Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do directed an additional $6.2 million in taxpayer dollars to his 22-year-old daughter’s nonprofit group — nearly doubling the funding previously reported by LAist — according to county records obtained by LAist.
Those records show a total of $13.5 million in county funding that Do is now known to have played a major role awarding to Viet America Society since late 2020 — all without publicly disclosing the relationship.
The newly-discovered grants were awarded by Do to his daughter Rhiannon Do’s nonprofit outside of public meetings. Details of these grants were also not included in public meeting agendas. Do awarded the $6.2 million within roughly the last year when Rhiannon Do was listed at various times as the nonprofit’s president on county records. The records obtained by LAist show the money was paid up front to Viet America Society for future services.
Most of the funds — $5.2 million — were earmarked to feed seniors and people with disabilities, funded by federal coronavirus recovery dollars and county funds. The other newly reported $1 million was to design, build and maintain a Vietnam War memorial at a county park in Fountain Valley.
Do, his daughter and county staff have not provided answers in response to LAist’s repeated questions asking how the $6.2 million has been used by Viet America Society. The group also is long overdue in submitting federally-required audits showing how it spent millions of the taxpayer dollars previously reported by LAist.
“This isn't a story where there's one red flag. This is a story where there are two or three or four red flags,” said Jessica Levinson, a government ethics expert and law professor at Loyola Law School.
This isn't a story where there's one red flag. This is a story where there are two or three or four red flags.
“It's everything from the timing of when Do started directing the money to the nonprofit, to the change in leadership of the nonprofit, to perhaps, most disturbingly, the lack of information from the nonprofit about where our tax dollars are being spent,” she added.
O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said the millions in additional funding LAist found in county records — and the lack of answers about what happened with it — raises concerns about oversight and whether the money was spent as intended under the grants.
“It also really does, I think, make it difficult for the public to feel confident that public funds are being used well and used appropriately,” Sarmiento said, saying the public rightly expects to know how their tax dollars are spent.
“[It] makes it very difficult for us [and] for the public to come to a conclusion other than there's a reason why things don't want to be shared.”
LAist previously reported:
The $6.2 million was discovered by LAist last month in county payment records the newsroom requested from the county Auditor-Controller’s Office, which issues payments on behalf of the county. That office — which is run by a person elected independently from the Board of Supervisors — provided financial records far more quickly than other county agencies.
The grant payments were made from December 2022 to October 2023 — a period in which Do’s daughter identified herself various times as the group’s president, including in county-funded subcontracts.
California Secretary of State records show Viet America Society was founded in June 2020 and, according to its first tax filing, started with a focus on promoting Vietnamese culture to youths and “feeding the elderly and poor.” Its focus has since expanded to mental health crisis hotline services and war memorial construction, funded by taxpayer money Do helped direct to the group. The group was entirely government-funded in 2021 and 2022, according to its tax filings.
Since LAist published its first article in November 2023 about Do’s funding of his daughter’s group, the Orange County Register’s editorial board has called three times for his resignation in response to the reporting. The paper previously endorsed Do ahead of both of his re-elections as supervisor.
Do has told other news outlets that he did nothing wrong. He and his daughter Rhiannon Do have not responded to multiple interview requests from LAist.
In an op-ed published Dec. 1, Do falsely claimed that LAist’s first article “radically inflated the amount of County contracts” to his daughter’s group.
Do’s awarding of the $6.2 million to his daughter’s group was previously unknown to the public because he directed the money outside of public meetings, using a process called “district discretionary” funding.
Under this process, each supervisor gets to direct federal and county dollars meant to help people within their district. Do and other supervisors voted in 2022 and 2023 to authorize distributing the money without a requirement that recipients be publicly named in meeting agendas.
A version of the practice was in place during the first year of the pandemic, when O.C. supervisors created an emergency process where more than $200 million in contracts were approved by county staff without being disclosed to the public on meeting agendas. It was a change from pre-pandemic rules that required public votes on large contracts.
