OC board unanimously votes to censure embattled Supervisor Andrew Do amid federal investigation
SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to censure Supervisor Andrew Do, after his law firm and home were raided by the FBI and his daughter faces allegations of corruption over a nonprofit agency funded in part by discretionary money from his office.
Do, who did not attend Tuesday's board meeting, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who proposed the censure, noted the board cannot remove Do from office. "We don't have that power," he said, adding that the "symbolic" gesture was important to let the public know the board takes the allegations seriously.
"I don't take pleasure bringing it forward or take it lightly," Sarmiento said.
Although Do was not named as a defendant in a county lawsuit filed last month against two nonprofits accused of misappropriating funds for a program to help feed residents during the pandemic, "his office is at the epicenter of misappropriation of funds," Sarmiento said.
"Although he's not a named party, we know that a lot of the activity that we're now dealing with, with respect to monies that have been misappropriated, have to do with his office and his direction," he said.
"We are here to condemn misbehavior," Sarmiento said. "And make it clear it won't be tolerated."
Sarmiento said healing the wounds from the scandal "can't begin until we condemn and call out the behavior." He acknowledged the censure vote "is purely symbolic, but that matters."
At the very least, there are "undisputed facts of nepotism," Sarmiento said, referring to Do's daughter, Rhiannon, who worked for one of the nonprofits, Viet America Society, or VAS which was sued by the county.
Sarmiento insisted that even with Do skipping board meetings and having been removed from several commissions and committees, including the Orange County Transportation Authority board, "the four of us can continue doing the business" of the county.
Supervisor Katrina Foley accused Do of "exploiting his position of power to enrich his family," and said his office "has a skeleton crew."
"We are not going to just stand by and let somebody steal from the county," she said. "That's stealing from the public taxpayers."
Foley said the censure was "not only warranted it's not enough," and she vowed to "continue to pursue every legal avenue" to oust Do from office because "he has created this terrible scandal in our county."
'It's a distraction and it's unfortunate, but we have to root it out so that the taxpayers can trust our county government," she said.
Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who has often allied with Do in the past, praised him as a "brilliant man," but voted with the censure. Chaffee noted that Do "really should be here" to speak for himself.
Do is scheduled to be termed out of office at the end of the year. He has faced calls for his resignation as authorities investigate allegations of fraudulent spending of COVID-19 relief funds by VAS.
The county sued VAS last month, alleging its President Peter Pham, misappropriated millions of dollars of pandemic relief earmarked for delivery of meals to needy residents. The Hand to Hand Relief organization, which subcontracted with VAS, was also sued.
VAS officials countered that they spent the money on the food program but had trouble during the pandemic collecting all of the paperwork to prove all of the deliveries.
Federal investigators in August raided the homes of Pham and Rhiannon Do, along with other locations with ties to the probe into alleged misuse of funds, including Andrew Do's home.
City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.
