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Nick Gerda
What I cover
I’m a reporter focusing on government accountability in Southern California, including around the homelessness crisis. I try to find answers to questions like: Why does it often seem like there’s so little progress around homelessness? What can be done to make systems more effective? And how are people in charge of these systems using their authority?
My background
I grew up in L.A. and Orange County and previously covered the county government in Orange County for more than a decade — often reporting on issues like homelessness, public safety, mental health and the role of money in politics. At LAist, my reporting on corruption spurred a criminal investigation that led one of Orange County’s most powerful officials to resign, plead guilty and get sentenced to years in prison for a scheme that diverted millions in food money from needy seniors. For that work, in 2025, I was honored to be named journalist of the year for California, SoCal and Orange County and to receive the national Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts.
My goals
I want my coverage to inform the public and inspire positive change by identifying areas for improvement in the ways leaders are exercising power.
Best way to reach me
Email:
ngerda@laist.com
. Signal: @
ngerda.47
Stories by Nick Gerda
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Board members were informed that Do “will likely miss a number of meetings in the future."
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Also on Monday, Don Wagner, who chairs the board, said he was scheduling a vote to remove Do from his committee assignments.
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The remarks made on a Vietnamese radio broadcast are Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do’s first known public response after O.C. officials filed a lawsuit alleging millions of taxpayer dollars were misspent.
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Federal agents on Thursday searched the family home of O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do and his wife — O.C. Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham — as well as a home owned by their daughter Rhiannon Do.
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The county says a Huntington Beach nonprofit that received $1 million in funding for a war memorial failed to finish the taxpayer funded project. Here’s what we found when we went out to the site.
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The lawsuit alleges that county money meant to feed vulnerable residents was illegally diverted by O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter and others to purchase five homes.
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The nonprofit Viet America Society has been at the center of a long-running LAist investigation.
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It’s the latest action to take place after an LAist investigation revealed public records showed millions of dollars were unaccounted for.
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People were served almost exclusively instant noodles, even though the providers are being paid to serve nutritious foods, according to officials.
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A letter signed by the county's top attorney warns that he's prepared to take "any and all legal remedies" to ensure Viet America Society and Hand for Hand rebate millions of public funds and fully account for millions more.
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“There’s no way they’re getting that money back,” Sterling Scott Winchell, the attorney for VAS, told the Orange County Register. The county could file suit to try to get a court to recover the money.
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The repayment demands, detailed in Orange County letters obtained by LAist, come as officials found that the nonprofit Viet America Society failed to show that meals to seniors were handed out as required under a county contract. Supervisor Andrew Do did not respond to requests for comment.
