Pemberton mayor won’t quit despite sexual harassment allegations and claims of toxic culture in Pine Barrens town

The subject of lawsuits and a target of critics from both political parties, Republican Mayor Jack Tompkins of Pemberton Township in Burlington County remains in office despite repeated calls for him to quit from constituents, township officials, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

Since taking office in January 2023, Tompkins, 64, a retired Air Force veteran, has been the subject of a highly critical independent investigation, which was commissioned by township officials and conducted by a Hackensack law firm. After the report came out, the township council officially censured Tompkins.

Some of the report’s more serious allegations included inappropriate interactions with female lifeguards underage 18; sexual harassment of the township’s recreation director, who sued Tompkins and the township, winning a half-million-dollar judgment; and a pattern of misconduct — like poking a woman in the head, or discussing rape in the office — that was sometimes accompanied by obscene language and “retaliatory” outbursts, fostering what the investigators who wrote the report termed a “severe chilling effect” that silenced anyone who felt wronged and allowed Tompkins to continue his aberrant behavior.

Tompkins denied nearly everything investigators learned, according to the report. He did not respond to phone calls and texts from The Inquirer requesting comment.

After a recall effort failed to remove Tompkins from office last year, a second attempt is being explored, which requires 4,430 signatures, 25% of the township’s registered voters, on a petition to trigger a recall election.

In Pemberton Township’s strong mayoral form of government, Tompkins cannot be fired, officials said. Tompkins was elected in 2022 with 53% of the vote over 16-year Democratic incumbent Mayor David Patriarca. His four-year term ends in 2026.

Fellow Republicans say Tompkins has created a toxic atmosphere that discourages people from working for the government and from moving to the scenic town of 28,000 in the Pine Barrens.

“He’s done a lot of damage to our party and our town,” said Abby Bargar, the township’s Republican municipal chairperson. “I can’t endorse him. It’s heartbreaking.”

Over the winter, the Pemberton Township Republican Club banished Tompkins. “Something changed in him,” said Charles de Charleroy, the club’s leader. “He became abrasive and unapproachable.”

Most recently, Tompkins drew community-wide ire on July 1 for canceling the annual Water Carnival on Mirror Lake for the second year in a row without a clear explanation. The celebration is a tradition dating to 1943, and many residents characterize the cancellation as a form of vengeance for complaints against him.

“The mayor is a train wreck and a vile human being — especially to women — who’s created nothing but controversy,” said fellow Republican Matt Bianchini, township council president. “He’s as vindictive as they come.”

With an all-Republican, five-person council, “the man should be in heaven, getting things done,” Bianchini said. “But he’s on a power trip and won’t work with us. He finalized a budget in December but held it up until this month, just to spite us.”

In a brief interview with 6abc’s Action News earlier this month, Tompkins said: “I haven’t done anything illegal, anything unethical. I come in every day and do the job. There’s no reason to resign.”

During its investigation, the Pashman Stein Walder Hayden law firm interviewed 38 employees and reviewed documents, according to the report.

In a situation residents called “disturbing,” Tompkins invited a 16-year-old female lifeguard at Mirror Lake to go for a ride with him in his car to Presidential Lakes, according to the report, which described the area as a “largely unused section of township property.”

The teenager declined, later describing the interaction as “weird,” the report said. Tompkins would neither deny nor confirm this on advice of counsel, according to the report.

A male seasonal employee said Tompkins “tended to gravitate around the younger females,” who said he was “creepy,” the report said.

“Boys working at the beach would stand with the girl lifeguards to protect them whenever the mayor showed up,” Marti Graf Wenger, president of the Browns Mills Improvement Association, said in an interview. Browns Mills is an unincorporated section of Pemberton Township; the association works to improve and promote the area, once a “Gatsby-esque” locale with chic hotels that drew well-off Philadelphians vacationing in the woods, Wenger said.

“Lawsuits detail the disgusting ways he [Tompkins] treats and talks to employees,” she said in a township council meeting on July 7 that overflowed with residents angry about the canceled carnival.

