By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
After a nearly two-year hiatus from elected politics, Keith Hartzell is looking to return to City Council by running for a seat in the Second Ward in the May 14 municipal election.
An Ocean City councilman from 2006 to 2022, Hartzell stepped down from the governing body after his unsuccessful race for mayor in 2022 against Mayor Jay Gillian.
He previously served as a councilman at-large, but this time he wants to represent the Second Ward. He turned in his nominating petitions to the City Clerk’s Office on Friday to make it official.
“Running in this ward means so much to me. I’ve been involved now in every aspect of this ward. I truly love every aspect of the ward. It’s something worth protecting. We have this fantastic quality of life from 4th to 12th street. It’s just perfect. I just love it,” he said in an interview Monday.
Councilman Tom Rotondi currently represents the Second Ward, which runs from the south side of 4th Street to the north side of 12th Street. Rotondi, who is finishing up his first four-year term, has taken out his nominating petitions but has not yet turned them in to the City Clerk’s Office to make his candidacy in the election official.
Hartzell, 67, said his roots in the Second Ward go all the way back to 1986, when he bought his first Ocean City home there. About three years ago, he purchased a home in the Second Ward on the bayfront at 600 Pleasure Ave. He also owns a place on Asbury Avenue in the Second Ward.
“The beauty of this ward is that you have access to the bay, the beach, the Boardwalk, the downtown and a bunch of churches. This is it. I love this neighborhood, because I’ve walked everything.”
He frequently walks through the ward with his dog, a Yorkie named Fletcher.
“Everybody knows me through the dog,” he joked. “If I go to the bank, (they ask) ‘Where’s Fletcher?’”
In addition to making the Second Ward his home, Hartzell also owns commercial property in the Second Ward and worships and volunteers at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church on Eighth Street and Central Avenue in the Second Ward. He is in the process of studying to become a lay minister at St. Peter’s.
“This is where I live, I work, it’s where I worship, it’s where I play and where I volunteer,” he said while noting that the “play” aspect is his enjoyment of his bayfront home.
Hartzell retired last year from his position as regional sales manager with the Von Drehle paper products company. He spent 42 years working in the paper products industry with Von Drehle and two other companies.
He said his retirement gives him even more time to devote to public service and has helped to fuel his desire to return to City Council as the Second Ward’s representative and to protect its neighborhood-like qualities.
“When I look at the ward, I just realize that it’s the quality of life that I love here. I just want to make sure that as we develop property here, that we keep in mind all of the people involved, all of the neighbors. And we make sure we have homes that match the neighborhood and work for everybody, because it is a neighborhood,” he said.
“I want it to stay a neighborhood as much as I can. That doesn’t mean I don’t want people to redevelop the properties. If they do, that’s great. But you just want to make sure it works for everybody,” he continued.
Hartzell’s campaign slogan is, “Protecting Our Neighborhood, Securing Our Future.”
Although he retired from his paper products career, Hartzell took a job last summer as the food services director at the Jilly’s brand Boardwalk stores co-owned by Third Ward Councilman Jody Levchuk. Hartzell and Levchuk are close friends and political allies.
Hartzell joked that as Jilly’s food services director, it “meant that I made French fries.” At the same time, he noted that his experience at Jilly’s gave him valuable insights into the workings of the Boardwalk, a hub of Ocean City’s summer tourist trade.
“It was a bucket list thing, to be honest with you. I never worked on the Boardwalk as a kid. I loved it, I absolutely loved it. I never had that experience,” he said.
During his lengthy Council career, Hartzell served as both president and vice president at times. He was part of an unprecedented effort by the governing body and the mayor to improve Ocean City’s infrastructure, including flood-mitigation projects, road reconstruction, a multiyear dredging program for the back bays and the creation of open space.
In 2010, he helped to spearhead the city’s push to build more capital improvements while controlling taxes at the same time.
“I’ve always worked well as a Council person with other Council people and the administration. That’s never been a problem for me. But also, it’s never been a problem to question something that I felt was important to question. Working together is what you should do, but also when there is something worth questioning, you should question it. Just make sure that you’ve represented the taxpayer in everything you do and say,” he said.
Hartzell recalled an experience that he had when he was first campaigning for Council in 2006 that helped to shape his relationships with his constituents and define his style as an elected official.
At that time, Hartzell met a longtime resident, the now-deceased Joe Newsome, who lived in Merion Park. Newsome took Hartzell aside and told him of the need for flood-mitigation projects to protect Merion Park from stormwater.
“That gave me an appreciation for my neighborhood,” he said of what he learned from Newsome. “I’ve lived in this (Second Ward) neighborhood for a long, long time and I know it now inside and out. I think an important aspect for me in being on Council is to understand all of the aspects of our neighborhood and what the quality of life means to everybody here in this neighborhood.”
Newsome would develop a friendship and working relationship with Hartzell’s late father, Paul, a civil engineer, to push for flood-control projects. Merion Park resident Marty Mozzo, a longtime flood-control advocate, also was part of the group, Hartzell said.
Hartzell noted that his father was extremely influential in his political career, especially in the early years.
“He taught me to listen to constituents, listen to the people in the neighborhood – have empathy for what they’re going through and make sure you that you take that into account,” Hartzell said.
Hartzell said his father also stressed the importance of protecting the taxpayers’ money by spending it “like it’s your own.”
“He was right, because it’s about the taxpayer, it’s about delivering things that they need and that they want to make their life better. That’s what I’m in it for. It’s to make sure the quality of life stays where it is and the fact that I feel so connected to Ward Two as well as the great base of the rest of the town, making sure that I make all the right decisions for everybody in every ward.”
