Orange County supervisors hotly debated whether to put in place new ethics rules Tuesday in response to LAist’s reporting on millions of dollars Supervisor Andrew Do directed to his 22-year-old daughter’s nonprofit without publicly disclosing the family connection.
The debate also featured disagreements on whether Orange County has a government corruption problem.
The nonprofit — run by Do’s daughter Rhiannon Do, who is a full-time law student — has not turned in required audits showing where millions in taxpayer dollars went, county CEO Frank Kim confirmed at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting. The first of the audits is over a year-and-a-half overdue, according to the timeline in a county contract with the group.
LAist first reported on the missing audits in December, and reported Monday that Do quietly awarded the group another $6.2 million after it failed to submit the audits.
The ethics proposal deadlocked among the supervisors 2-to-2, with Vicente Sarmiento and Katrina Foley in favor, Don Wagner and Doug Chaffee against, and Do absent. That means the reform proposal was not approved and is now officially dead.
Details of the failed proposal
The proposal, which was introduced by Sarmiento in response to LAist’s findings, would have required supervisors to disclose immediate family connections to contractors they’re awarding money to. It also would have required supervisors to hold public votes when such connections existed.
Currently, county policies let any supervisor award money to organizations run by their adult child without having to disclose the relationship.
Supervisors can also approve funds to their adult children…
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