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Residents and city leaders urge Orange County to return $3.7 million recovered from ex‑supervisor to District 1; Wynne moves to reallocate funds
Summary
Scores of District 1 residents, mayors and nonprofit leaders told the Board of Supervisors on June 9 that $3.7 million recovered from a corruption case should be restored to the communities originally intended to receive it; Supervisor Janet Wynne moved to reallocate DOJ remission funds back to District 1 discretionary account.
Dozens of local elected officials, non‑profit leaders and residents told the Orange County Board of Supervisors on June 9 that roughly $3,700,000 recovered in the prosecution of former Supervisor Andrew Do should be returned to the 1st Supervisorial District.
Speakers — including city mayors, councilmembers and leaders of Vietnamese‑American and senior organizations — framed the recovered funds as restitution for services and programs that District 1 residents lost during the period when the funds were diverted. Phat Bui, former Garden Grove councilman and chairman of a Vietnamese‑American federation, urged the board to “retain the $3,700,000” for District 1 programs that serve seniors and youth.
During the board’s deliberations after closed session, Supervisor Janet Wynne moved to appropriate the recovered DOJ remission funds back to the 1st District discretionary account for reinvestment in community priorities. Wynne said the money “was recovered in connection with the Andrew Do corruption matter and it should be returned back to the benefit of the 1st District community that were deprived of the intended public services.” The motion was seconded and the board discussed logistical questions about who exactly constituted the harmed constituency and whether prior district boundaries should affect distribution.
County staff and several supervisors sought a careful accounting: Supervisor Sarmiento asked staff to verify who the original intended beneficiaries were under the allocations made during the 2020–23 period and to make sure any reallocation aligns with legal and administrative requirements. The board did not finalize a binding appropriation at the June 9 meeting; it directed staff to prepare the accounting and bring a final action back at the next meeting.
Next steps: staff will prepare the appropriation paperwork and a plan for reinvestment in District 1 priorities for board consideration at the June 23 meeting.
