SANTA ANA, Calif.—Janet Nguyen was sworn in as Orange County’s newest supervisor Wednesday to finish out the term of former Supervisor Andrew Do, who resigned after pleading guilty to a federal bribery charge.
Nguyen will fill out the last month of the term of Do, who was scheduled to be termed-out of office before he stepped down. In January, Nguyen will be sworn in for the full term she won in November over Democrat Frances Marquez on a 61.24 percent to 38.76 percent vote.
Orange County Board Chairman Don Wagner’s office has been running Do’s office since his resignation Oct. 31.
The Orange County Registrar on Tuesday certified the election results, but it wasn’t done in time to have Nguyen sworn in on that day, so the supervisors met Wednesday in special session to approve the certification of the election results, allowing Nguyen to take office.
“The only reason to do it early to allow now-Senator Nguyen to be sworn in is so she can take over running the district for balance of Supervisor Do’s term,” Wagner told City News Service. “Then her new term and my new term will start in January. It’s just a way to get that seat filled a little sooner than otherwise.”
Nguyen’s swearing-in on Wednesday was private, with a more public one planned in January, Wagner said.
At the special meeting Wednesday, dozens of residents, many of whom regularly criticize the elections process to the board, questioned the results in this year’s election.
Orange County Registrar Bob Page told the board he was required by law to wait until Dec. 1 to certify the election results. He also made it clear that the board only votes to accept the results and has no other authority beyond that.
“The board is merely being asked to receive my certification and to declare the winner of the 1st District Supervisor contest,” Page said.
Supervisor Katrina Foley praised Page’s office.
“Every different phase of an election is an enormous challenge,” Foley said. “And we appreciate the employees who worked so hard and so diligently with such a commitment to the county’s election integrity.”
Foley suggested that some of the complaints were based on not liking the result.
“I supported some candidates that lost and I supported some candidates who won,” she said. “I mean, that’s politics, right? So I think that we have to accept the election results.”
Wagner asked Page what he would tell the election skeptics.
“When I have someone who has doubts or doesn’t trust us, my first place to go is always to invite them to come and observe and we'll answer their questions,” Page said.
Wagner repeatedly had to threaten to clear the room or eject some people in the audience who interrupted Page.
“We also have a very robust proactive approach to educate the public about what we do,” Page said, pointing to newsletters, social media accounts and public speaking events to community groups.
“I see it as my obligation to make sure the public understands everything they can on how elections are conducted in California,” Page said.
But Page said some of the changes that some residents desire, such as going back to previous election processes, are up to state lawmakers.
Nguyen previously served on the Board of Supervisors from 2007 through 2014 until she was elected to the state Senate. State Sen. Tom Umberg defeated her in 2018, but she returned to Sacramento as an Assemblywoman in 2020 and served in that position until 2022 when she was elected to the state Senate again.
Do, who had been Nguyen’s chief of staff until they had a falling out and he ran to succeed her on the board, admitted in his plea deal that, in exchange for more than $550,000 in bribes, he cast votes on the Board of Supervisors beginning in 2020 that directed more than $10 million in COVID relief funds to the Viet America Society, where his daughter Rhiannon worked, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Do is scheduled to be sentenced March 31.
On Tuesday, the supervisors agreed to seek bids to hire an outside auditor to comb through all of the county’s contracts starting in January 2019 through August of this year. Wagner voted against the idea.
The proposal from Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento triggered a discussion about whether the project was too broad and expensive.
Orange County CEO Michelle Aguirre said the review would be “hundreds if not thousands” of contracts.
“My intent was to look at all the contracts the supervisor touched,” Sarmiento said.
Foley said state officials usually do a sampling of contracts.
“They’re not going to be doing some type of audit of every single contract,” Foley said of state lawmakers. “That’s not how it works. They do a sampling. If you’re looking at all the contracts ever entered into in the county of Orange—even if we didn’t vote on it—that is going to be thousands and thousands of contracts. The state, when they do an audit, they don’t do that broad of an approach. ... I’m just trying to help us narrow the focus ... so the staff can get to work getting this important information to us and not take a two-year period of time.”
Sarmiento said he was more concerned with accomplishing a “thorough scrubbing” of the contracts.
“We’re starting a year and two months before [the pandemic began] even,” Wagner said.
Wagner said it was more important to find ways to encourage staffers and whistleblowers to speak up. He also argued that an exhaustive forensic audit would discourage contractors going forward.
“We need to empower our staff to say something,” Wagner said. “That’s what really needs to be done, frankly. And I would welcome a state audit. It would be a lot more focused, less expensive and less burdensome. None of our offices have anything to hide.”
Internal Auditor Aggie Alonso said, “We’re going to have to develop an inventory of all these contracts. ... These things take a large amount of time.”
Alonso suggested doing the work in “phases,” to narrow down the problematic contracts.
“We’re looking at a two-year process,” he said.
When asked if it would cost $1 million, he said, “I think that’s low. It will be over $1 million.”
