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Huntington Beach City Council members are formally calling on embattled Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do to resign after federal agents raided his house late last month.
It comes after County of Orange officials filed a lawsuit against a nonprofit he contracted with – which the supervisor’s daughter helped run – alleging leaders of the Viet America Society embezzled federal COVID bailout money and bought houses.
“Defendants saw the opportunity and conspired to embezzle pandemic relief funds by executing contracts that they never intended to perform,” county lawyers wrote in their suit filed last month.
[Read: Orange County Sues County Supervisor’s Daughter and Nonprofit Over Missing COVID Money]
Surf City is the largest city in the district Do represents, and the city council is the first legislative body to officially call for his resignation amidst questions on what happened to the money.
Over half of the funds in question came from his Do’s discretionary spending as county staff were questioning where the money was going.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
Council members also raised questions over if Do could still represent the district at the county level since he’s effectively disappeared from the public eye.
They joined a growing slate of elected leaders calling for Do’s resignation, including State Senator Janet Nguyen and Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez, the two candidates running for Do’s seat.
[Read: Calls Grow For OC Supervisor Andrew Do to Resign After FBI Raids]
“His house has been raided by the FBI. Two of his colleagues are calling for his resignation,” said Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton at the Tuesday night meeting. “In this situation, I think it’s appropriate for us to make a statement about that.”
Do, through his attorneys, has declined to comment.
In their lawsuit, OC officials are trying to figure out how Viet America Society spent $10 million, with county attorneys alleging some of it was used to buy houses – including one for Do’s daughter – instead of feeding the elderly.
Supervisor Do has not been named in the county lawsuit and hasn’t been charged with a crime – but county attorneys accuse his daughter and other nonprofit leaders of embezzling COVID bailout money.
Huntington Beach Councilman Pat Burns, the sole dissenting vote against the call for Do’s resignation, said there wasn’t enough evidence yet to make a decision.
“Hang him high if he’s found guilty,” Burns said. “If he was guilty, and there was the proper evidence against him right now … he’d be arrested. And they have not made an arrest.”
Regardless if Do gets charged with a crime, Councilman Dan Kalmick said that his ability to represent the district is already destroyed.
“We are without representation at the county board that oversees $9 billion,” Kalmick said. “Who do we call?”
The vote saw a rare split in the council’s Republican majority, with the other three members voting to call for Do’s resignation against Burns.
Councilman Tony Strickland, who was endorsed by Do when he ran for office in 2022, questioned if they were jumping the gun by acting too soon, but ultimately called for Do to resign.
“Based on what I know today? Absolutely he should resign,” Strickland said. “But I don’t know enough of the information and I don’t think the public knows enough of the information.”
Councilman Casey McKeon was silent through the debate, but voted for Do’s removal.
“This has affected his ability to do his job significantly,” said Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, the last of the majority to speak.
“I’m not saying he’s guilty, we don’t know that. But I do think his residents do deserve representation.”
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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