Homeless services commissioner's wife once got a $50K raise under his employ

NEW YORK — The new head of the city’s embattled Department of Homeless Services was just a few rungs up the organizational ladder from his wife when she received a promotion and $50,000-plus raise.

The arrangement, uncovered through an extensive review of public records, raises conflict-of-interest questions at a time when Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins’ agency is separately being probed for allegations it covered up legal violations arising from its failure to promptly house immigrant asylum-seekers.

The pay bump, which happened two years ago, exceeds any other granted to senior officials in the same agency over a seven-year period, but the agency insists all rules were followed.

Jenkins revealed the family connection in a mandatory annual financial disclosure form on file with the city Conflicts of Interest Board.

He was the first deputy commissioner of the Human Resources Administration in April 2020 when his wife, Randa Henry-Jenkins, was promoted to deputy commissioner for home care services. She began the job that May, but she agreed to defer her $53,263 pay bump until the following March, due to Covid-related municipal belt-tightening.

The promotion brought her salary to $180,000 — the high end of a city-proposed salary range for the job, and $13,000 more than the prior head of home care services, Arnold Ng, who left in 2020.

Jenkins’ press team said he consulted with the conflicts board before his wife was promoted.

By the time Henry-Jenkins’ pay bump kicked in, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had promoted her husband to lead the HRA.

And as Mayor Eric Adams prepared to take office in January, he tapped Jenkins to oversee both agencies as the social services commissioner, a $243,171-a-year job. Spokesperson Neha Sharma said Jenkins recused himself from all matters concerning his wife’s promotion, and that “this recusal remains in effect in his current role as DSS commissioner.”

The Conflicts of Interest Board, an ethics watchdog whose five board members are appointed by the mayor with consent from the City Council, addresses rules governing family-work connections on its website.

“A public servant cannot supervise – or be supervised by – their spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or sibling,” the board wrote in an FAQ section of its site titled, “The Top 4 Things Public Servants Need to Know about Working with Relatives.”

The board also advises: “A public servant cannot take any official action that would affect the employment of their spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or sibling, including participating in their hiring, performance evaluation, discipline, or promotion.”

And the city charter — the basis of much of the board’s advice — warns against a city official profiting off an associate: “No public servant shall use or attempt to use his or her position as a public servant to obtain any financial gain, contract, license, privilege or other private or personal advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant.”

Sharma said Jenkins consulted with the board and his predecessor, Steven Banks, about recusing himself from matters involving his wife’s promotion, but she would not provide a copy of the guidance the board provided.

Sharma said Henry-Jenkins was elevated based on more than three decades of experience working in the department. She also said the job was posted internally, and Henry-Jenkins was promoted after a competitive interview process. Sharma provided a copy of the posting but wouldn't answer questions about how many people applied and were interviewed.

“HRA Deputy Commissioner of Home Care Services Randa Henry-Jenkins is a 30+ year veteran at HRA who has dedicated her life to serving and supporting vulnerable New Yorkers, starting her journey as a frontline staffer and working tirelessly to move up the ranks on her own merit and determination,” Sharma said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that any attempts are being made to misrepresent the hard work of a civil servant who has demonstrated unwavering commitment to supporting vulnerable communities.”

Jenkins began working at the HRA in 1988, and Henry-Jenkins started in 1990, according to Sharma, who said the pair have been transparent about their relationship throughout their tenure at the agency.

An organizational chart from June 2021 shows Jenkins three rungs above his wife in the chain of command when he was HRA administrator, the top position at that agency. Sharma said he has never supervised his spouse, and that arrangements were made to ensure home care service issues would be elevated to a first deputy commissioner rather than to him.

POLITICO reviewed salary records for all 23 people in leadership positions at the HRA as of the 2021 organizational chart and found the $53,263 raise was the highest given to anyone since at least 2014. Most of these officials did not receive salary increases between 2020 and 2021. The next highest raise during those two years, roughly $20,000, went to Deputy Commissioner for Career Services Rasheida Maharaj, who also received a title change.

Sharma said DSS does not cap promotional salary increases for managers — a policy in place at some city agencies — and said raises are based on salaries tied to a specific position. The job listing provided by the agency for Henry-Jenkins’ deputy commissioner role proposed a salary range between $88,936 and $185,921.

In one prior case that dealt with a city employee running afoul of conflicts-of-interest rules, the ethics board fined the executive director of a New York City Health + Hospitals facility $3,000 for indirectly supervising his brother’s employment at the facility and authorizing a 10 percent pay raise.

The employee argued he didn’t supervise his brother and that his signing the personnel form approving the raise was a “ministerial act.” But in a ruling adopted by the ethics board, an Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings judge wrote that “it strains credulity to assert that respondent, who was then the Executive Director of the facility, lacked discretion over whether to authorize a substantial merit increase.”

In another case, the board fined a health services manager at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $750 for playing a role in hiring and indirectly supervising her sister’s husband for two years. The board noted she “had the authority to affect his work duties, assign his work location, and approve his timesheets,” and concluded that she used her role to benefit her relatives. The employee agreed to retire in addition to paying the fine.

Neither appears to have recused themselves as Jenkins did.