John Hartzell

Hartzell_Headshot.png
Government
Committees:
Cable Franchise Committee

Contact John:

Email John

Term:

2022 through 12-31-2025
 John, his wife Julie, 2 year old son Christian James, and dog Sidni, are relative newcomers to Malta, having had a new home built in the Northern part of Town in 2008. John relocated to Saratoga County in 2007 after marrying Julie, a long-time resident of Clifton Park and Halfmoon.

John was born in Buffalo, New York, the second of five children raised by Jim and Bette Hartzell. John grew up primarily in Potsdam, New York, where he attended Clarkson University, graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Management in 1984.

John currently practices law as a partner in the Albany business law firm of Nolan & Heller, LLP. While John’s career is presently in the private sector, he has worked in or for local governments and public sector enterprises for over 25 years. Nearly 17 years of that experience was as an appointed official with Jefferson County government in Northern New York, including serving as Deputy County Administrator, County Administrator and Budget Officer of the County.

After 11 years with Jefferson County, John changed careers from public administration to law, attending Syracuse University College of Law, and graduating magna cum laude in 1998 in the top 5% of his law school class.

While in law school served as an intern to Hon. James C. Tormey, III, New York State Supreme Court Justice.

After graduating law school, John was an associate at Conboy, McKay, Bachman & Kendall of Watertown from 1998 until his appointment as Jefferson County Attorney in 2000, a position he held until 2006. As County Attorney, John practiced in State and Federal Courts in a wide variety of matters including defense of tort claims, civil rights suits and Article 78 proceedings, and was involved in extensive municipal transactional work, real property tax foreclosures, public employer relations, public works construction-related matters, appellate practice, collections, and building code enforcement. Prior to joining Nolan & Heller, John worked as an associate with the Syracuse law firm of Menter, Rudin & Trivelpiece, P.C., where he provided legal service to several towns and villages, and handled a variety of litigation and transactional matters including commercial real estate, local development corporation and industrial development agency representation, real property tax assessment challenges, and business and corporate formations and sales.

Aside from his most important job as husband and father, and his commitment to the Town, John’s interests lie in the outdoors and running. John has hiked and climbed mountains extensively in the Northeast, summiting all 113 peaks over 4,000 feet in the Northeast, including climbing the Adirondack 46ers in winter. He is on his way to ascending all 72 of the 14,000 foot peaks in the Continental U.S. having been up 44 of those mountains, including Mount Rainier in Washington, and Mount Shasta in California. John has completed several marathons and half marathons.

John is a vocal member of the Town Board, with a conservative but practical outlook on the role government should play in our community. Hard work, respect and fairness are guiding principles to John as an elected representative of the people of Malta.