Orange County Supervisors might hire outside investigators to probe corruption after one of their former colleagues admitted to accepting bribes and directing $10 million to a nonprofit that then allegedly used the money illegally.
“It’s true. I have great sorrow for my actions,” said former Supervisor Andrew Do when he pleaded guilty in front of a federal judge on Halloween. “I’m responsible for every word.”
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Andrew Do Pleads Guilty to Bribery Scheme]
The words of Do’s signed plea agreement include his admission that he steered over $10 million in COVID bailout money slated for feeding the elderly early in the pandemic to a nonprofit his daughter worked at – with federal investigators finding most of that money didn’t feed people.
Do and his family received at least half a million dollars from the deal,l according to Do’s signed plea, and he’s now awaiting sentencing.
But Do’s guilty plea doesn’t end the issue for county supervisors, who are suing the nonprofit to try and get the tax money back while supervisors question how they never learned about Do’s illegal spending until it was reported last year, despite staff knowing for months before that.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
Now, one supervisor is calling for an outside review of Do’s work and a review of how county staff report misconduct, along with possible reforms to the supervisors’ code of ethics to give them some teeth.
In a statement to Voice of OC on Thursday, Sarmiento said the goal of the investigators would be to examine “the overall picture of what happened in the case of Andrew Do.”
“The key here is to gain an outside independent and comprehensive approach to reviewing all that has transpired and see if that review reveals any additional areas that should be looked at going forward,” Sarmiento said. “It is through this outside audit that we can get the full picture.”
The proposal is slated to be discussed by the Orange County Board of Supervisors at their 9:30 a.m Tuesday meeting.
Sarmiento’s top request is to search for and hire an outside firm to investigate “all contracts directed or influenced by former Supervisor Andrew Do,” who sat on the board of supervisors for nearly eight years.
It also requires that the report be publicly presented to the board of supervisors during a meeting.
Sarmiento’s request comes a little over two years after a corruption scandal kicked off in Anaheim, which led to the collapse of the Angel Stadium land sale and the former mayor and former head of the chamber of commerce pleading guilty to a series of federal crimes.
Anaheim City Council members authorized an independent investigation after former Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned and later pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about trying to ram through the now canned Angel Stadium land sale for a $1 million in campaign support.
City hired independent investigators then produced a 353-page report documenting loose lobbyist oversight, influence peddling by Disneyland resort area interests, developer favoritism and a disregard for state open meeting and public record laws.
After the report’s release, officials implemented a host of reforms including requiring officials to use government phones, posting councilmembers’ meeting calendars online and mandating Disney’s in-house lobbyists register with the city – all without publicly discussing the investigation report.
They also required city council candidates to repay their debts within a year of the election and limit personal campaign loans to $100,000 and hired an ethics officer to oversee campaign finance laws and other good government measures.
Sarmiento is also asking for interim County CEO Michelle Aguirre and County Counsel Leon Page to review the county’s existing fraud hotline to see if it actually works, and expand the county’s anti-retaliation policy for workers who report misconduct.
His final request was for the county’s Campaign Finance and Ethics Commission, to research how an expanded code of ethics could work for supervisors, including “potential enforcement mechanisms.”
“Former Supervisor Do’s indictment, guilty plea agreement, and resignation from the Board showed us that the County procurement and contracting system, in place during the pandemic, was vulnerable to abuse,” Sarmiento said.
“We must shine an outside light on our contract and procurement systems and assess our progress in implementing needed reforms.”
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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