He is her chief of staff
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
It may not seem the same skills are required to run a senator’s office compared to those needed to run pageants, musicals and concerts, but Carolyn T. Comitta would beg to differ.
Those skills are among the attributes that attracted her to Ocean City’s Michael Hartman, whom she hired as her chief of staff after being elected state senator to Pennsylvania’s 19th Legislative District last November.
Locals may know Hartman as the founder and artistic director of the Greater Ocean City Theatre Company or from his roughly half-decade of work for the city of Ocean City, coordinating events. He often was the face of events, whether emceeing the Miss Ocean City Pageant, coordinating the Easter Fashion Parade or handing out awards at a taffy-sculpting contest during the summer.
A pageant first brought Hartman to the senator’s attention a dozen years or so back when she was mayor of West Chester, Pa.
Hartman, who was coordinator of the Miss West Chester University pageant, invited her to make a presentation. They hit it off instantly, Comitta said, and he invited her back to future WCU pageants.
Once, he took a Miss WCU winner to the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg when she was serving in the state House of Representatives and presenting a citation on the House floor.
“He said, ‘I loved that. Your legislative assistant was so great. I love her,’” Comitta recalled. “He embraces with joy everything that he does and he (has that) creative eye and really connects with people wherever he goes.”
Flash forward to this past fall as she was winning a state Senate seat and chatting with Hartman.
“I’m thinking I have to build a staff and I had ideas for other people but I did not have a chief of staff,” she said. “As we’re talking, a light bulb goes off in my head and I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, Michael Hartman would be a perfect chief of staff. I wonder if he would consider working in a political role?’
“We talked about it and the rest is history and here he is,” she said.
“There are a lot of qualities and skills in theater — event planning, Michael’s theatrical world — that are directly related to success in the political world,” Comitta said, “and I say that in terms of setting the stage for success. I’m not talking about political campaigns and whatever the theatrics are there. I’m talking about serving the people.”
She has loved theater since she was young, took part in musicals in high school and had leads, and continues to love it as a spectator. She saw the connection.
“What I found, even before I met Michael and invited him to be my chief I staff, I said ‘You know, there is a lot of theater in politics in making sure people feel comfortable. They can see the people they’re talking with. You set the stage, whether chairs around the table or in a room, to help people interact, feel comfortable, be engaged,’” she said.
When that light bulb went on, she thought back on watching Hartman behind the scenes at the Miss WCU pageants, directing everything. She loved watching his interaction with the young women in the pageant. He is “able to bring out the confidence, the gifts, the voice, in all of these young women, a diverse group of young women, and help build their confidence in expressing those gifts. What a gift it is to be able to do that, wherever you are, whether the Miss WCU pageant or all the events in Ocean City he did with children. He has a gift of lifting people up and cultivating and celebrating their gifts,” Comitta said.
With fondness, she nicknamed him “Mr. Razzle Dazzle.”
She cited his openness to new ideas, how he embraces everyone and considers all viewpoints. He is “able to bring people together and create a team effort that is effective and helpful. He loves helping people. You can see that in everything he does.”
As she points out, as a state senator, “We’re in the business of serving and helping the people in our district and the people of Pennsylvania. He’s a wonderful team leader for my Senate staff.”
Comitta enjoys and is impressed by his curiosity, his sense of humor and “celebratory style,” which, she said, “is inspiring to all of us.”
Hartman, she said, “picks things up quickly. He wants to know what he doesn’t know. He has reached out to so many people that I didn’t even know about. … He’s doing his job and I find out from all these other senators that Michael reached out to (their) chief of staff. I said, ‘Of course he did.’ So he is meeting and building relationships beyond our team … and is doing a great job of team-building in my staff and then also team building in our Chester County legislative delegation and staff.”
That was part of her vision when she became one of Pennsylvania’s 50 senators: “to help build those relationships and convene those conversations so we can amplify our voices in serving the people. And Michael is very, very good at doing just that.”
Hartman, she said, is one of her favorite people and is “honored and delighted” that he took her up on her offer to become chief of staff.
“Michael is working hard. It’s not easy. It’s a really steep learning curve. He has a lot of energy and determination and a good sense of humor. You need all those things to survive. Goodness knows these are challenging times and to have him as my chief of staff gives me confidence we can do everything we need to do,” Comitta said.
“He has touched lives in very special ways far and wide. I’m really excited about the possibilities here from our district to Harrisburg and beyond,” she said.