For the $200 million-plus in coronavirus contracts, supervisors received regular updates about who was receiving the money, but the public did not. In February 2021, Do publicly complained about public records requests from the nonprofit newsroom Voice of OC asking who received those funds.
After public outcry, county staff promised to put all future pandemic contracts on public agendas. But a year later, supervisors revived the practice for millions in federal relief dollars they planned to distribute in their districts, this time under the “district discretionary” process.
The funding method is controversial and has been criticized by taxpayer advocates who point out it operates outside of standard transparency practices for allocating public funds.
Supervisors, including Do, have chosen to name some of the other recipients of their district discretionary funds on public agendas. But a search by LAist of meeting agendas since Viet America Society was founded showed no mention of any of the newly-discovered $6.2 million Do awarded his daughter’s group.
The funding to Do’s daughter’s group is an outlier among $50 million in total federal pandemic relief dollars county supervisors were allowed to distribute in their district under this process.
Out of more than 100 organizations and cities that received this American Rescue Plan Act funding across all five supervisors’ districts, Viet America Society received the second-largest amount — all of it directed by Do — according to a breakdown the county provided LAist.
It was the most funding to any non-governmental organization — topped only by money Supervisor Katrina Foley provided the city of Costa Mesa to build two projects at local parks that the city had planned for years: a new cafe, and an expanded skate park.
Do did not disclose his family connection, according to a review of public meeting videos, a search of meeting captions, and interviews with three of Do’s four fellow county supervisors.
“It certainly seems to be a lack of sensitivity to the need for public disclosure around areas where there could be an issue of self dealing,” said Tracy Westen, a government ethics expert and past head of the L.A.-based Center for Governmental Studies.
He said Do’s decision to not publicly share his close family connection, while not illegal, can “undermine public confidence in the integrity of government decisions.”
“Anytime there is this appearance of self dealing, there's a need for politicians going over and beyond the strict requirements of the law for disclosure,” Westen said.
In such cases, he said, there’s a strong need for transparency about what happens with government spending.
“The public's entitled to know what happened to their tax dollars in some considerable detail.”
Supervisor Don Wagner said he sees nothing wrong with what Supervisor Do did, including not disclosing his family connection, and not requiring that the nonprofit report how many meals were provided.
“It is entirely up to each of us, what sort of reports back we will have or require” for coronavirus discretionary dollars each supervisor distributed in their district, Wagner said.
“I'm not going to second guess any of my colleagues and how they decide they're going to distribute the money,” he added.
As for the nonprofit’s long-overdue audits showing where prior millions went, Wagner said that’s “a fair question.”
“The fact that later they don't comply [with the audit requirements] says, okay, next time we don't give you anything,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned that Do gave Viet America Society an additional $6.2 million after it failed to submit the federally-required audits, Wagner said: “I think that's the question that needs to be asked and answered. And I don't have an answer to that.”
Supervisor Katrina Foley said it’s important for the public to know what happened to these dollars.
“The money is allocated for a specific purpose. We need to make sure it's being used for that purpose,” she said.
“If they can prove that they gave meals to seniors, then the money was used as it was intended. If they can't, that's another story.”
That said, Foley said she trusts county staff put safeguards in place to find out how many meals were actually provided with the newly-discovered grant funding. County staff have not answered LAist’s repeated requests for this information.
Supervisor Doug Chaffee has not responded to multiple interview requests from LAist.
Grant agreements between the county and Viet America Society reviewed by LAist appear to be missing accountability measures present in grant agreements with different organizations from the same funding source.
For example: grant agreements covering $2.2 million for Viet America to provide meals do not state the number of meals to be provided, do not require a cost per meal and do not require the nonprofit to report back to the county specifying how many meals were provided.
Do did require a minimum number of meals in a similar grant to a different nonprofit.
And when Do gave a much smaller amount — $40,000 — to a consultant to help plan an archway over Bolsa Avenue in Little Saigon, the agreement required the consultant provide two reports last year detailing their work.
