State Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach, is expected to be sworn in Wednesday to finish the term of former Supervisor Andrew Do, who resigned after pleading guilty in federal court to bribery.
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Nguyen will fill out the last month or so of Do's term, and will later be sworn in for the full term she won in November over Democrat Frances Marquez on a 61.24% to 38.76% 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, so the supervisors will meet 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 is expected to be private, with a more public one planned in January, Wagner said.
Do 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.
Supervisor Katrina 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 COVID-19 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."
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