Eric Adams’ longtime romantic partner Tracey Collins retired from the city’s Department of Education, amid allegations that her position was a “no-show” job. Her last day on the job was November 1st, a spokesperson for the department confirmed. A career educator, Collins had received a promotion to senior advisor in the Division of School Leadership when Adams took office in 2022, which came with a $221,000 yearly salary, nearly $50,000 more than she made the year before.
Last month, Chalkbeat New York obtained Collins’ daily calendars for the senior advisor position, revealing that she had around 40 scheduled meetings over the course of 8 months, which “left about 75% of her days empty and gave little sense of her role or a coherent set of responsibilities.” According to Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer, her job includes “strategic planning, making recommendations on agency priorities, and providing advice and support to senior leadership.”
A few days before Chalkbeat’s report, the New York Post revealed that a former Department of Education employee had filed a complaint with various city agencies, claiming that Collins has rarely appeared at the office since November 2023. “It is my understanding that DOE employees are only permitted to work from home two days a week,” the ex-employee said in their email to city officials.
The complaint also mentions the gifts that Collins is alleged to have received according to a federal indictment against Mayor Eric Adams. While she is not charged, the document indicates that the former school principal benefitted with more than $100,000 worth of travel upgrades and hotel rooms on luxury trips with Adams, who was Brooklyn borough president at the time. A DOE employee, Collins did not report these gifts on her financial disclosure forms in 2018 and 2019, as required by the agency. The complaint against her recommends investigating the matter, including whether “she put in for vacation while she took all of those illegal trips.”
Sources say that while the city’s Department of Investigation has begun looking into the matters mentioned in the complaint, which was filed at the end of September, it has not launched on official investigation as of yet. The DOE’s special commissioner of investigation – the agency’s internal watchdog – stated on Friday that they are “looking into the allegations” without commenting further.