With this article, LAist has now detailed $13.5 million in direct county funding and subcontracts that Supervisor Do directed to Viet America Society.
The non-profit received most of those dollars since Do’s daughter has been signing on-and-off as the nonprofit’s president. She is first known to have done so in December 2022.
Rhiannon Do is a full-time law student at UC Irvine. Aside from her role at Viet America Society and a now-defunct company closely connected to it, her LinkedIn profile listed only internships as work experience. That profile is no longer available on LinkedIn and appears to have been removed in recent weeks. When it was available in November, Rhiannon Do listed herself as president of Warner Wellness Center since 2021, the name recently used by Viet America Society to conduct business.
After LAist published its first story, her LinkedIn title changed to vice president at Warner Wellness.
Warner Wellness Center has been registered in Orange County as the name for two different California entities led by the same people: one private company and one nonprofit organization.
Records show leadership at Viet America Society has ping-ponged back and forth between Rhiannon Do and its founder Peter Pham, starting around the time Supervisor Do began directing the recently-discovered $6.2 million to the group.
The switching, at times, happened within days.
On Dec. 20, 2022, Pham signed as president of Viet America Society on the first county agreement of the $6.2 million in payments. The following day, he signed again as president on a years-overdue form registering the group for the first time as a nonprofit with regulators at the state Attorney General’s Office.
Records show leadership of the group shifted to Do’s daughter the following day.
On Dec. 22, 2022, as the first county check from the new $6.2 million grant was cashed, Rhiannon Do signed as president of Viet America Society on a county-funded subcontract.
A few days later, on Dec. 28, Pham was back to signing as the group’s president on county paperwork.
“It’s very messy governance, from what we can tell,” said Rose Chan Loui, a longtime attorney for nonprofits who directs UCLA Law School’s program on philanthropy and nonprofits, after reviewing the group’s public tax filings.
“What’s publicly available really shows a lot of neglect or a lack of knowledge of a lot of different nonprofit laws,” she said, such as needing a secretary who’s a different person than the president. That requirement is detailed in a nonprofit legal guide from the state Attorney General’s office, which regulates charities.
Pham initially said in November that he would speak with LAist, but has not responded to multiple requests since then to arrange an interview. He also has not responded to emailed questions, starting in early December, asking what happened with the millions in taxpayer dollars received by Viet America Society.
The switching of who signed as president of Viet America Society continued back and forth between Do’s daughter and Pham last year. In May 2023, Pham signed as president on long-overdue state paperwork to renew the group’s legal status. A month later, Rhiannon Do signed again as president on a mental health subcontract funded by the county. And a few weeks after that, Pham signed in August as president on a county meals contract.
Another government document shows Do’s daughter in a top leadership role.
Viet America’s latest tax filing, for calendar year 2022, lists Rhiannon Do as the group’s vice president and Pham as president. It also lists Rhiannon Do as the only director, a position that is typically held alongside other directors to compose a board of directors that is in charge of a nonprofit group. The filing also says she is one of just two officers and key employees at the group, the other being Pham.
That tax filing, posted online by ProPublica, contradicts Do’s claim in his December op-ed that his daughter “was not a director or officer” at the nonprofit.
LAist has been asking Pham and Rhiannon Do in writing and via phone calls for copies of Viet America Society’s public tax filings since Dec. 4, but no filings have been produced. Federal regulations require disclosure within 30 days of a written request — a mandate that also is noted in the tax filings nonprofits are required to submit.
Viet America’s latest tax filing shows Rhiannon Do working an average of 40 hours per week for the group in 2022.
Rhiannon Do started her first year of law school in August 2022, according to a UC Irvine spokesperson. On LinkedIn, she listed herself a president — later changed to vice president — of Warner Wellness during periods that overlap with the school year. Records show she signed as president of Viet America Society in December 2022 and June 2023 on county-funded subcontracts.
