The OC Board of Supervisors will circle back in January on a proposal to broaden conflict of interest policies to give Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento more time to work out the potential new language.
Sarmiento proposed the policy updates at Tuesday’s board meeting following reports that First District Supervisor Andrew Do voted on funding for subcontracts with a mental health program without publicly mentioning a close family connection.
“I do believe that there are some items that I do want to make sure we are clear on. There are some implementation issues that I would like to tighten up,” Sarmiento said. “But I do know that for me it’s such an important item that I want to make sure that we get this right.”
In the last two years, Do voted with other members of the OC Board of Supervisors to approve two subcontracts that included the Warner Wellness Center, for which his daughter works, without disclosing the family connection during the votes. One contract was for up to $625,000 and another for up to $2.5 million and were for mental health services, such as for the expansion of the county’s warmline.
The county’s conflict of interest policy follows state law, which says public officials cannot make decisions that would financially benefit their minor children, however, it does not apply to adult offspring.
Sarmiento’s proposed amendment to county policy would require disclosures of family connections before votes and would broaden the definition of family relationship, defining it as by “blood, adoption, marriage, domestic partnership and cohabitation.”
His proposal also extends that requirement to district office employees.
Do did not speak during the supervisors’ discussion and declined to talk with a reporter on Tuesday. In an op-ed Do penned that ran in the Register he said the Viet American Society, of which the Warner Wellness Center is a DBA, “was already under three previous county contracts during COVID,…
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