PROVIDENCE — Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts’ chief of staff, Paul Tencher, will leave at the beginning of next month “to seek new opportunities,” the office announced yesterday.

The statement did not make clear whether Tencher was voluntarily stepping down from his $85,220 job, or being let go.

Tencher said he has not yet settled on what he will do next, but had been contemplating the move for some time.

Spokeswoman Larkin Barker denied reports that his unexpected departure is connected to an e-mail sent from an Internet account in the lieutenant governor’s office inviting Roberts’ supporters to a $200-a-head March 19 fundraising event at the Napa Valley Grille.

Roberts’ policy director Jennifer Wood said the newsletter was sent out by a mailing-list vendor paid by Roberts’ campaign account, but it contained a return e-mail address for RSVPs in the lieutenant governor’s official office.

Wood said there was no question in her mind that use of a state computer to conduct political activity on state time would have been improper. In this case there was what she described as a “programming glitch,” but “I was satisfied there was no ethical or legal breach.”

But Wood did not confirm what role, if any, Tencher played in sending the e-mail, saying she’d have to pose that question to the office’s campaign liaison: Tencher himself.

In her statement yesterday, Roberts thanked Tencher, saying she’s “always known that great things await Paul in his professional future …. I have been lucky to keep Paul for as long as I have, and he has my gratitude and full support as he pursues opportunities outside of my office.”

On Monday, after word of his unexpected departure broke, Tencher said he “knew this wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

He added that he is “exploring some different opportunities.”

The timing, Tencher said, had “absolutely nothing” to do with the fundraising e-mail, or the controversy surrounding Roberts’ high-profile criticism of Governor Carcieri’s executive order on illegal immigrants.

A 27-year-old West Warwick native who ran Roberts’ successful campaign for lieutenant governor, Tencher joined her staff following her inauguration last year. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Seton Hall University.

He previously worked as press secretary for Secretary of State Matt Brown and for Vision Strategies, the Cranston public relations, marketing and lobbying firm of husband-and-wife team Bill Fischer and Jennifer Bramley.

At the time she hired him to be her chief of staff, Roberts called Tencher, “A rising star who knows the ins and outs of both government and politics, and is a creative and energetic manager.”

Tencher is expected to leave on May 1.

Roberts has not yet made any decisions about a replacement, staffers said.

kgregg@projo.com