Orange County Supervisors are looking to censure their colleague Andrew Do and strip him of all his other titles as some continue for his resignation, marking the first time in over 20 years that the board has formally condemned a member.
The calls for Do’s censure come after his house was raided by the FBI last month and a nonprofit he sent money to was accused by county lawyers of embezzling county funds and using the money to buy a house for his daughter, one of the nonprofit’s leaders.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
“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, which said the total missing cash sent to the Viet America Society came out to over $10 million.
Mark Rosen, the attorney for the Viet America Society, has called the county’s lawsuit a “hatchet job” and denied the allegations.
Do has declined to comment about the issue through his lawyers.
While censures don’t carry any official penalties, supervisors are also considering stripping Do of his various appointments to county boards, including the Orange County Transportation Authority.
At the supervisors’ last meeting on August 27, which Do missed, Supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento called for his resignation, saying he could no longer effectively represent his district.
“Andrew, please resign,” Foley said at the meeting. “Your position on the board is untenable and will only cause harm to the good work of the county.”
[Read: Calls Grow For OC Supervisor Andrew Do to Resign After FBI Raids]
They were joined a week later by the Huntington Beach City Council, who govern the largest city in the district Do represents, with six of the council’s seven members calling for him to step away.
“This has affected his ability to do his job significantly,” said Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark. “I’m not saying he’s guilty, we don’t know that. But I do think his residents do deserve representation.
[Read: Huntington Beach Demands OC Supervisor Resign After FBI Raid]
Under the county’s rules, Do can’t be removed from office by his colleagues, unlike some city councils where members can be removed after missing too many meetings.
But Foley is calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to begin the process of removing Do, issuing a statement calling for immediate action at the end of last month.
“Supervisor Andrew Do’s historic betrayal of public trust and his failure to uphold the law leaves us with no option but to request the Attorney General start necessary proceedings to remove Andrew from this elected position.”
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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