“Andrew, please resign.”
That’s what Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told her embattled colleague, Supervisor Andrew Do, during Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting.
Do is facing heightened scrutiny after federal agents raided his North Tustin home last week, which is outside of the district he represents, in connection with OC’s missing COVID money case.
[Read: FBI Executes Searches on OC Supervisor, His Daughter & Others in Missing COVID Money Case]
Foley looked to the camera to speak directly to Do, who was missing from the meeting.
“I will continue to pursue every legal avenue available to have him removed from office,” Foley said. “Your position on the board is untenable and will only cause harm to the good work of the county.”
It comes as county officials are suing the Viet America Society, a nonprofit, for allegedly misspending over $10 million of taxpayer dollars on things like buying houses – including one for Do’s daughter, who was one of the nonprofit’s leaders.
Her house was also searched by federal agents last week.
“If you truly care about this county,” Foley said. “You will step down so we can begin to heal the deep wounds you’ve caused all of us.”
Do, who contracted with the nonprofit, might also get formally censured by his colleagues.
“I would suggest that we bring back a motion to censure because it is warranted,” OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We can say with a unified voice that these are acts we do not condone.”
“I would demand that he step down,” he added.
Mark Rosen, the attorney for the Viet America Society, has called the county’s lawsuit a “hatchet job” and denied the allegations.
Do hasn’t addressed the issue for months, and has been resisting calls for his resignation since last December when LAist first reported the money he sent to the nonprofit without disclosing his daughter worked there, which isn’t a crime.
Orange County Register’s editorial board called on Do to resign shortly after the initial investigation was published – something the supervisor criticized as political.
“Thursday’s editorial calling for Supervisor Andrew Do’s resignation from the Orange County Board of Supervisors is nothing more than a political hit piece,” Do wrote in a letter published by the Orange County register last December.
Over half the money Viet America Society received came directly from Do’s discretionary funds, which he sent as county staff were investigating the nonprofit for failing to prove they’d finished their work on previous contracts.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
On Tuesday morning, Foley and Sarmiento reiterated their calls for Do to resign at the board of supervisor’s meeting, saying it wasn’t an admission of guilt but that it would free up the county to continue working without a cloud over them.
“I don’t do this lightly because I’m a big supporter and proponent of due process rights,” Sarmiento said. “But I do think at this point it is very difficult for a supervisor or any board office to carry out its public functions given what we’re dealing with right now.”
Do has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Calls for Resignation Grow
Foley and Sarmiento are among a growing chorus of voices calling on Do to resign – elected officials in other cities and some nonprofit leaders are demanding that he step down.
Local elected officials like Buena Park City Councilman Connor Traut and Santa Ana Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan issued separate statements last week calling for Do’s immediate resignation.
“Taxpayers demand accountability. Supervisor Do funneled millions in federal COVID-19 relief to an organization co-founded by his daughter, raising serious ethical concerns,” reads Traut’s statement.
“There are credible allegations of severe fraud, with public money allegedly embezzled for personal gain, including the purchase of private homes, one reportedly located in Buena Park.”
Phan, who is running for reelection in November, said Do and the Viet American Society failed to be transparent and accountable for taxpayer dollars intended to help residents during a global pandemic.
“While innocent until proven guilty, Supervisor Do has lost the trust of our community and should not retain power over a $9.3 billion budget,” reads her statement.
If Do does resign, it would mark the second high-profile resignation in Orange County politics over the past couple years.
In 2022, Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned after the FBI filed sworn affidavits alleging Sidhu tried ramming through the Angel Stadium land sale for $1 million in campaign support – something he eventually pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about.
It’s not just elected leaders calling for Do’s resignation.
VietRise and the Harbor Institute, two nonprofits, put out joint statements last week calling on Do to resign.
“Residents continue to face skyrocketing rents, evictions, and homelessness, yet Supervisor Do used his position to divert taxpayer dollars towards million-dollar properties for his own family and friends,” reads a Thursday statement.
“Supervisor Do has failed the residents of his own District, including the working-class immigrants and refugees of Little Saigon. We reaffirm our call for Supervisor Do to resign.”
State Senator Janet Nguyen, who’s currently running to replace Do in the November election, called on him to resign last week.
“Orange County taxpayers have every right to be livid and demand justice. I call upon Andrew Do to immediately resign as Supervisor for the First District,” Nguyen said in a statement.
A Potential State Audit
State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) and State Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) haven’t called on Do to resign, but said a state audit of the issue could come.
“We will continue to assess the situation and determine the best steps to ensure the public receives the answers they deserve,” Valencia said in a text message last week. “I am open to requesting a State Audit if no other investigation by a government entity is conducted.”
“As a former federal prosecutor, I know that the first order of business is the federal investigation,” Umberg said in a statement last week. “We do not want a state audit to in any way interfere with that investigation. At the appropriate time I will request (or join in a request) for an audit.”
The two OC legislators sit on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which can push State Auditor Grant Parks to investigate public matters.
And they’ve been busy over the past couple years.
Umberg and Valencia successfully pushed for Parks to investigate Anaheim’s tourism bureau in the wake of the city hall corruption scandal, where a searing audit found Visit Anaheim improperly gave the Chamber of Commerce money to lobby elected officials.
Recently, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee called on the state auditor to investigate the controversial – a secret until recently – Huntington Beach settlement with the Pacific Airshow operators that’s raising questions over what the city gave up to the company.
Earlier this month, an audit of the controversial Angel Stadium lease with Anaheim was also approved.
Meanwhile, the rest of Supervisor Do’s colleagues have resisted calls for him to resign.
In a Monday night statement, Supervisor Don Wagner called for a vote on Sept. 10 to strip Do of all his positions on countywide boards and said he trusted the courts to get it right.
Supervisor Doug Chaffee also called for the courts to do their work, saying the board should not disrupt them.
“This case is now in the hands of the courts,” he said in a Monday statement. “We must let the legal system take its course in a fair and unbiased manner.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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