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For the last six months, the biggest issue facing Orange County Supervisors came from a colleague after former Supervisor Andrew Do’s house was raided by the FBI and he later pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for millions of dollars in county contracts.
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Andrew Do Pleads Guilty to Bribery Scheme]
Do channeled over $10 million in federal COVID bailout dollars to a nonprofit run by his daughter that federal prosecutors say didn’t do almost any of the work it was paid for, according to his signed plea agreement.
Do also admitted to taking over half a million dollars in bribes after the contracts were signed.
One of the big shifts supervisors approved was blocking any future supervisors from picking a vendor for a contract without a competitive bidding process, unless their colleagues sign off on it.
But so far, county leaders have largely focused on approving a slate of audits from their own internal auditor, reviewing many of the contracts approved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While supervisors will receive an update on their internal audits on Jan. 24, the work won’t be completed until at least June, according to county spokesperson Molly Nichelson.
Supervisors also are looking to hire an outside auditor to come in and review contracts over the last five years in some of the county’s biggest departments to find any other potential issues.
County staff are still figuring out exactly what their scope of work will be, according to Nichelson.
[Read: OC Supervisors Approve Outside Audit After Bribery Scandal]
County staff are now required to bring forward a quarterly report highlighting any contracts that’re out of compliance, after Supervisor Katrina Foley highlighted how staff saw issues with the contracts later flagged by federal investigators years earlier that never made it to the board.
The first of those reports will be delivered to the board in January, according to Nichelson.
“We don’t get copied on every contract,” Foley said at the supervisor’s Sept. 24 meeting. “We have to be informed if there’s an issue. We were not informed until rather late in the process, more than a year.”
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
County staff are also reviewing the existing fraud hotline and possible changes to the county’s ethics code, but those won’t be brought before the public until at least spring.
It’s still unclear if Orange County Supervisors will hire outside investigators to probe the Hall of Administration in an effort to uncover exactly how the Do scandal unfolded – while also serving as a blueprint of sorts for reforms.
[Read: Are OC Supervisors on Track to Conduct an Outside Corruption Investigation?]
Shortly after FBI agents alleged former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu tried ramming through the Angel Stadium deal for $1 million in campaign support from team officials, Anaheim City Council members voted to conduct an independent probe of city hall.
Sidhu has since pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to investigators about the scheme, along with other federal crimes.
[Read: Ex-Anaheim Mayor Sidhu Agrees to Plead Guilty to Corruption Charges]
Anaheim’s report served as a road map for a series of reforms Anaheim City Council members began rolling out throughout the year, including tightening lobbyist disclosure rules, strengthening campaign finance laws and publicly posting who elected officials and top city executives are meeting with.
[Read: Anaheim Begins Implementing Changes From Fall of Reform Debates]
At the state level, legislators passed three laws signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom directly aimed at preventing future actions like Do’s.
The first law, authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, requires county supervisors to disclose when they’re voting on contracts where a family member is an officer or employee of a nonprofit before they send them money.
Newsom also signed another law written by Assemblyman Avelino Valencia – who voted for Anaheim’s probe when he was on that city council – requiring county supervisors take a majority vote to greenlight any discretionary funds going to a nonprofit or community group in the future.
The final law, which doesn’t go into effect until 2026, requires supervisors to disclose if they have a family member who’s either a leader of or has a 10% stake in an organization receiving county funds and was written by former state Senator Dave Min, who was just elected to Congress.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org
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