OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento calls for conflict of interest probe following LAist investigation

Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento is calling for an investigation into millions in taxpayer funding that his fellow supervisor Andrew Do directed to a nonprofit led by Do's 22 year-old daughter, which was brought to light by LAist last month.

Do voted for the funding without disclosing his family relationship to the public. Sarmiento has said he first learned of the family tie from LAist.

Sarmiento said the public deserves transparency about the taxpayer funding of a nonprofit run by Do’s daughter Rhiannon Do.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Board to request an investigation into the issues that this situation has raised in order to restore the public’s trust,” Sarmiento said in a statement to LAist Friday. “As elected officials, we have an obligation to be as transparent as possible with the public and disclose any potential conflicts of interest, especially when voting to spend taxpayer dollars.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

“My office takes these responsibilities very seriously, and is working to propose revised County contracting procedures to prevent these and similar conflicts of interest from occurring.”

No comment from Do

Do did not return a voicemail and phone message for comment, and has not responded to multiple requests for comment over the last month. In an interview with City News Service last week, he defended his actions as proper.

LAist found that Do, one of the county’s most powerful elected officials, was involved in directing $3.1 million to Warner Wellness Center, as well as an earlier $4.2 million to Viet America Society before it began using the Warner Wellness name.

“It’s the specifics of this incident, but, also just generally I wanted to see some changes made to our procurement process so we can have more disclosure for the public,” Sarmiento told LAist in an interview Friday evening.

“I'll be asking for staff to bring us back some direction on how we could look into not just this allegation, but any others that may surface going forward,” he added. ”Any supervisor or employee of the county should really be careful when it comes to…involving any relatives or any family for any public contracts.”

Supervisor Katrina Foley said in an interview on Friday that she has asked county staff for an internal review.

“I don’t want to have voted on something that was wrongful and I didn’t know. So I’ve already asked for those to be reviewed,” said Foley, who also learned of the family relationship from LAist.

As of October, Rhiannon Do was Viet America Society’s only director or trustee, according to its latest public tax filing.

Last week, LAist reported that Do also failed to disclose that he’s married to Cheri Pham during testimony he gave at a recent trial. Pham is a high-ranking Orange County Superior Court judge. The judge declared a mistrial, citing Do’s undisclosed family relationship as the cause.

That means the trial — which already had been going on across five months — will have to start over from scratch. Santa Ana officials had already authorized up to $1 million for their attorneys in the case before the mistrial.

An undisclosed family connection

As of October, Viet America Society listed Rhiannon Do as its only director or trustee, according to a public tax filing and subcontract records LAist obtained through a public records request.

Rhiannon Do, who is a law student at U.C. Irvine, also signed two county-funded subcontracts — one last December and another in June — that list her title as Viet America Society’s president, according to the county records.

O.C. Supervisors Don Wagner and Doug Chaffee haven’t responded to questions about whether they knew about the family connection. In an interview with City News Service, Wagner and Chaffee said they don’t see anything wrong with Do’s actions. Wagner also previously told LAist that there’s no legal requirement for officials to disclose or recuse themselves when their votes would financially benefit their adult children.

“I don’t find any fault with Supervisor Do’s conduct,” he said.