PETERSBURG – The Upper Township Committee has found a new business administrator, pulling from the ranks of the U.S. Army at Fort Dix.
Garrison Command Sgt. Maj. James Van Zlike, 41, is currently on terminal leave from the Army as he prepares to assume the administrator position as of Monday, June 2.
The governing body was expected to pass a resolution May 12, after the Herald’s print deadline, hiring Van Zlike as the new business administrator and also appointing him the new fund commissioner and municipal housing liaison for the township.
For his first 10 weeks, Van Zlike’s salary will be paid with a Veterans Local Government Management Fellowship award. Beginning Aug. 11, the township will pay his $155,000 per-year salary.
Originally from Junction City/Manhattan, Kansas, Van Zlike entered the Army at age 17. He then spent the next 24 years in that service, culminating with a position as deputy city manager of Fort Dix.
Van Zlike said he had reached the highest enlisted rank and decided it was perhaps time to look at other opportunities.
“I feel I have maximized my potential in the Army as an E-9. There is no E-10,” he said.
Van Zlike earned a bachelor of science in information technology from the University of Phoenix and a master’s in public administration, focusing on information systems security, from the University of Texas at El Paso. Besides the MPA, he is certified as a public management professional.
“My goal was always to do something after the Army, and I decided it was time to focus on a second career. I feel I will continue in service, but in another capacity,” he said.
He said moving from running a military installation such as Fort Dix to working with Upper Township will not be an extreme transition. The base is essentially civilian-managed; he said that of the 180-person workforce, all but about 12 are civilians.
Still, in the Army he was leading highly specialized work sections, and he called the Army a “very complex workforce.”
Van Zlike will take over for interim administrator Joe Verruni.
He said he will be retiring from the Army and is moving 90 minutes south to Upper Township. He is married to a Jersey girl whose family vacationed in Ocean City.
He described the position in Upper Township as the perfect opportunity to reconnect with the Jersey Shore and enjoy a 15- to 20-minute drive to the beach. He said they would be closing on their house on May 27, in anticipation of beginning his new job.
Van Zlike is essentially replacing former business manager Gary DeMarzo, who was removed from that position on Jan. 27. He was being paid for 90 days after his notice of termination, which expired at the end of April.
The township then hired Jersey Professional Management, which provided Verruni as an interim and recruited candidates for a permanent replacement.
DeMarzo also was ultimately laid off from his civil service position as the township’s personnel officer. He has been named the interim City Manager for the City of Clifton in Passaic County.
He has a $1.7 million lawsuit pending against Upper Township and members of the governing body.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
