Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was stripped of all his committees and boards representing Orange County besides his supervisor seat on Tuesday morning.
It marks the first formal action his colleagues have taken against him after his home was raided by the FBI on Aug. 22.
The raid came after a county lawsuit alleging a nonprofit his daughter helped lead embezzled over $10 million from the county. Over half of the nonprofit’s funding came from Do’s discretionary funds as county staff were raising questions about the nonprofit’s work.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
While Do is not named in that lawsuit, he has declined to answer questions about the issue through his attorneys. He hasn’t been charged with a crime.
Since the FBI raided his house last month, a coalition including two county supervisors, the Huntington Beach City council and other local elected leaders have called on Do to resign, a call Supervisor Katrina Foley repeated on Tuesday morning.
[Read: Calls Grow For OC Supervisor Andrew Do to Resign After FBI Raids]
“Unfortunately, we’re having to do this because he will not resign. And we hope that he will resign because he should not continue to be publicly enriched off of the taxpayers when, one, he’s not doing his job; and two, embroiled in a terrible corruption scandal,” Foley said Tuesday.
While county supervisors have the power to remove Do from other appointed positions, they cannot remove him from office.
Do has not attended any board meetings since the FBI raid.
Do served on several boards including the Orange County Transportation Authority, the National Association of Counties, the Orange County Emergency Management Council and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Now, he’ll be replaced on all those boards by other members of the board of supervisors through the end of his term in December.
While the board was originally set to discuss censuring Do as well on Tuesday morning, the discussion was kicked to the board meeting later this month.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who introduced the censure item, said he wanted to “make sure we all have an opportunity to understand what the item is.”
“We know residents in district one don’t have a representative who’s available,” Sarmiento said. “I want to make sure they understand the board will be representing and carrying out the business of the people.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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