Yesterday the Orange County Board of Supervisors took up the task of interviewing the final 11 candidates for the job of Clerk-Recorder, vacated by Tom Daly when he joined the State Assembly last year. The list included former State Senator Dick Ackerman and State Assemblyman Chris Norby , as well as current Interim Clerk-Recorder Renee Ramirez. But at the end of a long day of interviews, the board picked Hieu Nguyen, Daly’s challenger in 2010, for the job. Nguyen, is currently a county employee of the Clerk of the Board office where he serves as manager of the files management and administration unit.
Renee Ramirez, who was sitting in the best position to get the job as interim Clerk-Recorder, was apparently wounded by the dismal contract performance of Anaheim Councilman Jordan Brandman on a no-bid sole-source consulting contract awarded by Daly in January of 2012. Brandman had briefly worked for the department as manager of government affairs and left in December 2011 to campaign for city council. Brandman’s slow and inadequate performance was tied to Ramirez because in her role as Daly’s chief deputy. She had to sign off on the contract payments to Brandman even though it was Daly who instructed her on how and win Brandman was to be paid. Voice of OC has provided a detailed account breaking this story so we won’t bore you with it here. We will say that Daly, and Brandman, owe Ramirez a big apology (and probably a job reference). In plain terms, Ramirez got screwed.
At any rate, Hieu Nguyen will be getting the job. And, as he stated in his interview yesterday, he plans to run for the position in 2014. During the 201o campaign he poked a lot of fun at Hieu, or as he was called then, Hugh. We are curious about that name change thing. Back in 2010 Mr. Nguyen had changed his first name to the Americanized Hugh. Apparently after he lost to Daly, only getting 25% of the votes to Daly’s 75%, Mr. Nguyen changed his name back. If Hieu was “too ethnic’ for him in 2010, what changed? Will he change his name again just before the next election cycle, and then back again if he wins?
So congratulations goes to Hieu “Hugh” Nguyen. We look forward to following your new career.
This guy is a Hugh Janus.