County supervisors deadlocked Tuesday on a proposal that would have required leaders and their top staffers to broaden the instances involving family connections that would require disclosure when approving contracts or spending money.
Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento proposed the reforms last month following reports that First District Supervisor Andrew Do voted for subcontracts with the Warner Wellness Center, a mental health program, without publicly disclosing that his daughter was part of the organization’s leadership, as first reported by LAist.
Do, along with other board members, voted in the last two years for two subcontracts totaling up to $3.1 million that included the Warner Wellness Center; one contract was for up to $625,000 and another was for up to $2.5 million, both for mental health services, such as the expansion of the county’s warmline.
LAist also recently reported that Do directed an additional $6.2 million to the nonprofit from his district discretionary funds, which can be disbursed without a public meeting.
Do was there Tuesday morning for the start of the supervisors’ meeting, but left for most of it and did not return for the policy item. His office did not return multiple requests for comment. Do has previously said there was no wrongdoing on his part.
Without him present to vote, the other four supervisors split 2-2 on the proposal – Sarmiento and Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley in favor; Third District Supervisor Don Wagner and Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee against. A majority vote was needed to approve the policy.
Sarmiento’s proposal would have added a discretionary projects guide to county policy, which would have required more information regarding district money spending to be made available to the public. Each supervisor is allocated funding for their respective district, which they can spend at their discretion.
The new policy would have also ensured that a log of where discretionary funds went was posted to the county’s website at the end of each quarter, and if there was a close family connection, the project would have had to be approved by the rest of the board.
The county’s conflict of interest policy follows state law, which says public officials cannot make decisions that would financially benefit their minor children, but it does not mention adult offspring.
Sarmiento’s policy proposal was first introduced at a Dec. 19 meeting, but other board members had concerns with some of the language.
Supervisors and their chiefs of staff would have to publicly disclose a known family relationship with anyone seeking a permit or contract with the county under Sarmiento’s proposal. Family relationship would mean a relationship by “blood, adoption, marriage, domestic partnership, and cohabitation.”
His original draft defined these relationships as grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, first cousins, and so on, but was simplified to only include parents, siblings, spouses and children. It was also narrowed in its final version to just be the supervisors and their chiefs of staff, not all members of their staff.
Wagner and Chaffee said the proposed policy changes are unnecessary, following the state’s policy is enough.
“The idea that we’re fixing anything,” Wagner said, “is not here with this. It is more a singling out of a colleague who, any one of us might have done something differently but all of us agree, did nothing illegal.”
Sarmiento said he was not surprised by how the decision went.
“I anticipated that there was going to be opposition because I know that a lot of these rules and practices are not codified, they’re more just patterns of practices,” Sarmiento said. “What we wanted to do today was make them transparent, make them clear, make them available to the public.”
When asked if Do had reached out to his office at all about his policy proposal, Sarmiento said Do did send proposed amended language that Sarmiento was fine with, but the two never met.
Before the supervisors’ meeting, community organizations VietRISE, the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice and the OC Justice Fund held a press conference to call for Do’s resignation, as well as an investigation and audit into his actions.
“Supervisor Do has violated the trust of the public, misused taxpayer dollars by using his position and political power to enrich his friends, family and donors,” Vincent Tran, organizing director for VietRISE, said. “The lack of trust in our political institutions and elected officials stems from the decades of mismanagement, scandals and corruption. This is just another one of those blatant examples of corruption.”
An updated policy would not only benefit transparency with the public, Sarmiento said, but it would have also helped board members like himself be more informed while making decisions.
“At least we’re asking the questions that have never been asked,” Sarmiento said. “These are practices and patterns that have been in place for a very long time, and unfortunately, there’s an unwillingness, almost a calcification, of accepting the way things have been done without any concerted, good-faith effort to say, ‘How can we improve the public’s trust?’”
