Andrew Do is a no-show at OC board meeting as calls intensify for him to resign

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, a no-show at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, is facing intensifying calls from the public and some of his colleagues to resign in the wake of last week’s FBI search of his house.

While his chair sat empty, one supervisor turned to the camera and pleaded with him to step down immediately, saying she assumed he was watching.

“Andrew, please resign,” said Supervisor Katrina Foley at the meeting in Santa Ana, adding that he “has shattered the public trust.”

“Resignation is not an admission of guilt and you are entitled to due process. However, your position on the board is untenable and will only cause harm to the good work of the county,” she added. “If you truly care about this county as you have claimed many times in the past, then you will step down so we can begin to heal the deep wounds that you have caused all of us.”

Do expected to miss meetings in the future

LAist has reached out to Supervisor Do for comment. We will update the story if we hear from him.

Do was the only supervisor not to attend the board meeting Tuesday. Board members were informed that Do “will likely miss a number of meetings in the future,” Foley’s deputy chief of staff Alyssa Napuri told LAist in a statement. That information came from Do’s staff, who informed acting county CEO Michelle Aguirre, Napuri said.

A television screen shows an image of Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do during an O.C. Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 27, 2024.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The backstory

The meeting comes days after Do’s North Tustin home was searched by FBI and IRS agents. A nearby home of his 23-year-old daughter Rhiannon Do was also searched.

Earlier this month, Orange County officials filed a pair of lawsuits alleging more than $13 million in public funds Supervisor Do directed to a nonprofit linked to his daughter, Viet America Society, were misspent following a months-long LAist investigation into the money. Officials allege the money was “plundered” by Rhiannon Do and others for private gain, including home purchases.

FBI agents and Craig Wilke, who identified as Andrew Do's lawyer, at O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do's house in Orange County the day it was searched.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

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An attorney for Viet America Society has pushed back on the county’s legal action against the nonprofit, saying the lawsuit is riddled with errors and is a “hatchet job.”

More from the meeting

During public comment Tuesday, Santa Ana resident Jackie Cordova called Supervisor Do a “coward” for not being at the meeting “to face us.”

Another commenter, Anaheim resident Mark Richard Daniels, called on Supervisor Do to resign, saying he shouldn’t keep drawing a salary from taxpayers.

And local activist Vern Nelson sang a version of a song about the controversy that he also posted on YouTube.

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento also reiterated his call for Supervisor Do to resign during board comments at the meeting.

“Public trust is eroded,” Sarmiento said. “It is very difficult for a supervisor or any board office to carry out its public functions given what we're dealing with right now."

Tara Campbell, who is mayor of Yorba Linda and Supervisor Don Wagner's chief of staff, attended the meeting. Campbell was Supervisor Do's communications director until shortly after Wagner took office in 2019. She declined to talk when LAist approached her after the public session.

Earlier this week

While the board cannot remove Supervisor Do from his role on the board, they do plan to strip him of his committee assignments.

Board Chair Don Wagner said in a statement Monday he had moved for a vote on "the removal of Supervisor Andrew Do from all board/chairman committee assignments."

Wagner, in his most pointed comments to date, said: "I expect unanimous approval when the matter comes forward early next month. I am, of course, aware of the calls for Supervisor Do to resign from the board and expect him to seriously consider his future on this elected body, especially for the sake of the citizens of the First District."

The vote to remove Supervisor Do from his committee assignments is scheduled for Sept. 10.

More from the supervisors

During his statements, Sarmiento also called for the board to formally rebuke Supervisor Do, known as a censure.

He said when he was mayor of Santa Ana, over 1,000 people died in the city and that money could have been used to help people struggling in the pandemic.

“Those dollars were so precious to so many, we could have really used those to make sure that people were able to fend off, you know, disease, hunger, housing,” Sarmiento later told LAist in an interview. “Every dollar that is misspent really has an impact on people's lives, especially those that are struggling in our county.”

