Greg Hartmann
Greg Hartmann (born 1967) is a member of the three-member[1] in Hamilton County, Ohio. He was elected to his first term in January 2009, and was re-elected to a second term in January 2013. He served as the President of the Board in 2011 and 2012, and currently serves as the Vice President of the Board effective January 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party. During his time as Commissioner, Hartmann has focused on cost savings and efficiency in County government, economic development and public safety. Hartmann has also supported and spearheaded the creation of several important community outreach initiatives.
Early life and education
Hartmann was born on January 14, 1967. He attended high school at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, TX, graduating in 1985. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1997, he graduated with honors from Pepperdine University School of Law.
Legal career
Hartmann began his legal career in 1999 in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office as an Assisting Prosecuting Attorney. Hartmann prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases including many violent felonies.
Hartmann is currently a partner at the Cincinnati law firm Shea, Coffey & Hartmann.
Elected office
Clerk of Courts In 2003, Hartmann was appointed to be Hamilton County Clerk of Courts after serving the Executive Director of the Hamilton County Republican Party. The Clerk’s office is responsible for maintaining official court documents for the Court of Appeals, Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court.
Hartmann served nearly six years as Clerk of Courts, where he earned a national reputation for modernizing the office and making it more accountable to taxpayers. As Clerk, Hartmann cut $3 million from his budget through careful fiscal management and was featured in dozens of news accounts for his groundbreaking work in protecting Ohioans from identity theft. [links?]
Hamilton County Commissioner
Hartmann was elected in 2009 to his first four-year term on the Board of Commissioners, where he served with Democrats Todd Portune and David Pepper. The three-member Board is the policy body for the County, overseeing the County’s General and Restricted Funds as well as several core services provided to residents by County government.
During his first term, Hartmann focused on cost-saving measures to keep the County’s budget balanced during the economic downturn. From 2009 to 2012, Hartmann voted to cut $40 million from the County General Fund budget. Despite these cuts he led the way for reallocation of $1 million for public safety needs in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and recommended several other ____ to preserve the public safety function in Hamilton County.
Hartmann served as President of the Board in 2011 and 2012, serving alongside fellow Commissioners Chris Monzel (R) and Todd Portune (D). Under his leadership, the County pursued several strategies to strengthen the regional environment for job creation and save County taxpayer dollars. Key priorities of his policy agenda (link to policy agenda online) on economic development include strengthening the role of the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority, creating a County Land Bank, and pursuing shared services opportunities between Hamilton County, City of Cincinnati and various municipalities to reduce duplication and create efficiencies in local government.
Hartmann was reelected in 2013 to his second term, running unopposed. He is currently serving as the Vice President of the Board.
Other political work and campaigns
Hartmann is active in the Republican Party at the local, State and National Level. Hartmann has served as the Hamilton County Campaign Chair for Ohio Gubernatorial winner John Kasich in the 2010 election, as well as Hamilton County Campaign Co-Chair for Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.
Community outreach
In 2009, Commissioner Hartmann partnered with the University of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Job & Family Services to create the Higher Education Mentoring Initiative, which pairs academic mentors with Hamilton County foster children in order to encourage them to pursue post-secondary education after graduation. The program has seen great successes so far, with 100% of HEMI students having graduated high school and 80% enrolling in a post-secondary institution.
In response to the increase of predatory fraud and scams occurring during the economic downturn, Hartmann launched the Hamilton County Coalition to Stop Fraud, Scams, and Abuse in January 2011. The thirty-member Coalition released a Comprehensive Community Plan and Web site to pro-actively educate citizens on the prevention, detection and reporting of fraud and scams in the community.
Hartmann also devotes time to many other local causes, businesses and non-profit organizations.
Personal
Hartmann currently lives in Hyde Park, Ohio with his wife Tracy and five children.