Pemberton Township to select new mayor at Wednesday meeting
Jack Tompkins resigned on the day his liability insurance coverage would’ve ended. Township Council will pick from three names.
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Pemberton Township Municipal Building in Burlington County, N.J. (Google maps)
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The Pemberton Township Council will select a new mayor following the resignation of Jack Tompkins at the end of last year. Three names were submitted to the council by the township’s Republican committee.
Matthew Bianchini, Council president and acting mayor, said Council will pick someone to finish Tompkins’ term during their Wednesday night reorganization meeting. He said the mayor’s office must restore its dignity.
“We need to bring morale back to the township employees who have been walking around the eggshells for the past three years as Tomkins sat in this seat,” he said. “He micromanaged his employees. He would lash out at them arbitrarily. He just treated them very badly.”
Tompkins has not returned a request for comment.
Bianchini said township employees are “already happier” now that Tompkins has left.
The former mayor faced several calls for resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct, bullying, discrimination and retaliatory conduct against municipal employees and others.
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In October, the Burlington County Joint Insurance Fund informed Tompkins in a letter he would no longer receive “employment practices and public officials liability insurance” after 2025.
The letter, obtained by community activist Alexander Costa and shared with WHYY News, cited an analysis of the “numerous claims resulting from your interaction with Pemberton Township employees over the past several years.”
With the loss of insurance, Bianchini said that Tompkins should have resigned sooner.
“He has definitely put the township in a very bad position with his activities and the various lawsuits,” Bianchini said. Despite the timing of the letter, Bianchini added he was “sure there was a huge sigh of relief across the township, both the employees and the residents.”
The three people Council is considering to replace Tompkins will be made public during the meeting.
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