After 16 years in office, former councilman reflects on what he learned
OCEAN CITY – Reflecting on his 16 years as an at-large councilman, Keith Hartzell said there were a few things that guided him and should guide others. The first is taking the time to find out what citizens really want. The other? The art of compromise.
Hartzell also talked about the good and bad parts of the job.
He was first voted into office in 2006 and was re-elected three more times. He decided not to seek re-election in 2022, instead opting to challenge incumbent Jay Gillian for the mayor’s job. He lost, garnering 1,893 votes to Gillian’s 2,299, ending his tenure in city government. His final meeting was in June.
“A lot of people think it’s (a council member’s job) to help people, which it is, but at the end of the day your main responsibility is to pass ordinances that make sense and pass budgets that make sense,” he said. “The fun part is when you can help people. It’s not the full focus of the job. The full focus of the job is checks and balances.
“When you do the door to door we’ve done, that we’ve done, it gives you the ability to help people because you know what you’re speaking about,” he said.
“The job is all about talking to people,” Hartzell said. “Don’t re-interpret what they have to say even if you don’t necessarily agree with them. It’s their neighborhood.”
Hartzell made a point over the years of going door to door, not just when he was running for office, to hear what people had to say and use that to guide his decision-making.
He got some friendly guidance on that point early on from a veteran of city government. He was told that even if a few people or dozens showed up at a meeting to express a viewpoint, to go beyond that.
“‘Keith, your job is to find out what everybody thinks,” he was told. “You might have 30 people in the room, but is that what everybody else thinks?”
“That made me more willing to knock on doors even when I wasn’t running. People are busy. They expect us to make the right decision, but how can you make the right decision if everybody isn’t coming and talking to you?
“You can’t assume if you don’t have the knowledge,” he said.
Hartzell said there were various examples over his career, from a number of years back to recently, that drove home that point.
He talked about the former Palermo’s Market whose roof had caved in and was sitting derelict about a decade ago.
When they had to decide whether to allow duplexes to replace it, he and others preferred single-family homes, including preservationists because that area backed up to the city’s Historic District and many people weren’t thrilled about more duplexes in Ocean City.
“There are areas duplexes shouldn’t be,” he said, “but a lot were already in some of these neighborhoods. … Preservationists felt we were selling out, but the public understood that singles wouldn’t be built there.”
Right around Palermo’s, he added, 62 percent of people were living in duplexes and were year-round residents. “We found out, against some of the preservationists’ concerns, people just wanted Palermo’s down,” he said. “That was one of the harder things I had to do.”
Hartzell said he recognized that although it went against his wishes, he opted to listen to the people in the neighborhood.
A more recent example was opposing the administration’s plans to build a joint Public Safety Building at the site of the fire department headquarters at Sixth Street between Asbury and West avenues.
The city’s police department on Central Avenue is out-of-date and inadequate and there is general agreement it needs to be replaced. The administration put forward a plan to build one facility to house both the police and fire departments and move the skate park behind Ocean City Primary School.
Although he also took exception to the burgeoning price tag, Hartzell said what led to his opposition were things he learned from talking to neighbors and watching youths using the skate park.
“I didn’t realize the firehouse is only 40 years old. I found out knocking on doors,” he said. “I also found out people didn’t want a police station across from a school. I don’t have kids. I didn’t think of that. For some reason, a lot of parents didn’t want to come forward. I started getting it at almost every door they didn’t want a police station next to an elementary school.”
“The other thing is in this town, no matter political persuasion, they all agree: don’t take away green space. If they were going to put the skate park behind the school, it would take away green space. It’s one of the beautiful things everyone agrees about it,” he said. “I didn’t think about that either. In the rearview mirror, it makes me look dumb for not thinking about it.”
From talking to the skaters who use the park, he also learned they like the location because it is busy there and they get to show off their skills. “Kids like being seen doing tricks. If you put the park behind the school, nobody sees that.”
Getting the public’s input is valuable in making sure a proposed project will do what it’s intended.
Hartzell said when the city was going to do the first major flood mitigation project in the Merion Park neighborhood, his father told him to make sure there is a neighborhood committee formed to offer input to the engineers “because while they are doing theory, the neighbors live there. They know when it floods, know how much it rains, where water goes. You’ll get a lot of information from a neighborhood committee.”
Because of that input, he said, “that project went great.”
