Andrew Do squeaked onto the Orange County Board of Supervisors by 43 votes in 2015, defeating a veteran politician to change into the second Vietnamese American ever to serve on the board.
He did so by waging an aggressive voter registration marketing campaign, making himself ubiquitous in Little Saigon’s Vietnamese-language media and sharing a backstory many discovered acquainted. As a baby, he had fled Vietnam geared up with little greater than English and French dictionaries.
Within the years since, he has been considered one of Southern California’s most distinguished Vietnamese American politicians, touting the combat in opposition to homelessness as considered one of his signature achievements. When the county reached a landmark settlement in federal courtroom with advocates for the homeless in 2019, coupling anti-camping legal guidelines with outreach providers, Do was the face of the federal government effort.
Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do speaks throughout a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Prado, an reasonably priced housing group, in July 2022 in Fountain Valley. Do has made combating homelessness considered one of his principal focuses.
(Kevin Chang / Every day Pilot)
However within the remaining 12 months of his second full time period — his final on the board — he has been dogged by allegations of impropriety. Group teams and the Orange County Register have referred to as for his resignation. He has responded with invective in opposition to the press, together with the LAist reporter who broke the story that he had directed thousands and thousands of {dollars} to a nonprofit linked to his 22-year-old daughter, with out revealing her function within the nonprofit.
In November, across the time of that disclosure, Do made a disastrous courtroom look the place he once more didn’t disclose a possible battle of curiosity involving his household, main the choose to declare a mistrial in a lawsuit involving a homeless providers heart.
Do is now dealing with an unsure political future. In an indication of his waning affect, his chosen successor for his supervisor’s seat failed to put in the highest two within the March major.
“I’ve bother trusting what his workplace is doing when it appears to be an enormous redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to his relations,” stated Jodi Balma, a professor of political science at Fullerton Faculty.
The Viet America Society, which registered in 2020, claims its mission is to feed needy individuals, present psychological well being providers and promote Vietnamese tradition.
Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, now a regulation pupil at UC Irvine, has been listed on paperwork variously as its president, vice chairman or “case supervisor/program assistant.”
The nonprofit has failed to supply a legally required audit, making it unclear how the thousands and thousands in county-allocated funds, together with federal cash earmarked for COVID-19 aid, have been spent.
On its face, at the very least, Do’s habits doesn’t run afoul of county insurance policies, which permit supervisors to direct cash to nonprofits run by their grownup youngsters with out telling the general public in regards to the relationship.
The county doesn’t appear poised to alter its guidelines any time quickly. Ethics guidelines proposed by Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento in January have been voted down by the board.
“If the county of Orange broke no guidelines, we’d like guidelines,” Balma stated. “If Andrew Do broke no guidelines, we’d like guidelines to ensure this by no means occurs once more.”
In September 2022, with the 5 supervisors’ districts splitting federal coronavirus aid funds earmarked for “social wants,” the board voted unanimously to approve $6.9 million in discretionary funds for Do’s district.
Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Andrew Do speaks in Fountain Valley in July 2022 to launch the Orange County Fairness Map, a instrument to allocate assets to communities in want of social and different providers.
(Scott Smeltzer)
In line with public information obtained by The Occasions, Do’s workplace despatched $2.2 million of that cash to the Viet America Society between December 2022 and March 2023 and a further $1 million in October 2023 for a Vietnam Conflict Memorial. The board had determined that correct makes use of for the coronavirus aid cash included parks, infrastructure, “tasks and packages.”
In June 2023, the board voted unanimously to approve $3 million in discretionary funds, this time from the county’s common fund, for every of the districts. Do directed his $3 million to the Viet America Society in August 2023.
In line with LAist, the information website that has spearheaded reporting on the controversy, Do has directed as a lot as $13.5 million in authorities cash to the nonprofit, usually with out putting it on a public agenda and with out disclosing his daughter’s connection to the group.
Sterling Winchell, an lawyer representing Viet America Society, stated the nonprofit is commissioning an audit on the federal funds, including that the group stays in good standing.
“If I’ve something to say about it, they’re going to stay in good standing,” Winchell stated. “I’m going to ensure this will get fastened.”
Winchell stated he didn’t know precisely how a lot cash was really delivered to the nonprofit. He stated it “may very well be true” that $13.5 million was allotted, however not distributed. “In case you don’t do the job, you’re not getting 5 cents,” he stated.
Although Rhiannon Do’s title has appeared in Viet America Society paperwork intermittently as an officer, Winchell stated she had solely labored as a case supervisor and administrator at Warner Wellness Middle — the nonprofit’s enterprise title — at an annual wage of $18,000.
Requested why Rhiannon Do signed her title beneath the title “president” of Viet America Society on a county settlement in December 2022, Winchell stated it was a mistake. “She didn’t know what she was signing,” he stated.
