The Broward County Board of County Commissioners has appointed Mayor Tim Ryan to be their representative on the Governing Board of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. His term began with the January 2015 meeting of the Governing Board.
A lifelong resident of Broward County, Tim Ryan was elected to the Broward County Commission, representing District 7, in November 2012. He was elected Mayor of Broward County by his fellow County Commissioners in November 2014, after serving as Vice Mayor the previous year. District 7 includes the cities of Dania Beach, Lazy Lake and Wilton Manors, parts of Davie, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, and the Broadview Park neighborhood in unincorporated Broward County.
Before his election to the Broward County Commission, Ryan served for eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1998 – 2006, before leaving office due to term limits. During his time in the legislature, he focused on legislative initiatives to protect consumers, improve public education, enhance accountability and ethical standards for elected officials, and protect our state’s environment and natural resources.
Born in Broward General Hospital in 1956, Tim Ryan was the third of seven children born to Johanna Betty (Rasch) and A.J. Ryan, Jr. and follows in a long family tradition of public service to the people of Broward County. His father, A.J. Ryan, Jr., served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate from 1956 – 1967. Grandfather, A.J. Ryan, Sr., served on both the Dania Beach City Commission and Hollywood City Commission in the 1920s and on the Port Everglades Commission in the 1930s. Grandmother, Genevieve Ryan, was the first woman to be realtor of the year in the state of Florida in 1958 and was elected national president of the American Legion Women’s Auxiliary in 1965.
A 1974 graduate of Chaminade High School (now Chaminade-Madonna), Ryan attended the University of Florida where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics with high honors (1978), as well as his law degree (1981). In 1981, he joined the family law firm of Ryan & Ryan, which was founded by his father in 1955. Today, he is the firm’s Managing Partner, and knows first-hand both the rewards and challenges faced by owners of small businesses
Tim Ryan has been active in a number of community service organizations, including the Dania Beach Improvement Committee, the Fort Lauderdale Jaycees, the Broward County Guardian Ad Litem program, the Hollywood Rotary Club and the Ft. Lauderdale Emerald Society. He has earned recognition while serving as Special Counsel for the City of Dania Beach for the past 28 years, and received the Florida Teaching Profession “Friend of Education” award and the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono award for his volunteer services.
Tim Ryan and his wife, Debbie (Miller), have been married for 27 years, and live in Dania Beach. They have four children – Johanna, 25, Brendan, 21, Colman, 16, and Catriona, 13.
