“That discrimination and hostility, the lack of support here, have been frustrating and draining, and I have chosen to leave my position to protect my health and happiness,” a state EDA official wrote. | AP Photo State EDA official who reported Murphy aide says she faced retaliation

A state official who complained about one of Gov. Phil Murphy’s top advisers during the transition says she is resigning her post at the Economic Development Authority because she faced retaliation for her actions.

Allison Kopicki, the vice president of policy, planning and research at the EDA, said she will step down at the end of January after being sidelined for months after her decision to speak to a major newspaper about the issues she raised.


“Unfortunately, since the fall, I have experienced a certain level of retaliation from members of the administration that is keeping me from doing my job effectively, including exclusions from meetings and being prevented from working on projects that I had been assigned to earlier this year,” Kopicki wrote in a Jan. 3 letter of resignation that was obtained Monday by POLITICO.

“That discrimination and hostility, the lack of support here, have been frustrating and draining, and I have chosen to leave my position to protect my health and happiness,” she wrote.

Kopicki, who previously served as deputy policy director on Murphy’s transition team, told the Wall Street Journal in October that she had alleged one of Murphy’s top aides — former deputy campaign manager Joe Kelley — created a hostile work environment for women. Among the accusations was that Kelley threw a chair when a female member of the campaign staff was present.

The transition team investigated Kelley, but he was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing and hired as a deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office. He remains in the post and has appeared publicly with Murphy on several occasions.

A spokesman for the governor’s office declined to comment on the allegations of retaliation.

The departure comes as state lawmakers are examining the Murphy administration’s decision to hire Al Alvarez, a former top campaign aide, for a state job despite being aware he had faced an accusation of sexual assault. The Legislative Select Oversight Committee is scheduled to meet again Tuesday to take testimony from top officials in the governor’s office.

Two sources say Kopicki had “tried hard” to get her husband, a water resources engineer, hired as the state’s flood czar prior to her decision to resign. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, did not elaborate about the circumstances.

Kopicki said in a phone interview Monday that effort occurred before she had taken a job with the administration and as Murphy’s two top aides were trying to recruit her.

Kopicki said she met with Pete Cammarano, now Murphy’s chief of staff, and Matt Platkin, now the governor’s chief counsel, in the second half of 2017 to discuss whether she would take a job in the administration.

Kopicki, who had been a volunteer adviser for the governor’s campaign, said she wasn’t interested and wanted to stay on as the state policy director for New Jersey Future, a think tank she had worked at since 2016. She suggested instead that her husband be hired as the state’s chief of resiliency.

But the state never hired her husband. Kopicki, who had taken a volunteer post on the transition team, had to leave New Jersey Future because the transition work had consumed so much time. She said she decided to take her post at the EDA.

“I don’t like when two people — when married people — are both in the government,” Kopicki said in the interview. “I hate that.”

Kopicki, who had also worked in the administration of former Gov. Jon Corzine, said she was happy with her job until she began getting cut out of important meetings and realized she couldn’t get her work done.

“I don’t want the bullies to win,” Kopicki said, explaining why she is speaking out. “I’m going to take a financial hit by leaving the state. I don’t think I can do my good work there, with the way they have been acting with me.”

Kopicki‘s annual salary with the EDA is $140,000.

She says she thinks there are systemic problems in Trenton with the way women are treated.

“I am sort of running away, but I also want to speak out a little bit and say, ‘guys, don’t do this,’” Kopicki said. “And all of Trenton needs to look. It’s also the Legislature.”

“We can do better than this,” she said.