Bianchini said he has referred the allegations about the 16-year-old girl to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. Wenger said the girl’s mother does not want the matter pursued. According to the report, the mother, who works for the township, was unwilling to risk losing her job.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said: “There has been no determination that a violation of the New Jersey Criminal Code has occurred.”

The beach interactions and other incidents have gotten the attention of the state’s top officials, including the governor.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Murphy released a statement about Tompkins’ alleged misconduct: “The governor was deeply disturbed by the investigation’s findings showing a pattern of sexual harassment and threats of retaliation by the mayor. He believes the mayor should resign.”

And Wednesday, Democratic Assembly member Andrea Katz, whose district includes Pemberton Township, said she has asked New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin to investigate Tompkins. He has not responded. “Constituents who’ve called me are very concerned,” she said, adding: “I wouldn’t want my daughters near Tompkins.”

In November 2023, Nicole Pittman, the township recreation director, sued Tompkins and the township alleging sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, and retaliatory conduct against her and three other employees. Tompkins fired her, and the township council reversed the dismissal. She has not returned.

Pittman alleged that during a Fourth of July parade, she asked the mayor why he wasn’t wearing red, white, and blue. According to the report, Tompkins responded, “You don’t know what I’m wearing under my clothes.”

Pittman also alleged that the Tompkins would regularly threaten to fire her while giving favorable treatment to a male coworker.

“He would curse Nicole out and then just cancel dozens of events she’d planned out of retaliation,” Vicky Adams, a retired township bus driver whom Pittman supervised, said in an interview. “He left no joy in this job.”

On advice of counsel, Tompkins declined to respond to questions regarding Pittman’s allegations, according to the report.

Pittman settled her suit for $500,000, Bianchini said.

“There have been six lawsuits, with five pending, including one from our CFO. And someone else is planning to file,” he said. The township’s insurance requires it pay 10% of settlements. “So we’re out $50,000, and there’s more to come,” Bianchini said. “Other settlements will be in the millions, raising our debt.”

On Wednesday, Pittman’s replacement, Jennifer Deeds, announced her resignation after “an impossible battle” with Tompkins. Wenger said that Deeds was the adult whom female lifeguards called when Tompkins would show up. She declined to comment.

On one occasion, the report said, Tompkins poked a woman in the back of her head and said, “I just put my finger in the —," making a crass allusion. Tompkins admitted to jabbing the woman but not to making the remark.

In another incident, a child stated that his favorite part of a youth camp program was using batons. The mayor pointed to a female employee and told the child, “She tried to use whips and chains on me yesterday, but I wasn’t into it,” according to the report. Tompkins denied it.

The same employee asked where she could sit in a meeting and Tompkins said, “I know where you can sit,” according to the report. Eyewitnesses said they heard it, while the mayor denied it.

In early February 2024, Tompkins referenced a particular room in the municipal building as the “date rape room” because it had a couch in it. He admitted using the phrase, the report said.

Tompkins used derogatory and sexist slurs to refer to an employee and posted a picture on Facebook of himself grabbing the breast of a nonemployee in Thailand, the report said.

During his interview with investigators, Tompkins “boasted” about his frequent use of expletives in the workplace.

Defending Tompkins, Sherry Scull, a school board member who has served on the township council, said: “I’m not sticking up 100% for Jack. He’s made some mistakes and needs to learn to bite his tongue.”

“But I never saw him act disrespectfully to women. He’s a smart guy, and people sometimes don’t like smart people. He was instrumental in preserving town artifacts and has been responsive to constituents,” Scull said. “Still, this has been one long nightmare.”

The law firm’s report concluded by saying the township should take action, including “termination, suspension, mandatory sensitivity training, mandatory leadership training, and banning the mayor from interacting with seasonal employees.”

More than a year has passed since the report was released and, as disparaging as it was, little can be done to remove Tompkins from his job, Bianchini said.

“There’s nothing we can do because nothing criminal has been proven,” he added.

But bad feelings linger. Meetings still get raucous.

At a recent meeting, Adams called Tompkins a “weasel” and said she feels sorry for his wife and daughter. Tompkins abruptly left.

“It’s like theater out here,” Wenger said.

“Well, there’s one thing,” Adams said. ”The mayor’s brought this entire township together: Both Democrats and Republicans are against him.”