Cammarano: Alvarez hiring powers were restricted

Gov. Phil Murphy’s outgoing chief of staff Pete Cammarano on Tuesday said Al Alvarez, formerly deputy director of personnel for Murphy’s transition, was stripped of his hiring power in December 2017.

“Counsel told us that we should take action to ensure that Mr. Alvarez was not in a position to retaliate against the alleged victim (whomever she might be) by limiting his hiring responsibilities and his ability to reject any resume submitted to the Transition by anyone who could be the alleged victim,” Cammarano said in his opening statement to the Special Committee on Oversight.

Cammarano said he was not sure whether Alvarez had been told about the restriction, and committee co-chair Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin said emails reviewed by the committee suggest that Alvarez was still weighing in on hiring decisions after the limits were said to have been imposed.

Those documents are not available for review by the press.

Cammarano said the limitations were imposed by transition counsel Raj Parikh, who was also the one to inform him about the restrictions.

The committee’s chairs suggested they would call on Parikh and Murphy transition executive director Jose Lozano to appear before the committee at some point in time.

State Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency chief of staff Katie Brennan has accused Alvarez of sexually assaulting her in April 2017, when they were both involved with Murphy’s gubernatorial campaign.

Cammarano’s testimony was cut short at 4 p.m., the committee’s predetermined closing time for the day.

He will return to testify on Jan. 8, when the committee is expected to hold its next hearing.