Speaking to LAist after the public session Tuesday, Supervisor Doug Chaffee said he is “disappointed” because “it's all wrapped up in a lawsuit.” He added that in the past there has been some noncompliance with reporting how taxpayer dollars are spent and “county staff went after them until we got what we needed.”

When asked by LAist if he had spoken to Supervisor Do about the allegations, Chaffee said, “I don't want to ask because that might make me a witness or subject to some other type of proceeding. I think it's his battle.”

“The things may be true, they may not be, but I'm not going to judge that," he added. "I also see he's got four more months on his term of office. Let that expire. Why are we wasting all our energy with these other things? We should be focusing on the business at hand of the county."

Supervisor Do is termed out in December and cannot run for reelection. The Board of Supervisors have the important task of choosing the next County CEO before Do’s tenure ends.

Chaffee said this is not affecting his own ability to serve the people he represents, and that he has not heard of any complaints from Supervisor Do’s constituents.

Supervisors ask AG to intervene

On Monday, Supervisors Foley and Sarmiento also asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to intervene to remove Supervisor Do from power.

Supervisor Do is elected to the Board of Supervisors from District 1, which includes Garden Grove and Westminster, but the family home searched by the FBI and IRS is located in North Tustin, in District 3.

State law requires county supervisors to reside in the district they represent during their tenure. Shortly after he was elected supervisor in 2015, Supervisor Do was investigated over his residency by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, which announced later that year that they had not found sufficient evidence he was living outside the district in which he ran for office.

That investigation was overseen by then-prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, who is now a judge facing hearings in San Diego over alleged misconduct when he was a prosecutor. Baytieh is represented in those proceedings by the same attorney now representing Supervisor Do.

In a statement to LAist, Bonta’s office said they are aware of the request “related to allegations that Supervisor Do does not reside in his district.”

“A quo warranto action may be brought to determine whether a public official satisfies a requirement that he or she resides in the district; or whether a public official is serving in two incompatible offices,” the statement said. “Quo warranto is not available to decide whether an official has committed misconduct in office.”

The attorney general cannot on their own remove an elected official — that decision would be up to a judge.

Catch up on LAist's investigation

In November 2023, LAist began investigating how millions in public taxpayer dollars were spent. In total, LAist has uncovered over $13 million in public money was approved to a little-known nonprofit that records state was led on and off by Rhiannon Do, the now 23-year-old daughter of Supervisor Do. Most of that money was directed to the group by Supervisor Do outside of the public’s view and never appeared on public meeting agendas. He did not publicly disclose his family ties.

Much of the known funding came from federal coronavirus relief money.

• Read the story that launched the investigation here.
• Since we started reporting, we’ve also uncovered the group was two years overdue in completing a required audit into whether the meal funds were spent appropriately.
• And we found the amount of taxpayer money directed to the nonprofit was much larger than initially known. It totals at least $13.5 million in county funding — tallied from government records obtained and published by LAist. 
• After our reporting, O.C. officials wrote demand letters to the nonprofit saying millions in funding were unaccounted for. They warned it could be forced to repay the funds.
• And, we found the nonprofit missed a deadline set by county officials to provide proof about how funding for meals were spent.
• On Aug. 2, LAist reported O.C. officials were demanding the refund of more than $3 million in public funds awarded by Do to VAS and another nonprofit, Hand to Hand.
• Six days later, LAist reported Orange County officials had expanded demands for refunds of millions in tax dollars from the nonprofits and threatened legal action.
• On Aug. 15, LAist reported O.C. officials sued VAS and its key officers and associated businesses, including Rhiannon Do. The lawsuit alleges that county money was illegally used to purchase five homes and was converted into cash through ATM transactions. 
• Then, on Aug. 19, LAist reported O.C. officials had announced a second lawsuit against Hand to Hand and its CEO to recover millions of taxpayer dollars that were directed by Supervisor Do.
• LAist broke the news on Aug. 22 that federal agents were searching Rhiannon Do's home in Tustin. Later that day, Supervisor Do's home, and other properties, were also raided.

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.

Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The next scheduled board meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 10. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
• Learn how to submit a public comment to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.