Township Committee Member Jamaine Cripe, Deputy Mayor Deborah Engel, TC Member Vic DeLuca, Fritzen, Mayor Dean Dafis, TC Member Nancy Adams, Acting Township Administrator Gregg Schuster and Township Counsel Roger Desiderio.
Elizabeth Frtizen — known to all as “Liz” — was doubly honored recently.
On March 22, Fritzen received the Joel Popkin President’s Award of Excellence from the Municipal Clerks’ Association of New Jersey.
On April 4, Fritzen was again honored at the Maplewood Township Committee meeting with a surprise proclamation.
The proclamation, penned by Mayor Dean Dafis, noted that Fritzen has mentored everyone in the township government, including elected officials from former Mayor Vic DeLuca, who has served 24 years on the TC, to the newest elected official Deputy Mayor Deborah Engel, who took office this past January. Dafis wrote that Fritzen had supplied “tutelage” to all — “From the process of filing a petition to run for office, learning how things work as someone on this side of the dais, and how to be an effective governing body, it is all thanks to Liz.”
The proclamation concludes with the mayor stating that he and the TC “adore, honor, thank, and want to make clear our admiration of you, Liz. We ask a lot from you, and you have never let us down, and we hope to have you as long as you are willing to have us.”
Fritzen receives the Joel Popkin President’s Award of Excellence from the Municipal Clerks’ Association of New Jersey on March 22, 2023.
Fritzen is nearing 35 years on the job as Maplewood Township Clerk — before that, she was employed by Public Works for nine years. The TC previously honored Fritzen in May 2018 when she reached the 30-year milestone as town clerk.
Fritzen’s institutional knowledge and consistent presence is particularly valuable to the TC and township at present with the resignation of Assistant Township Administrator Bailey Barnett and turnover in the top administrator position — new Township Administrator Patrick Wherry starts work on May 1. The TC is currently being sued by former Township Administrator Jerry Giaimis and has suspended Public Works Superintendent Cesare Riccardi following his arrest on bid-rigging allegations.
In 2010, Fritzen experienced an outpouring of love from the community when she suffered a bleeding aneurysm on her brain. At that time, then-Deputy Mayor Fred Profeta said, “Liz is the face of Maplewood to many of its residents. No one doesn’t love Liz.”
Fritzen was also honored by the Township Committee in 2018.
Read the proclamation here:
PROCLAMATION OF APPRECIATION
Municipal Clerk Elizabeth J. Fritzen
WHEREAS, before anyone can be a leader, they are a mentee. There is a period where you need to be shown how things work, what the procedures are to get things done, and whom to talk to whenever you hit a roadblock. This is especially true in Municipal Government, and I’m sure I can speak for all the committee members in saying that, without our Township Clerk, Elizabeth Fritzen, known to all who know her simply as “Liz,” we would have been lost; and
WHEREAS, from our most senior member on the dais, former Mayor Victor DeLuca, to our newest member, Deputy Mayor Deborah Engel, we have been under Liz’s tutelage. From the process of filing a petition to run for office, learning how things work as someone on this side of the dais, and how to be an effective governing body, it is all thanks to Liz; and
WHEREAS, since 1988, 35 years this May, Liz has served as our Municipal Clerk and has guided many governing body members, guided fellow clerks throughout the State, and through assistants and deputies, trained clerks who have found success in other municipalities; and
WHEREAS, this past March, the Municipal Clerks Association of New Jersey honored Liz with the inaugural Joel Popkin Presidents Award of Excellence. This is notable, considering New Jersey has 564 municipalities, and our clerk was the one recognized; and
WHEREAS, her dedication to service is not limited to her duties as the Township Clerk. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she has been a volunteer EMT in Springfield since 1974, and is a certified Emergency Medical Technician; and
WHEREAS, we can only hope from her two children, Heather and Patrick, and grandson, that there will always be a Fritzen in this world, so each generation can have the privilege of calling them a colleague, a mentor, and most of all, a friend.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED THAT I, Dean Dafis, Mayor of the Township of Maplewood, and the Maplewood Township Committee, adore, honor, thank, and want to make clear our admiration of you, Liz. We ask a lot from you, and you have never let us down, and we hope to have you as long as you are willing to have us.
