First she blocked constituents, then she ignored questions. SLO mayor is better than this

Mayor Heidi Harmon is done with social media — at least for now.

She was called out for blocking her critics on Instagram and Facebook, so she quit social media entirely.

That sounds like the grown-up equivalent of taking your marbles and going home.

With all due respect, is Heidi Harmon an accountable and accessible mayor of San Luis Obispo, or is she an elected leader who dodges and blocks people who disagree with her?

Blocking people because they happen to disagree with you is acceptable for a private citizen, albeit a little thin-skinned.

But it’s not OK for an elected official.

They can have private accounts for posting things like cat photos and recipes and Netflix recommendations, but if they’re talking government business, they can’t cut off someone simply because they don’t like them, or are unhappy with their comments.

Court ruling

Every politician should know this drill by now.

After all, one of the most famous men in the world — none other than former President Donald J. Trump — was taken to court over this very issue.

The upshot of that case: Trump was told he could not block people on Twitter. (Keep in mind, this was back when he was still allowed on Twitter.)

Up until the ruling, it had been considered something of badge of honor to be blocked by Trump — but it also posed a sticky First Amendment issue.

Lawyers argue that social media functions as a modern-day equivalent of a town hall or public square. If public officials decide to reach out to their constituents via Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, they need to grant equal access to everyone.

Harmon, though, blocked at least 24 people on her Instagram account and more than 50 people on Facebook, according to reporting by Tribune reporter Nick Wilson.

One of them was local radio host Adam Montiel, who believes he was blocked for correcting some information the mayor posted about COIVD-19 social distancing protocols.

“... It’s true she blocks people for literally just disagreeing with her, correcting her, or really, anything she wants to. And it turns out, that’s illegal,” he said.

Montiel said it happened to him even though he always followed social media platforms’ community standards policies.

What does Harmon say?

Unfortuantely, we don’t have Harmon’s side of the story. Why? Because she didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from our reporter.

Instead, she left the damage control up to City Attorney Christine Dietrick, who offered this explanation: “She decided to stop her accounts because of the unrelenting negativity and the trolls who not only comment on her feeds directly, but also have made toxic remarks to her supporters.”

We don’t doubt that Mayor Harmon has been on the receiving end of some ugly hate speech.

She posted about it last January: “The amount of cruelty, rudeness, threats, sexism, stalking, body shaming, rude/threatening comments towards my children, etc., I receive are unbelievable,” she wrote then.

Just a couple hours after that post went up, a man who reportedly had a romantic fixation on the mayor barged into City Hall, jumped over a railing and pushed a staffer to the ground in an effort to see Harmon.

That same week, Harmon showed The Tribune several social media posts that insulted her looks and intelligence, included demeaning sexual comments and threatened violence.

Elected officials shouldn’t have to put up with egregious abuse that reaches the level of threats and hate speech. The angry, spineless little trolls who engage in it should be immediately called out and reported.

But there’s a difference between abusive speech and polite — or even not-so-polite — criticism, and if politicians can’t handle criticism, they shouldn’t be in the job.

The same applies if they aren’t willing to speak with reporters.

The city attorney is well-spoken and she did a good job defending Harmon, but she shouldn’t have to do that. Dietrick is not Harmon’s spokeswoman, and the mayor is more than capable of answering questions directly, both from the press and the public.

Mayor Harmon is a great communicator when she wants to be, but she handled this poorly.

She should never have blocked followers in the first place; that comes across as extremely punitive.

But after she did and was called on it, she should have been willing to explain what happened and why.

If she’s fed up with online abuse, it’s understandable that she would want to take a break from social media.

But if she’s simply tired of criticism, that’s no excuse, because she must be accountable to all of her constituents, whether they support her or not.

We hope she will reconsider her handling of this situation and work to be more forthright in the future.

The people deserve nothing less than that from their elected mayor.

This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 10:19 AM.