Supervisors got millions to use at their discretion; Do’s choices draw spotlight on public money
The controversy over Orange County First District Supervisor Andrew Do’s direction of millions in taxpayer money to a charity with ties to his daughter has cast a harsh spotlight on the county’s policies for handling the windfall of COVID relief funds at the discretion of individual supervisors.
Traditionally, each member of the Board of Supervisors is provided $200,000 or so yearly to spend on events and programs as they see fit, without the kind of scrutiny given to larger contracts awarded by the county.
Beginning in 2021, however, the five supervisors were each given $10 million in federal COVID relief money and another $3 million in general funds to spend on their communities, representing a 6,400% increase in discretionary funds available to them. To date, the district supervisors have allocated about $46 million, or 71% of the one-time funding, to a variety of cities, school districts, nonprofits, county initiatives, hospitals and more.
