Former Brick Mayor Joe Scarpelli Dies at 86

Joseph C. Scarpelli (Photo: Obituary)

Former Brick Township Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli, first known for his personal warmth and signature “Ask the Mayor” television call-in show, but ultimately remembered for a scandal that led to his imprisonment, has died at age 86.

Scarpelli died Jan. 30, 2026, and his death was announced publicly Tuesday. Born on Nov. 18, 1939 in New York City, Scarpelli was the son of Joseph and Helen Scarpelli. He attended Cardinal Hayes High School before continuing his studies at Fordham University before settling in Brick in the 1960s and becoming involved in the Democratic Club, which led to his eventual tenure in local politics – with a rise to great popularity among residents and a fall that included a series of tragedies that befell his family in the years that followed.

As mayor, he was remembered for starting the township’s “Summerfest” celebration and kicking off a legacy of open space purchases, as well as his periodic call-in show that he hosted on a local cable access station during which he took live phone calls from residents and provided off-the-cuff responses. The township, under Scarpelli’s leadership, bought the massive Foodtown shopping center site on Route 70 in 2003 for $6.1 million – which is still making headlines to this day after more than 20 years of redevelopment efforts.

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Scarpelli’s reputation as a friendly, affable figure was contrasted by scandal. He was indicted on federal public corruption charges – notably one count of “extortion under the color of official right” to which he pled guilty – at about the same time he abruptly resigned as mayor in 2006 after serving for 12 years. To this day, the details of the investigation that landed Scarpelli in a prison camp at Fort Dix are foggy, at best. Though he admitted to having accepted approximately $5,000 in cash bribes between 1998 to 2003 from an unnamed real estate developer in Brick Township, the federal probe was widely acknowledged to have cast a wide net. Some reports linked his resignation to separate arrests involving a trucking company, but the core case against him centered on bribery and extortion offenses.

In 2007, Scarpelli entered a guilty plea in Newark federal court, admitting that he used his official position as mayor to assist the still-unidentified developer in obtaining building approvals, zoning variances, or other favorable actions on development projects. Budget appropriations and contract awards were also said to have been rigged.

After being released from prison in 2009, Scarpelli kept a low profile in town, but remained friends with many of his Herbertsville neighbors and could be seen borrowing books from the local library or shopping at the supermarket. Tragedy struck the Scarpelli family in 2017, when his son, Glenn, and daughter-in-law Patricia ended their lives by jumping from the ninth floor of a building in New York City as a separate scandal involving healthcare fraud erupted. Scarpelli’s daughter, Kim E. Bogan, pleaded guilty in Ocean County Superior Court in 2017 to a single count of second-degree theft by deception. This stemmed from a scheme where Bogan, a township employee, submitted nearly $1 million in fraudulent claims to the township’s self-funded health insurance program between January 2011 and April 2017. Some of the payments were linked to her brother Glenn, who was a chiropractor. Bogan served 10 months of a five-year sentence and was ordered to repay Brick Township $941,354.

Despite the scandals which he regretted, Scarpelli was said to have been proud of his years of government service. According to an obituary posted by his family, “He was a kid at heart who loved family above all else, model trains, Christmas, and PASTA!”

No services are planned at this time, the obituary said. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to JBJ Soul Foundation at https://jbjsf.charityproud.org.