UC Irvine law school’s rules state that no student may work more than 20 hours per week, according to the school’s website. And aside from faculty research assistant roles, first-year students cannot be employed without permission from an assistant dean, the rules state.
Her commitments at the nonprofit continued in 2023. She signed as the group’s president and indicated she was the main point of contact for county-funded subcontracts that ran through the whole year.
Citing student privacy laws, a separate spokesperson for the law school declined to comment on whether Rhiannon Do’s work at the nonprofit complies with the school’s rules, and whether she received permission for it.
O.C. supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday on ethics reforms brought forward in response to LAist’s reporting on Do.
The proposal, from Supervisor Sarmiento, would add adult children and siblings to the types of family connections that supervisors must publicly disclose when voting on contracts and other official actions.
If approved, the reforms also would require more public transparency about the district discretionary funding that Do and other supervisors have used to direct money outside public meetings. Supervisors would have to disclose any known family relationships to funding recipients, and in those cases a public vote by the full board would be required.
Additionally, the reforms would require the county to publicly post a log of approved district discretionary contracts on its website every three months, at the end of each quarter.
State law requires officials to disclose and recuse themselves when awarding money to spouses or children who are under 18. But it doesn’t apply after their children become adults.
There was momentum to change that back in 2016. The state Senate and two Assembly committees unanimously approved a bill to expand the conflict definition to the adult children, parents and siblings of officials.
Violations would result in “disqualification from ever holding any office in California in addition to prison time and/or a fine” of up to $1,000, the bill’s author said in a news release at a time.
That ban would have applied only when officials were aware of a conflict.
It never reached a full vote in the Assembly, and did not become law.
Levinson, the Loyola Law School professor, says Supervisor Do’s actions show it’s time to revisit reforms.
“This is why we should expand disclosure when it comes to money going to family members,” Levinson said.
That kind of disclosure, she added, is “also intended to deter corruption or the appearance of corruption.”
To arrive at the totals for each recipient of COVID relief money, payments with similar recipient names were combined.
Abound Food Care, Inc. includes "OC Community Resources: Abound Food Care, Inc."
The City of Costa Mesa includes "Office of Care Coordination: City of Costa Mesa, Newport Mesa Bridge Shelter."
Families Forward, Inc. includes "Office of Care Coordination: Families Forward, Inc."
Family Assistance Ministries, Inc. includes "Family Assistance Ministries, Inc. (Contract & Amendment)" and "Office of Care Coordination: Family Assistance Ministries, Inc."
Friendship Shelter, Inc. includes "Office of Care Coordination: Friendship Shelter, Inc."
Human Options, Inc. includes "Office of Care Coordination: Human Options, Inc."
Jamboree Housing Corporation includes "OC Community Resources: Jamboree Housing Corporation."
Public Libraries includes "OC Community Resources: Libraries Laptop Kiosks," "OC Community Resources: Public Libraries," and "OC Community Resources: Library Fall Festival Event."
O.C. Animal Services includes "OC Community Resources: OC Animal Care, Pet Pantry Event," "OC Community Resources: OC Animal Shelter Adoption Fees," "OC Community Resources: OC Animal Shelter November Fees & Pet Food," and "OC Cummunity (sic) Resources: OC Animal Care, Pet Adoption Event."
O.C. Parks includes "OC Community Resources: OC Parks Shade Structure over Playground in Laguna Niguel Regional Park," "OC Community Resources: OC Parks, Dana Point Revetment Project," and "OC Community Resources: OC Parks, Stocking of fish at Irvine Lake."
O.C. Sheriff's Department includes "OC Sheriff's Department: Drug Abuse is Life Abuse," "OC Sheriffʹs Department: BearCat MedEvac Vehicle," and "OC Sheriffʹs Department: Fentanyl Abatement."
South County Outreach, Inc. includes "Office of Care Coordination: South County Outreach, Inc." and "South County Outreach Inc., (Contract & Amendment)."
Trauma Intervention Programs, Inc. includes "Trauma Intervention Programs, Inc. (1st Amendment)."
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