PETERSBURG — Mark Pancoast resigned from Township Committee on Dec. 9 in a move that appeared to come as a surprise to others on the governing body.
“Over the past year, I found my personal schedule increasingly conflicts with my ability to devote the necessary time to council. That’s not fair to the employees, it’s not fair to the residents, so tonight will be my last council meeting,” Pancoast said. “I do want to thank the entire board here over the past year, particularly Mayor (Jay) Newman and Deputy Mayor (Kim) Hayes, for maintaining a constant open line of communication.”
The 46-year-old lieutenant in the Ocean City Police Department was elected to a one-year term in November 2021, running on a slate with Newman and Hayes, who were elected to three-year terms.
Pancoast, who oversaw the Department of Public Works, the township’s largest labor pool, worked to make the township fiscally conservative by restructuring the department.
“Our command structure is rebuilt as far as everyday employees you see on the street that are doing a fantastic job. They have a direct line to talk to their supervisors. It’s becoming a lot more efficient with the people we have in place,” he previously told the Sentinel.
Pancoast started as a summer police office in 1997, was a dispatcher in Ocean City for a little over a year during 9/11 and was hired full time as a police officer in 2002.
He spent time on the road, 11 years in the detective bureau, was promoted to sergeant and then lieutenant and put in charge of systems administration.
Pancoast and his wife, Abby, married in 2005 and moved to Upper Township. They have two children.
While Pancoast said he resigned a year before his term was up because of scheduling conflicts with work and life, he was politically tied to Newman and Hayes, who lost a primary challenge to Zachary Palombo and Samuel Palombo last spring.
Zach Palombo, superintendent of the Cape May City School District, is the son and Sam Palombo, a pharmaceutical sales representative, the nephew of former longtime mayor Rich Palombo.
The Palombos earned the endorsement of the Upper Township members of the Republican County Committee during the local candidate endorsement process. The final meeting for Newman and Hayes is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at Township Hall.
The trio was elected together in 2021, when they topped two other slates seeking the three seats.
Newman first served four terms on Township Committee, winning election in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011. He returned to politics in 2021, after Palombo and deputy mayor Ed Barr chose not to seek another term.
Hayes was appointed to her seat in 2020 to fill a vacancy and won her first full term in 2021.
Pancoast then won election to a full term in 2022.
The township Republican Party now will forward as many as three names to Township Committee, which will appoint one of the three to the remainder of Pancoast’s term. The seat will then be open again at the end of 2025, with an election set for November.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff