NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, Eric Adams put each other’s girlfriends in top posts

The New York Post ^ | 10/08/2022 | Susan Edelman

[thegagline]

Schools Chancellor David Banks quietly promoted Mayor Adams’ girlfriend to a top job at the Department of Education, just months after Adams hired Banks’ girlfriend as a deputy mayor, The Post has learned.

Banks named Tracey Collins — Adams’ longtime partner and NYC’s unofficial First Lady — the DOE’s “senior advisor to the deputy chancellor of school leadership,” Desmond Blackburn. She started the new job in July, and got a giant, 23% raise to $221,597 a year, records show.

Hizzoner named Banks’ girlfriend, Sheena Wright, and four other women deputy mayors last Dec. 21. Deputy mayors made $251,982 in FY 21.

Both women’s advancement underscores the tight inner circle of the Adams administration.

*** DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said Collins, “a veteran educator with 30 years of experience,” replaced another senior advisor, Mariano Guzman, who retired.

Styer said Collins “went through a rigorous process that did not include City Hall’s oversight.

She was by far the most qualified of all applicants for the position, which is why she was the only finalist presented to the chancellor,” Styer added. He could not say how many applied for the publicly posted position.

City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy said, “Mayor Adams was not involved in the hiring for this position and has a strict firewall when it comes to any matters involving her employment.” *** Levy said the mayor also had the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, COIB, sign off on Adams and Collins working for the city simultaneously, since Adams is technically her boss.

“Mayor Adams has tasked his entire cabinet to pick the brightest and most adequate individuals to serve this city and he is proud of the team at the DOE and the work they are doing,” Levy said. ***

[tinamina]

. We better watch out. Exactly how Kamala got her star from her mayor boyfriend.

[GaryCrow]

This is kind of overt, but this type of stuff always happens. Mitch McConnell's wife Elaine Chao was appointed Secretary of Transportation when Trump got in office. I certainly don't buy that the Senate Majority leader's wife is the most qualified on they could find. I remember when I was in the Marine Corps that Senator Tom Daschle's wife came to our squadron for a joy ride in one of our F/A-18's. She was appointed by Clinton to some post in the FAA and her ride in a fighter was supposedly some kind of fact finding mission.

Appointing the wife/mistress/child of a political ally is a time honored means of political graft. It's been going on since time began and is just considered a perk of the job by most politicians. If they're not in a political position they get put in a position in a "foundation" like the Clinton Foundation that paid Chelsea Clinton a million dollars a year. Sure it's crooked, but who is going to stop it?