‘About’ list. All of the other items including his resume return an error of “Page Cannot be Displayed”.

Try doing this on any of the links that pertain to either his personal information, company projects, ore references – the same error appears for all of them. Links for “About” and “Portfolio.”

Here is my concern with this:

a – This is just sloppy. And, when your website is the storefront of your business, it just makes it look like you really don’t have much to show for yourself. If this is acceptable for his own business, how much sloppiness and lack of oversight will be acceptable to him if he takes this job?

b – This prevents any of us from finding out anything about Mr. Ryan. It likely is just a coincidence, but it doesn’t help those who are trying to see what Mr. Ryan is all about.

Christopher Ryan’s educational record:

2 – Georgia Tech Masters degree: I checked out Georgia Tech to see exactly what type of master’s degree they have in city planning, it looks like there are 3 ways to get a master’s degree in city planning, it appears – one is online only, one is a ‘traditional’ master’s degree, the last is doing a combined BS and master’s in 5 years. Which one of these options did Mr. Ryan pursue?
http ://www.coa.gatech.edu/crp/index.htm

2 – PhD at Antioch New England – the Daily News reported that he is a PhD candidate in Environmental Studies. When someone is a PhD candidate, this typically means that they have completed all of their coursework and have passed their qualifying exams and are working on their dissertation – there is typically a distinct difference between a PhD student and a PhD candidate. Which of these is Mr. Ryan? There seems to be a PhD program here where working professionals can work somewhat at their own pace toward the PhD.
http ://www.antiochne.edu/es/phd

3 – Walpole job: Walpole published the planner position on 7/25. The second round of interviews for the Newburyport planning director was only supposed to begin on 7/24. So :

a – did the mayor decide so fast that he was able to tell Mr. Ryan that same day that he had the job? Could / would Walpole have put the job description out that fast if Mr. Ryan resigned on Monday afternoon?

b – or, did mayor Moak tell Ryan in advance that he was selecting him for the job but was just having him and the other two candidates come to interview on Monday to make it look like it was an even race? to make the city councilors and others on the interview committee feel like they actually had a valid role in the interview process when they actually didn’t?

c – or, did Mr. Ryan resign or get ‘removed’ earlier and now the job is being posted. If he left on his own, why? If he was removed, why?

d – if he resigned b/c he was offered the Newburyport job by Moak, knowing that the city council still had to approve him for the job?

I think that it would be worth calling Walpole city/town hall to see on what day Mr. Ryan resigned and why – it should be public record, I would think.

The Historic Preservation Committee in Concord will be contacted to find out about Mr. Ryan – what his role is, who he was nominated by, how he has voted.”