State Office of Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham of Tolland, a veteran fiscal policy administrator who stabilized Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget agency three years ago following a bribery and extortion scandal, will step down from the post before year’s end, according to a source.
Lamont is expected Thursday to name Josh Wojcik of Brooklyn, a key health policy leader in the state comptroller’s office, to succeed Beckham at the helm of OPM, the executive branch’s chief fiscal and policy planning agency.
A fiscal conservative, Beckham has been one of Lamont’s chief allies in defending the state budget caps that helped reverse years of deficits while eliminating a huge portion of Connecticut’s hefty pension debt.
Since Lamont took office in January 2019, Connecticut has dedicated $10 billion in surplus funds to its pensions for state workers and municipal teachers and another $3.3 billion to help build one of the largest rainy day funds in the nation.
Beckham joined the Lamont administration in April 2019 as OPM’s undersecretary for legislative affairs.
But his career in state policy development and administration spans more than three decades and involves all three branches of government.
He served as staff counsel and director of communications in the Department of Administration from 2011 through 2019.
Beckham’s first stint at OPM ran from 2007 through 2010 under then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell, when he also served as undersecretary for legislative affairs. He also was a managing attorney at the state Department of Public Works from 2005 to 2007.
Prior to serving in the executive branch, Beckham spent 14 years as an attorney in the nonpartisan Legislative Commissioners’ Office, helping to draft legislation related to environmental, energy, commerce and fiscal issues. And he began his state service in the judicial branch as a temporary assistant clerk in superior court.
Lamont appointed Beckham as OPM secretary on March 11, 2022, shortly after the governor’s first budget director, Melissa McCaw departed to become East Hartford’s finance director.
McCaw, Connecticut’s first Black OPM secretary resigned more than three years ago shortly after news reports that the FBI had subpoenaed records of construction projects and grants overseen by her former deputy, Konstantinos Diamantis.
A federal jury last month found Diamantis guilty of using his former position overseeing Connecticut’s school construction financing program to enrich himself and his family.
The jury specifically found Diamantis, 69, guilty of 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators.
Wojcik is a veteran of the comptroller’s office since 2019.
He has led the Health Policy and Benefits Services Division since 2022, overseeing benefits for more than 270,000 public sector workers, retirees, dependents and other individuals. The division manages a $2 billion health and welfare benefits budget.
Wojcik was a key figure behind several prescription drug benefit reforms and negotiations to secure major savings in pharmaceutical and other health care costs.
He also led efforts to develop Open CT, the state’s online portal to promote easy public access to fiscal data.
Wojcik, who served as a policy and budget analyst for the state Senate Democratic Caucus prior to his tenure in the comptroller’s office, holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s of public administration from the University of Connecticut.
