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SLO Mayor Harmon to announce career change, timing suspect

August 25, 2021

SLO Mayor Heidi Harmon and Helios Dayspring

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Amid allegations that local marijuana mogul Helios Dayspring bribed San Luis Obispo County politicians, SLO Mayor Heidi Harmon will announce on Thursday that she is making a career change.

Harmon plans to take a position as a statewide climate policy advocate. It is unclear whether or not Harmon intends to vacate her mayoral seat before her term ends in late 2022.

Dayspring, who was arraigned in federal court Wednesday on bribery and tax evasion charges, has agreed to plead guilty to both felony offenses, pay $3.4 million in restitution to the IRS and cooperate in the government’s ongoing corruption investigation.

Harmon was allegedly a regular guest at Dayspring’s Grover Beach pot dispensary, hanging out in the upstairs offices, one of Dayspring’s business partners told CalCoastNews. During one of her visits, Dayspring allegedly ordered staff to give Harmon two bags containing approximately $1,000 worth of complimentary marijuana products.

Around the time Harmon allegedly received complimentary marijuana from Dayspring, the mayor was among eight politicians for whom the cannabis mogul and his dispensary, Natural Healing Center, hosted a covert fundraiser. Harmon failed to disclose the non-monetary contribution, as required by state law.

Weeks later, following, the Nov. 2018 election, Harmon voted for a resolution establishing criteria for city staff to rank marijuana shop applicants. The resolution created a point system that appeared to favor applicants, particularly Dayspring, who had donated money to Harmon, as well as councilwomen Carlyn Christianson and Erica Stewart. Dayspring ended up securing one of three coveted pot shop permits from the city.

Harmon will hold a press conference at City Hall at 4 p.m. Thursday to announce her future plans.


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Harmon was only able to do these things and much more (mostly lack of effective leadership) because of the inept, incompetent and morally bankrupt whores that she and the council appointed to senior management at the City. Just look at the track record of these individuals.


30

I think that there is a collective sigh of relief from the City Council, those who work most closely with her. Harmon has been absent from almost all collateral county councils and meetings, withdrawing in recent months, which is atypical for political narcissists. These folk love cameras, selfies, the limelight. She has done the absolute minimum. Harmon has failed to lead… on her watch: diminishing our police with mediocre handling of community grief, marching with dysfunctional spoiled children, escalating homeless crises, no leadership during the pandemic, shuttered stores, extorting businesses to donate to BLM radicals ..she is divisive, polarizing and very likely corrupt. City staff know she is unreliable. Our democracy has failed us here…Hill, now Harmon. Being elected commits one to serve and isn’t a job that one takes on only when you feel “loved”. She has disrespected those who put her in office. The Trib stupidly ignores this egregious move by not asking the tough and obvious questions. It is not OK, even though most of us see it as a tremendous ‘positive’. She has cut and run. “Step up”, what a dumb spin. Just dumb. You will continue to see the consequences.


…..next on deck- Public Corruptions Unit of the FBI.


49

Not true she led the city into the electric consortium (just a coincidence I’m sure). Anybody want to stand up a declare how much money they’ve saved on their electric bills?


20

in all seriousness, what qualification(s) does she have? one would think director of communications or whatever, would require at least a BS in communications or maybe even a masters. as it appears she hasn’t held a job in the last few years. and don’t all of the council have outside jobs as well? why can’t she have done this “job” and stayed as mayor? she’s “staying” in SLO.


37

NONE of the other current SLO City Council members were present at HH’s anouncement. What does that suggest, if anything?


45

Transparent California has Heidi’s Mayoral total pay & benefits at $25,559.62 for the year 2018.

Of course it doesn’t list the alleged bribes by Helios and others!!!

Huge bump in income as well as removing her from the area and maybe the FBI investigation, we’ll see, FBI are slow but very thorough!!!


40

Has anyone looked to see how much a Climate Policy Advocate makes in CA?

Here is a direct quote from CA website


“How much does a Policy Advocate make in California? The average Policy Advocate salary in California is $130,090 as of July 28, 2021, but the range typically falls between $104,890 and $179,390. Salary ranges can vary widely depending on the city and many other important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession.”


I’m sure your wonderful mayor gets paid much more than that – so what gives? Does she strike you as someone that would take a pay cut? There just has to be more to this than what is visible to the naked eye.


35

It’s pretty easy to look up her salary which was approximately $34,000.


https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2019/san-luis-obispo/heidi-harmon/


8

Does that include any bribes she may have taken?


14

She seems dumb enough to make purchases out of alignment with reported income, or even deposits that the IRS could send an audit team to make short work of if tipped off .


6

Instead of wild speculation, you could have looked up the job ad for the position she’s taking, and found pay’s in the $50-70K range, depending on qualifications. It’s a web-based job, so she doesn’t have to leave home to do it. Which means she’ll still be in town to keep the SLO Progressives riled up. I’m sick of her as mayor, glad she quit, but also glad she found what looks like a real job doing something she wants to do.


-9

Something is definitely cooking, else she would have finished out her term — using the last year of it to connive for some sort of gov’t paid position somewhere (out of town!)


Let’s be honest. She has no bona fides. She didn’t do a great job as mayor — she barely squeaked into the position by less than 20 votes.


Quite the contrary — she did real damage to our beloved SLO while she searched for a niche she could grab onto — including racial justice. Something she made a total hash of.


Now we must brace ourselves for what’s sure to be her lamentable replacement.


69

she won the first election by 47 votes and then the next two via landslide.


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