Art of compromise
Another issue that arose early in his tenure was when a resident was seeking a variance from a setback for his home on Surf Road. It had come after a rough mayoral election when Councilman Jody Alessandrine had lost to Sal Perillo. There was a big division on City Council and Hartzell said he was part of a four-person bloc on council with three others who often voted a different way.
Because of that split, with tensions high, Hartzell said they figured they would have a hard time agreeing on what to do with the setback, but all seven council members, including Alessandrine and Perillo, were like-minded and all were against the reduced setback.
“It was the first thing we did when we were in unison,” he said, “and then we lost in court.”
The owner of the property sued the city. The setback for homes on the street was 20 feet, the owner wanted that to be 13 feet, but the city fought it.
“We thought we were right. I still do,” he said, even though he befriended the family involved. They had the chance to compromise at 17 feet, but wouldn’t do it.
“Even though we wanted 20, we should have gone to 17,” he said. “Most times in court we have to settle because generally municipalities lose.” That triggered something in him.
“I had to learn to compromise. My thought process began to change,” he said.
He also credited former councilman Scott Ping with showing that even though they opposed each other during a bitter election, that they could get along. Hartzell said when Ping approached him, he was apprehensive, but then surprised. “He said, ‘You know what, there’s no reason we can’t work together.’ That changed council dramatically because there was a willingness to talk. That whole council worked together a lot.”
The good and bad of public service
What was most rewarding for him during his time in office was being an advocate for veterans and the minority community.
He has always been an advocate for veterans because of his father’s service during World War II.
His father went to England on the 50th anniversary of the war to the town where his plane was based. He said the whole town had a parade for him and his father was so touched that when he returned he convinced him to join the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
He was a nose-gunner on a B-24 bomber and saw a lot of death during action. The experiences he had helped him form bonds with other veterans, even those polar opposites than himself.
“He had befriended a guy at the VFW – it was probably the most beautiful description I’ve ever seen: ‘He was a chain-smoking, drinking womanizer.’ My father was one glass of wine because the doctor told him he had to do it. He didn’t curse, was a born-again Christian.” But those veterans bonded because the differences fade away when they share the experience of the battlefield.
They were strong men, but he saw something he knew he could never experience, not being a veteran. “One would look at the other and ask, ‘When was the last time you slept through the night?’ It was the most powerful thing I ever heard.
“My mother told me this about my father: he couldn’t wait to go to war. He couldn’t wait to come home. I have a big box of letters, every one my father sent to my mother. I’m going through them.”
He has also worked to support Ocean City’s small minority community, helping build the soul food dinner meant to bring people together, the Martin Luther King Day celebration and – what he wants to work on more – expanding the MLK Day of Service.
“The most rewarding thing is getting involved with different people from different walks of life, understanding their perspective,” Hartzel said. “Non-veterans who didn’t go to war can never have that perspective. You can learn about it … but you can’t walk in their shoes. I can’t walk in a Black person’s shoes. I can’t walk in a Hispanic person’s shoes. Nor can they walk in mine. That’s why you have to have shared experiences.”
Asked about what surprised him most during his tenure, Hartzell answered simply “the strength of a variety of special interests and how to deal with it as compared to the common, ordinary voters.”
He also said he would recommend elected service like his to young people, but only on the local level and not beyond.
“I think as the levels go up the fragmentation is just too great. I think on both sides a small majority of people decide who gets elected because the primary system is not participated in enough,” he said. “We have people on the far right and on the far left, and they vote in primaries. A lot of us are in-between.”
He had to go back pretty far for examples when government on the national level worked better with compromise, to the days of Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill. He said both parties got legislation they wanted because they were able to work things out on a human level. “A lot of it was based on friendship and working things out over a drink at night,” he said.
Now, Hartzell said, the political antagonism between the parties is so great that little can be accomplished at the national level.
Last piece of advice
“Do your best to communicate and forge friendships beyond your position,” he said of what he would tell future council members. “That’s all. There’s always going to be a level of sides. Compromise will only come when sides are willing to try to compromise and see each other’s points and hope the electorate will go along with it. And the only way to know if the electorate will go along with it is to ask.
“I would tell people, especially the ward people, walk the neighborhoods. Find out whether you’re right or wrong.”
“And don’t believe you have a mandate. People who win elections all think they have it, no matter the side. They think if they got elected they think their way is the only way,” he said.
Instead, he said, find common ground.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff