Conflicted? Under Adams, city workers get record number of Conflict of Interest Waivers

When fielding reporters’ questions about the myriad of criminal investigations surrounding City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams frequently encourages his staff with a favorite refrain.

“Stay focused, no distractions and grind,” he says.

But documents reviewed by the NBC New York I-Team suggest the city’s municipal workforce may be more distracted than ever – by side jobs with private sector companies that have business dealings with the city.

According to an analysis of waivers granted by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, an average of 748 employees per year have received authorization to own or work for private entities that transact with the city under Mayor Adams. That represents an 61% increase over the de Blasio administration, and a 219% increase from the average number of waivers issued during the Bloomberg and Giuliani administrations

Last year, a record 864 municipal employees got approval to spend off hours working for private businesses, consultants and nonprofits.

Inside binders stored at the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board office,  the I-Team examined many waivers that simply authorize lower-level municipal employees to make a little extra money driving for a rideshare service or working as a security guard, for example. 

But the I-Team also found supervisory employees who make six figure public salaries allowed to work as consultants for private companies doing business with their own agency.  

Susan Lerner, director of the nonpartisan government ethics watchdog Common Cause NY, said the I-Team findings raise concerns the city’s workforce could be distracted. She also noted the record number of conflict waivers comes as the Adams Administration faces multiple investigations involving his staff’s ties to outside consultants and businesses.

“Unfortunately, there have been too many issues raised about conflicts of interest with this particular City Hall,” Lerner said. “It unfortunately feeds into the public’s feeling that public employees aren’t working for the public, that they’re not responsive to the concerns of everyday NYC residents because they have a side gig that they’re thinking about.”

Mayor Adams attributed the increasing number of waiver requests to a highly competitive job market in which municipal employees want freedom to earn extra income.

“If individuals need a waiver that I have to approve – and then it is approved by the oversight agencies to make sure it’s done correctly,” Adams said, “then I have to do that to attract the talent that I need to run the city.”

In one waiver, requested by Adams in Oct. 2022, Jasmine Ray, the new Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness, and Recreation, was authorized to continue working as a consultant for the Cornerstone Daycare in Brooklyn. The previous year, when Ray served as the daycare’s executive director, she won a $4.7 million contract to provide pre-K services to New York City kids. 

Typically it would be against city rules for Ray to get a city paycheck when she also works for a company that has a city contract. But the waiver allowed her to maintain dual roles – both at City Hall and at the daycare. 

Five months after Ray took her new job at City Hall,  the Cornerstone Daycare was temporarily shut down after health inspectors found some of the childcare staff were watching kids without paperwork documenting proper background checks. The Adams Administration would not say how long the closure lasted but said payment to the daycare was withheld for the days it was closed.

Shawna Farquaharson said the daycare closure forced her to find alternative childcare for her son and she questioned whether City Hall was wise to allow Jasmine Ray to split time between two roles.

“I feel like it took her away from Cornerstone a lot more. We needed her to step up and be the director of Cornerstone and she was not there for that,” said Farquaharson. 

Tina Graham, another parent who had to deal with the daycare closure, said she believed Jasmine Ray was still effectively managing the Pre-K program, even though the conflict waiver labeled her as a consultant.

“She was still in charge. They would not make any big decisions without her,” Graham said. “I feel like she wanted the [City Hall] job, but she turned a blind eye to what was going on at the daycare.”

After the Adams administration declined to share full records of the daycare inspections resulting in daycare service interruptions, the I-Team filed a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law seeking those documents. 

Jasmine Ray declined the I-Team’s request for an interview, but in a written statement she suggested she had only a minor role at the daycare when it was temporarily closed down.

“I am dedicated to helping our city’s youth both in my professional work and in my personal life, including as an advisor to the chair of the Cornerstone Daycare Center board. Still, my time at the center is limited to 10 hours a week, and I remain focused on my mission within the Adams administration,” Ray said.

Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams, did not respond to specific questions about whether the daycare inspection problems had any relation to Jasmine Ray having to divide attention between two sets of responsibilities.  She did, however, defend Ray’s performance as Director of Sports, highlighting her work on a program to bring NYC student athletes overseas, and on the Mayor’s Cup – a series of sporting events in which more than 7,000 young people participate in each year. 

“Jasmine Ray is a dedicated public servant who is laser-focused on her work leading the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness, and Recreation to provide our youth,” Garcia wrote. “[Her] ability to lead her office while continuing to serve youth outside of her public capacity is proof that city employees with additional jobs can be and are effective while still making good-use of taxpayer dollars.”

Though all waivers to work for private sector companies are requested by a city department head, it is the five-member Conflicts of Interest Board that gives final approval. 

Via email, the I-Team asked the board’s executive director, Carolyn Miller, to explain the steep rise in waivers requested and granted during Mayor Adams’ tenure. She did not immediately respond.

Lerner urged the board to be more strict about allowing city workers to take jobs with companies that do business with the city.

“It’s particularly important for the Conflicts of Interest Board to do its job and say to people who want waivers, ‘No.’”