Tracey Collins, Mayor Adams’ longtime girlfriend, retired final week from her high-ranking place within the New York Metropolis public faculty system — a departure that comes because the system’s inner watchdog and the Division of Investigation are probing claims that her job amounted to a “no show” gig with a six-figure wage, the Day by day Information has discovered.
Collins’ final day of labor was Nov. 1, along with her retirement from the Division of Schooling turning into efficient this previous Monday, company spokesman Nathaniel Styer mentioned.
“I think the decision to retire is generally a personal one,” Styer mentioned Friday with out giving a selected cause for her exit.
Collins, 61, who has labored within the metropolis public faculty system for many years and was amongst its highest-paid staff, didn’t return requests for remark.
Her departure comes after the Division of Investigation not too long ago began probing a grievance filed in September by an ex-DOE worker alleging Collins has hardly ever proven up in particular person to work and retains a light-weight schedule largely made up of digital appointments, sources aware of the matter instructed The Information.
“Collins, the girlfriend of Eric Adams, has had a no show job,” alleges the grievance obtained by The Information.
The sources mentioned the DOI hadn’t launched an official investigation into Collins as of final week, describing the inquiry as being in its early levels and akin to a fact-finding mission.
The Division of Schooling’s particular commissioner of investigation, the company’s in-house impartial watchdog, obtained the identical grievance because the DOI about Collins.
“We are looking into the allegations, but we cannot comment on the specifics of the investigation,” an SCI spokesperson mentioned Friday.
Data obtained by The Information, and first reported by Chalkbeat final month, present Collins had nearly 40 scheduled conferences and occasions within the eight-month stretch after she was elevated to her senior adviser position on the Division of Schooling in July 2022.
That left roughly 75% of her day by day schedule entries over that interval totally empty. A number of the skilled engagements mirrored within the information throughout that stretch had been after hours, together with a non-public screening of a documentary about Chicago’s first Black mayor that Collins attended with Adams at Battery Park Metropolis College on Jan. 9, 2023.
David Banks (Barry Williams for New York Day by day Information)
Earlier this week, Styer declined to touch upon the DOI inquiry and Collins’ schedule entries. However he praised her as a long-time educator.
“Ms. Collins has over 30 years of education experience,” Styer mentioned. “Her duties include strategic planning, making recommendations on agency priorities, and providing advice and support to senior leadership.”
Collins is referenced in Adams’ latest federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy indictment to which he has pleaded not responsible. In accordance with the feds, Collins, who hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing, benefited from tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in free luxurious journey to international locations together with India, Ghana and Hungary that Adams solicited as bribes for himself, her and different associates from Turkish authorities operatives in trade for political favors.
The grievance from the ex-DOE worker alleges Collins didn’t disclose these journey perks as presents in her annual metropolis authorities ethics types. It’s unclear if the DOI and the DOE particular commissioner’s workplace are trying into that part of the grievance.
A spokeswoman for the DOI, which has performed a job within the Turkey investigation and several other different federal corruption probes ensnaring Adams’ administration, declined to remark. The particular commissioner spokesperson wouldn’t remark past confirming the existence of its probe.
Ex-Colleges Chancellor David Banks, an in depth buddy to Adams, tapped Collins, a former principal who has been Adams’ associate for over a decade, to a senior adviser position on the Division of Schooling in 2022 at a $221,000 wage.
At first, Collins was senior adviser to the deputy chancellor of college management. However she converted this previous Aug. 28 to turn out to be senior adviser as an alternative to Deputy Chancellor of Household and Neighborhood Engagement Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Styer confirmed.
Lower than a month later, Adams named Aviles-Ramos town’s new faculties chancellor on Sept. 25 after Banks introduced he was resigning within the wake of getting his residence raided by the feds in reference to a corruption investigation trying into affect peddling and kickbacks on metropolis contracts.
Most not too long ago, Collins served as a senior adviser to Aviles-Ramos in her outdated capability, which she nonetheless retained on prime of her new chancellor duties as her earlier place stays unfilled, Styer mentioned.
Adams defended Collins’ promotion at a latest press briefing, saying it was according to her expertise.
“Being the significant other of the mayor should not stop your track. She has her own pathway from what she did in schools, turning around schools,” Adams mentioned final month. “And so, she earned her right, and she earned what she has done.”
Colleges Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos. (Shawn Inglima for New York Day by day Information)
Earlier this yr, Collins bought a $31,977 increase — a part of a 12.5% wage bump impacting a whole bunch of senior metropolis authorities staff — pushing her complete base wage to $252,977 and making her the twenty seventh highest-paid administrator or central staffer on the Division of Schooling, which has about 150,000 staff, based on a Information evaluation of payroll information.
The DOE staff incomes greater than Collins are main division heads, district superintendents, deputy chancellors and the chancellor, The Information’ evaluation discovered.
The ex-DOE worker who filed the grievance with the DOE and the particular commissioner’s workplace additionally submitted it with town Conflicts of Curiosity Board.
The conflicts board declined to remark.
