NYC Mayor Adams’ girlfriend Tracey Collins retires from DOE amid Department of Investigation inquiry into ‘no-show’ job claim
NEW YORK — Tracey Collins, Mayor Eric Adams' longtime girlfriend , retired last week from her high-ranking position in the New York City public school system — a departure that comes as the system's internal watchdog and the Department of Investigation are probing claims that her job amounted to a "no show" gig with a six-figure salary, the Daily News has learned.
Collins' last day of work was Nov. 1, with her retirement from the Department of Education becoming effective this past Monday, agency spokesman Nathaniel Styer said.
"I think the decision to retire is generally a personal one," Styer said Friday without giving a specific reason for her exit.
Collins, 61, who has worked in the city public school system for decades and was among its highest-paid employees, didn't return requests for comment.
Her departure comes after the Department of Investigation recently started probing a complaint filed in September by an ex-DOE employee alleging Collins has rarely shown up in person to work and keeps a light schedule mostly made up of virtual appointments, sources familiar with the matter told The News.
"Collins, the girlfriend of Eric Adams, has had a no show job," alleges the complaint obtained by The News.
The sources said the DOI hadn't launched an official investigation into Collins as of last week, describing the inquiry as being in its early stages and akin to a fact-finding mission.
The Department of Education's special commissioner of investigation, the agency's in-house independent watchdog, received the same complaint as the DOI about Collins.
"We are looking into the allegations, but we cannot comment on the specifics of the investigation," an SCI spokesperson said Friday.
Records obtained by The News, and first reported by Chalkbeat last month, show Collins had just about 40 scheduled meetings and events in the eight-month stretch after she was elevated to her senior adviser role at the Department of Education in July 2022.
That left roughly 75% of her daily schedule entries over that period entirely empty. Some of the professional engagements reflected in the records during that stretch were after hours, including a private screening of a documentary about Chicago's first Black mayor that Collins attended with Adams at Battery Park City School on Jan. 9, 2023.
Earlier this week, Styer declined to comment on the DOI inquiry and Collins' schedule entries. But he praised her as a long-time educator.
"Ms. Collins has over 30 years of education experience," Styer said. "Her duties include strategic planning, making recommendations on agency priorities, and providing advice and support to senior leadership."
Collins is referenced in Adams' recent federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy indictment to which he has pleaded not guilty. According to the feds, Collins, who hasn't been charged with wrongdoing, benefited from tens of thousands of dollars in free luxury travel to countries including India, Ghana and Hungary that Adams solicited as bribes for himself, her and other associates from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors.
The complaint from the ex-DOE employee alleges Collins failed to disclose those travel perks as gifts in her annual city government ethics forms. It's unclear if the DOI and the DOE special commissioner's office are looking into that component of the complaint.
A spokeswoman for the DOI, which has played a role in the Turkey investigation and several other federal corruption probes ensnaring Adams' administration, declined to comment. The special commissioner spokesperson wouldn't comment beyond confirming the existence of its probe.
Ex-Schools Chancellor David Banks, a close friend to Adams, tapped Collins, a former principal who has been Adams' partner for over a decade, to a senior adviser role at the Department of Education in 2022 at a $221,000 salary.
At first, Collins was senior adviser to the deputy chancellor of school leadership. But she switched over this past Aug. 28 to become senior adviser instead to Deputy Chancellor of Family and Community Engagement Melissa Aviles-Ramos , Styer confirmed.
Less than a month later, Adams named Aviles-Ramos the city's new schools chancellor on Sept. 25 after Banks announced he was resigning in the wake of getting his home raided by the feds in connection with a corruption investigation looking into influence peddling and kickbacks on city contracts.
Most recently, Collins served as a senior adviser to Aviles-Ramos in her old capacity, which she still retained on top of her new chancellor duties as her previous position remains unfilled, Styer said.
Adams defended Collins' promotion at a recent press briefing, saying it was in line with her experience.
"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 said last month. "And so, she earned her right, and she earned what she has done."
Earlier this year, Collins got a $31,977 raise — part of a 12.5% salary bump impacting hundreds of senior city government employees — pushing her total base wage to $252,977 and making her the 27th highest-paid administrator or central staffer at the Department of Education, which has about 150,000 employees, according to a News analysis of payroll data.
The DOE employees earning more than Collins are major department heads, district superintendents, deputy chancellors and the chancellor, The News' analysis found.
The ex-DOE employee who filed the complaint with the DOE and the special commissioner's office also submitted it with the city Conflicts of Interest Board.
The conflicts board declined to comment.