Andrew Do didn’t return requires remark. He represents Orange County’s 1st District, a big and various space together with Cypress, Fountain Valley, Backyard Grove, Huntington Seaside, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Westminster and Seal Seaside. One of many signature occasions he sponsors is the free Tet Pageant at Mile Sq. Regional Park in Fountain Valley, which pulls 1000’s of individuals yearly.
In line with Supervisor Do’s Fb web page, his daughter Rhiannon graduated from highschool in June 2019 and went to UC Davis. She was an intern on the Steinberg Institute from fall 2020 to spring 2021. An internet site for the Ladies’s Regulation Society at UC Irvine lists her as a member.
The Orange County Register’s editorial board, which repeatedly endorsed Andrew Do throughout his campaigns, referred to as for his resignation in November, writing that “it’s not possible to disregard the sample of cronyism and corruption that has been repeatedly affirmed.”
In an opinion piece of his personal, Do accused the Register of spreading “gross misinformation.”
He wrote that the Register and the LAist reporter, Nick Gerda, acquired info mistaken, “radically” inflating the quantity of the county contracts at concern, and failing to notice that Viet America Society had been beneath three COVID-related county contracts “effectively earlier than my daughter was employed as an worker to assist run its psychological well being clinic.”
“Of be aware, my daughter was not a director or officer and he or she didn’t deal with any of the non-profit’s funds,” he wrote.
Do’s story is well-known. His household fled Saigon in the course of the communist takeover in 1975 and settled in Orange County, and he went on to earn a regulation diploma at UC Hastings Faculty of the Regulation. He labored as a prosecutor, ran a sandwich store and served on the Backyard Grove Metropolis Council from 2008 to 2011.
Do served as Janet Nguyen’s chief of workers throughout her stint as 1st District Supervisor and loved her endorsement when he ran to interchange her in a particular election in 2015. He got here into the race with far much less title recognition than that of his opponent, former state Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), and beat him by a skinny margin.
He gained a full time period in 2016 and once more in 2020. Termed out in January, he endorsed his chief of workers, Van Tran, to interchange him in District 1. However Tran was eradicated in March, with Nguyen, now a state senator, profitable 43% of the vote within the race for her outdated seat and heading for a November runoff in opposition to Frances Marquez.
Balma, the Fullerton Faculty professor, stated Tran’s connection to Do possible price him votes. If not for Do’s scandals, “there have been many individuals who may need supported Van Tran to proceed what Andrew Do had been doing,” she stated.
The Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Financial Justice, a group group, is amongst these calling for Do’s resignation.
“Years later, we nonetheless do not know how these thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of {dollars} have been spent,” stated Mai Nguyen Do, the group’s analysis and coverage supervisor, who shouldn’t be associated to the supervisor. “Day-after-day, we appear to have extra questions on how these {dollars} have been allotted.”
Do has been caught up in different controversies lately. In 2022, he ran afoul of the Honest Political Practices Fee, which fined him $12,000 for utilizing his official place with the CalOptima board to approve the extension of a lobbying contract to a marketing campaign contributor.
In 2015, Do was accused of not residing within the district he represents, however Do referred to as it “baseless” and the O.C. district lawyer’s workplace cleared him.
Sarmiento, a Democrat, who joined the unanimous board vote in June 2023 to approve the $3 million in discretionary funds to Viet America Society, instructed The Occasions that he did so “previous to any disclosure” that the nonprofit was linked to Do’s daughter “or that the contract with VAS would elevate different moral issues.”
At a gathering in January, the board deadlocked 2-2 on Sarmiento’s proposal to require that supervisors reveal shut household connections when cash is awarded. Do left the room earlier than the vote.
Voting in opposition to it was board chair Donald Wagner, who stated he sees nothing mistaken with what Do has carried out.
“I believe what has been reported is frankly being blown out of proportion,” stated Wagner, a Republican like Do. “Clearly, he didn’t violate the regulation. No person has stated that he has. The query actually is whether or not [Viet America Society] is doing the job. There are questions. They’re a comparatively small operation, and we don’t have the accounting from them, which is disappointing.”
Wagner stated he was not conscious that Do’s daughter had any connection to Viet America Society, “tangential or not,” when he voted to approve the discretionary funds.
“He by no means did attempt to exert any affect on me,” Wagner stated. “By and huge, we’re given the discretionary cash, and we’re allowed to spend it as we deem acceptable.”
Wagner stated Do’s legacy will outlast this controversy and that individuals will keep in mind his main function in clearing homeless encampments from riverbeds and the courthouse plaza. He stated he’s ready for Viet America Society’s audit of its funds, too.
“I’m anticipating it actually any day now,” Wagner stated. “I don’t know what it’ll say. Hopefully it’ll say the county acquired bang for its buck.”
