A top aide to the mayor of Newark, N.J., is leaving his post to join a hedge fund.

Bo Kemp, currently the troubled city’s business administrator and acting director of its engineering department, has resigned to take a post at an unidentified hedge fund. Before joining the administration of newly-elected Mayor Cory Booker 18 months ago, he led a now-defunct publishing company called Vanguarde Media.

Kemp, whose $178,145-per-year job has entailed slashing costs and cutting 500 municipal jobs, has been the object of such venom that he was assigned a plainclothes police officer as a bodyguard while he is at the office. However, he said his decision to leave was based on the fact that he could no longer support his children's private school and eventual college expenses on his current salary.

He is not the only high-profile departure from Newark’s city government: Corporation Counsel Aney Chandy has also announced her resignation.