The Viet America Society failed to meet its March 14 deadline to provide documentation to county officials “showing it properly spent more than $4 million” to feed seniors during COVID-19, the Register reported. The money came from the discretionary funds of Supervisor Andrew Do.
LAist reporter Nick Gerda told us that, according to the county, as of March 18 the documentation still has not been provided to the OC Community Resources Department.
The department has been demanding the documents for almost a year. Sterling Scott Winchell, a lawyer for the society, told the county the society needed more time because it’s tax season.
Of the $4 million, $3.1 million went to the Warner Wellness Center, of which Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, was president.
According to LAist, Warner Wellness is the DBA – Doing Business As – of the society. An LAist investigation found Do directed, or helped direct, more than $13 million her group without public disclosure.
It seems reasonable to give the society time to provide the documents – but not too much more time. But if that is missed, other steps would have to be taken. After all, businesses and private citizens must meet similar obligations, when necessary.
“They have bank records, so that’s where you go first, including all the canceled checks,” former Supervisor John Moorlach told us; he’s currently a senior fellow and director of California Policy Center’s Center for Public Accountability. After that, he said, the county could start taking depositions and have a forensic accountant dig into what happened to the money. “Put the ledger together. It’s cash in, cash out. Basic stuff.”
We also agree with Supervisor Katrina Foley, who said, “If they can’t prove then they should pay the money back.”
This continuation of the Do nepotism scandal also leads us to repeat our call for him to resign. We’ve lost how many times we’ve called for Andrew Do to do that, but it bears repeating. Do has abused the power of his office, has lost public confidence and has an at best unusually sketchy approach to the use of public funds.
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The county also still needs to end these discretionary funds given to each of the five supervisors. All county money ought to be spent, openly, only by a vote of the full board. If the spending is truly justified and necessary, supervisors should have the confidence to put it up for a vote. After all, this is public money, taxpayer money, not their money.
While Supervisors Don Wagner and Doug Chaffee, the latter of whom has called Do his “mentor,” have blocked a proposal by Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento to broaden conflict-of-interest disclosures, that measure should ultimately be brought back for a vote, too. With the eventual election of either Sen. Janet Nguyen (who we endorsed) or Cypress Councilmember Frances Marquez in November to replace Do in November, that should be a top priority.
We applaud the work of Nick Gerda, who has been wrongly smeared by a desperate Do, in bringing this to light.
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