NEW YORK — At the same time she held a full-time job in the Adams administration, Jasmine Ray, the mayor’s ex-girlfriend, was pulling in a $100,000 annual salary from a city-funded daycare center — even though a legal agreement held she was only supposed to spend 10 hours per week on the daycare gig, the Daily News has learned.

Ray collected the six-figure salary from Brooklyn’s Cornerstone Day Care Center in at least two of the three fiscal years she was employed as the Adams administration’s sports czar, according to audited financial statements filed with state regulators and reviewed by The News.

The sports czar job, a newly-created post Mayor Eric Adams tapped Ray for in October 2022, paid her another $161,000 per year, meaning between her two gigs she was raking in more than the mayor, whose annual salary has been $258,000.

Ray resigned as sports czar in September shortly before releasing a tell-all book detailing a romantic relationship she and the mayor had between about 2014 and 2016, a revelation that has sparked concerns about Adams’ decision to appoint her to a six-figure role in his administration.

Before joining the Adams administration, Ray was Cornerstone’s full-time executive director. In that role, she earned $87,000 in the 2021 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, according to the daycare’s audited financial statement for that period.

When she joined City Hall, Ray was subject to an unusual city government waiver that allowed her to keep working at Cornerstone, but required she surrender her executive director role and become a “consultant” who could only spend 10 hours per week working on certain limited matters. High-level city officials typically give up outside employment, especially with entities that receive city funding.

The waiver, granted by Adams’ office in consultation with the city Conflicts of Interest Board, specified Ray could only handle matters related to Cornerstone — which relies almost exclusively on taxpayer funding from the Department of Education — “at times when she is not required to work for the Mayor’s Office.”

Still, Cornerstone’s state filings reviewed by The News show she was pulling $100,000 in the 2024 fiscal year, the full duration of which she was employed at City Hall and subject to the 10-hour workweek restriction. The filings also show she was earning a $100,000 salary in the 2023 fiscal year, four months into which she joined Adams’ administration and became subject to the part-time rule.

That means Cornerstone, a tax-exempt and publicly-funded nonprofit charity, let Ray keep a similar salary while at City Hall even though she was only supposed to work 10 hours weekly.

Asked about her compensation levels, Ray referred to David Schwartz, an attorney who confirmed Cornerstone didn’t lower her salary when she joined City Hall.

While confirming Ray had her hours and responsibilities reduced at the daycare while in city government, Schwartz justified keeping her salary the same because her “strategic guidance and expertise remained invaluable to the organization’s mission and the children Cornerstone serves.”

“Her ability to efficiently manage her responsibilities while maintaining Cornerstone’s high standards of care justified her compensation … Cornerstone stands firmly behind Ms. Ray’s contributions and compensation,” he said.

Adams, who’s currently vacationing in Mexico and leaving office Jan. 1, said via a spokeswoman his office made sure Ray had a waiver to stay employed by Cornerstone. But the spokeswoman, Liz Garcia, didn’t say whether there was any internal monitoring to ensure Ray didn’t work more than 10 hours per week for the daycare while at City Hall.

Ray’s dual salaries sparked concerns from an expert.

“A charity’s board is responsible for acting in the charity’s best interests, full stop. It’s difficult to see how paying full time wages for someone to do a part-time job would have achieved that,” said Laurie Styron, CEO and executive director of CharityWatch.

Styron, whose Chicago-based watchdog monitors charity organizations across the country, said it’s especially problematic both of Ray’s salaries were effectively taxpayer-funded, given Cornerstone’s dependence on public dollars for its operations.

“Since both the daycare and the government office are taxpayer funded, taxpayers are the ones being shortchanged,” she said.

The financial paperwork reviewed by The News also shows Ray was being paid by Cornerstone under an “executive dir.” salary code while in Adams’ administration, the same designation she was under prior to being hired at City Hall. Under her waiver, Ray was supposed to not be in that role anymore and only work as a part-time “consultant.”

As a nonprofit public charity organization, Cornerstone is required to file audited financial statements with the state attorney general’s office annually. But Cornerstone’s 2021, 2022 and 2024 fiscal year statements only becme available through the state in the past few weeks after The News repeatedly requested them and demanded access to the records.

Cornerstone’s 2022 fiscal year filing, which covers the last 12-month period before Ray started at City Hall, was uploaded incorrectly by the daycare to the state AG’s database so the top of the page where her salary is listed got cut off, the AG’s office said

Ray’s LinkedIn page says she remains employed by Cornerstone.

On a related front, Ray’s financial disclosure forms submitted with the city Conflicts of Interest Board don’t track with the salary Cornerstone reported paying her. In the mandatory filings, she reported earning between $60,000 and $99,999 per year from Cornerstone in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Schwartz, Cornerstone’s attorney, said Ray’s financial disclosures were submitted “in good faith and in accordance with standard reporting practices,” but didn’t explain why she specified a lower income range than her $100,000 salary.

Carolyn Miller, the Conflicts of Interest Board’s executive director, said reporting incorrect information in financial disclosures can result in fines, but declined to comment on any specifics involving Ray.

Adams, whose single term in office was marred by a corruption indictment and other controversies, said in a recent interview with comedian Ziwe Fumudoh he only hired Ray for the sports czar post because she’s “good at her job,” not because of their past relationship.

“I’m pretty sure all of your boos you didn’t abandon them merely because you had a relationship with them once,” he told Fumudoh.

Since Ray, 42, released her book, Adams, 65, has publicly promoted it.

“Writing this book wasn’t easy, but she wanted people to understand the work, the mission, and the human side behind the headlines,” Adams wrote in an X post in October. “I respect her for that and I enjoyed reading it. I hope all will read the book.”

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