Heidi Harmon pledges to address climate change, replace rental inspection program

San Luis Obispo’s new mayor-elect called for immediate change in how the city addresses climate change, highlighted her goal of promoting a more diverse community, and said that she’d work to replace the city’s rental housing inspection program with a new policy.

Heidi Harmon held a news conference Monday to thank her supporters and her opponent, longtime mayor and City Council member Jan Marx, and to discuss her general approach moving forward.

On Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office announced that Harmon won the mayor seat over Marx by 47 votes.

“I’m thankful to Jan Marx for so much, for her many years of service to the city,” Harmon said.

Flanked by nurses, firefighters and her campaign staff, Harmon vowed to “stand for the working people” of San Luis Obispo. She said her narrow margin of victory showed “that every vote counts” and that the election reinforced the message that residents should be politically engaged to create the community they want to see.

Harmon said she will start looking into policies that will create an immediate impact on climate change action in the city, promoting a net-zero community, meaning that energy consumed within the city is roughly equal to the amount it creates.

She also said she’d work to address minorities frequently moving away from the area because of a lack of diversity after coming to work at Cal Poly and elsewhere in the community. Harmon said she’d reach out to the human resources department at Cal Poly and consider other ideas to see what can be done.

In a follow-up interview with The Tribune, Harmon said she would collaborate with her fellow council members to repeal and replace the rental housing inspection ordinance, a controversial program supported by Marx.

The policy is designed to protect renters from unsafe and unhealthy living conditions through blanket inspections, but privacy rights advocates have heavily opposed the ordinance, going so far as to file a lawsuit against the city.

“We have to make sure people aren’t getting forced out of their homes,” Harmon said. “But that doesn’t mean we do nothing afterward. We have to make sure tenants are living with basic safety conditions with how we move forward with any new policy.”

Harmon took the lead on the final day of ballot counting, winning the mayor’s seat 49.77 percent to 49.54 percent.

The Clerk-Recorder’s Office needed to count remaining ballots, including vote-by-mail and provisional votes, which the office finished Wednesday afternoon.

Harmon said she’s proud she ran a “100 percent positive campaign” and vowed to run a “100 percent positive administration” as mayor.

Inspired by Bernie Sanders, whom Harmon supported as a national Democratic delegate, she returned from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer vowing to make fundamental changes to the political system on a local level. She was endorsed by Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane.

Harmon will be sworn in as mayor Dec. 9 at noon at City Hall along with fellow new council members Andy Pease and Aaron Gomez.

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Heidi Harmon pledges to address climate change, replace rental inspection program."