O.C. Board of Supervisors censures embattled member Andrew Do
The Orange County Board of Supervisors censured Andrew Do on Tuesday — marking another significant, if ceremonial, rebuke of the embattled politician.
In a three-page resolution, the board “strongly and publicly” condemned Do “for his failure to abide by the code of ethics and commitment to public service, and for the reckless judgment and favoritism he has demonstrated.”
The censure was approved 4-0, with Do absent. The supervisor, who is in the last year of his final term, has not attended a board meeting since Aug. 13, having been marked as an “excused” absence three times.
Do did not return an email seeking comment.
Orange County is demanding that a group linked to Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter return millions of tax dollars after it failed to show it did the work it was hired to do.
The censure follows the board’s decision to remove Do from all committee and board appointments on Sept. 10. He has also faced calls to resign from the board.
In a lawsuit filed Aug. 15, Orange County alleged that executives at a nonprofit, the Viet America Society, had “brazenly plundered” taxpayer money meant to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.
Among the executives named in the lawsuit was Do’s daughter, Rhiannon. LAist previously reported that Do directed or voted to direct as much as $13.5 million to Viet America Society without disclosing that his daughter was connected to the group.
In early August, the county demanded that Viet America Society return $2.2 million after the organization failed to prove to auditors and the county how it spent the money, or that it had done the work it was hired to do.
Orange County is suing a nonprofit group and the daughter of one of its own supervisors, accusing them of taking millions of dollars in county contracts and “brazenly plunder[ing] these funds for their own personal gain.”
The lawsuit alleges some of those funds were instead used to purchase multiple homes.
Rhiannon Do, 23, is alleged to have used county dollars to buy a home in Tustin in July 2023. The sale price was $1.035 million, according to the real estate site Redfin.
Rhiannon Do’s attorney, David Wiechert, said in a previous email to The Times that she is “a hardworking, honest, and law-abiding young woman.”
The third-year law student at UC Irvine also previously interned at the Orange County district attorney’s office for three months while officials were preparing to bring a suit against Viet America Society.
Weeks after it was revealed Andrew Do directed millions of dollars in contracts to a nonprofit linked to his daughter, and after the county was trying to account how the money was spent, his daughter landed an internship with the D.A.
After the lawsuit was filed, federal agents raided the homes of Rhiannon and Andrew Do.
The board-approved censure asserts that Andrew Do demonstrated “reckless and unethical conduct in the performance of his duties as a fiduciary of public funds.”
“Supervisor Andrew Do brazenly exploited his position of power to enrich his family and friends under the guise of feeding the elderly, supporting veterans and hosting community events,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a statement.
Foley has called on Do to resign, as has state Sen. Janet Nguyen (R-Huntington Beach), who is running to succeed him on the board. Frances Marquez, who is also running for the vacant seat, similarly called for Do to resign.
The lawsuit was moved last month from Orange County to San Diego County. A motion hearing is set for Oct. 18.
Updates
8:10 a.m. Sept. 26, 2024: Updated with a board candidate Frances Marquez calling on Do to resign.
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