NEW YORK — Despite a municipal government-wide hiring freeze enacted by Mayor Eric Adams, the city’s welfare agency can keep filling vacant positions focused on processing food stamps and other public assistance benefits, City Hall officials said Tuesday. Word of the hiring freeze exemption comes on the heels of the New York Daily News reporting exclusively Monday that Adams’ administration has this year failed to process thousands of applications for emergency food stamps within a seven-day time frame required by law. The benefits, commonly known as E-SNAP, have the short processing window be…