OC Supervisor Andrew Do might be the first county leader to be formally condemned by his colleagues in over 20 years after FBI leaders raided his house amidst an investigation into over $10 million missing taxpayer dollars.
His fellow supervisors are slated to consider censuring him Tuesday after unanimously voting to throw him off all the other boards and committees he serves on at their last meeting on Sept. 10, but they stopped short of formally censuring him.
[Read: OC Leaders Strip Embattled Supervisor of Positions Amid FBI Investigation]
While censures don’t carry any legal power, they’re the strongest condemnation elected officials can give to one another.
It comes after county lawyers sued a nonprofit his daughter helped run, alleging leaders there took federal pandemic relief funds from the county and from Do’s office meant for feeding the elderly and instead spent it on things like buying houses, including one for Do’s daughter.
[Read: FBI Executes Searches on OC Supervisor, His Daughter & Others in Missing COVID Money Case]
While Do has been facing calls to resign for weeks from fellow supervisors, the Huntington Beach City Council and other elected officials, he has retained his seat on the board.
[Read: Calls Grow For OC Supervisor Andrew Do to Resign After FBI Raids]
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” when he delayed discussion on it at the Sept. 9 meeting.
“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.”
Do has declined to speak on the issue through his attorneys, and hasn’t attended a board meeting since his house was raided on August 22.
It’s the first time Do has ever been the subject of a censure, despite other questions about his work on the dais over the last decade.
[Read: Santana: OC Supervisor Andrew Do’s Political Journey That Ended in FBI Raids]
But some of his colleagues like Supervisor Katrina Foley say the FBI investigation is a step too far for them and the public to put up with.
“Unfortunately, we’re having to do this because he will not resign,”Foley said at the Sept. 9 meeting. “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.”
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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