Garden Grove, CA — Today, federal, state and local officials are calling for an investigation into Michelle Steel’s misconduct in response to new bombshell reporting from NPR’s LAist that exposed Steel’s latest self-dealing scandal: misdirecting $1.2 million taxpayer dollars for a meal program meant to feed low-income seniors to her own campaign’s mail and print shop. As a reminder, the political mail vendor, DTN Tech, had no experience ever administering a federal grants program, charged taxpayers “more than triple the amount per meal” than comparable programs in other districts, and refused to make meals available for home delivery to these needy seniors like every other program.
Steel’s scheme shares some damning connections with the bribery and corruption crimes committed by her longtime political ally, Andrew Do, who this week pled guilty to conspiring to steal millions of dollars meant to feed needy seniors. Notably, Do’s district was “the only one besides Steel’s to select a vendor without a known track record of providing taxpayer-funded meals.”
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento:
“Michelle Steel’s misuse of taxpayer dollars to enrich her political allies is outrageous, and confirms my insistence that external investigations of federal pandemic-related funds received by the County must also be conducted.”
Congresswoman Judy Chu in a Twitter post:
“Michelle Steel funneled govt $ meant to help feed those in need to her campaign printer. This kickback meant taxpayers paid more per meal than the rest of Orange County. Corruption has a price. We paid it for Michelle when she was Supervisor.”
Congressman Scott Peters in a Twitter post:
“Michelle Steel misdirected $1.2M in taxpayer funds meant to feed low-income seniors to her campaign’s for-profit mail vendor. This political print shop charged 3x the normal rate. This is a gross abuse of public trust, and there must be an investigation.”
State Senator Tom Umberg in a Twitter thread:
“As a former federal prosecutor, I worked to tackle corruption by elected officials and organizations who benefit on the public expense. The pervasive misuse of funds by Orange County officials — former Mayor Harry Sidhu, Supervisor @joinandrewdo, and now Congresswoman (former Supervisor) @MichelleSteelCA — are real consequences of a lack of checks and balances and proper oversight in local government.
“The Orange County Board of Supervisors must take serious and extensive action to uncover any other wrongdoing and ensure this cannot happen again. The people of Orange County deserve trustworthy stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
State Senator Dave Min:
“The alleged misuse of $1.2 million meant to feed low-income seniors for political patronage is just another example of the corruption endemic to the Orange County Republican Party. Whether it’s Michelle Steel and Andrew Do misusing pandemic funds for their own ends, or it’s Scott Baugh trying to steer contracts and public assets to his political benefactors, enough is enough. This latest example of GOP corruption must be fully investigated. Orange County deserves better than officials who treat public service like their own cash machine.”
Orange County Democratic Party Chair Ada Briceno in a Twitter post:
“Michelle Steel’s use of taxpayer dollars to pay her campaign’s mail firm while she was an Orange County Supervisor is outrageous, even by her standards. She reportedly directed over a million dollars – meant for low-income seniors – to her own campaign’s mail firm, which wasted taxpayer funds that were meant to feed our seniors. Orange County has had enough of Steel’s self-serving schemes. Derek Tran is the clear choice for CA-45, someone who believes in transparency and respect for taxpayer dollars. We demand a formal investigation into Steel’s abuse of office, and we’re standing with Derek Tran to finally bring honest, ethical leadership to this district.”
Background:
An independent audit found that the company was over three years late in submitting mandatory reports on their spending and paid itself the highest allowable amount in administrative costs – while LAist discovered that “at least two-thirds of the county funding…went to restaurants” that were paying clients of Michelle Steel’s campaign print shop.
In June of 2020, Steel and Do each voted to authorize each Orange County Supervisor to reward more than $1 million in federal CARES Act funding for programs of their choice, using a procedure that, according to LAist, “sidestepped the county’s usual transparency for taxpayer money, and allowed supervisors to make those spending decisions without public votes or competitive bidding.” This vote was listed as the first overt act in Andrew Do’s guilty plea documents. Instead of choosing an experienced non-profit organization that could quickly and competently stand up such a program, Michelle Steel selected her campaign’s for-profit mail and print vendor.
O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the funding method Supervisors Steel and Do used for their meals program a “horrible mistake by the board” that led to an unbelievable “lack of oversight,” – and Michelle Steel took full advantage. To make matters worse, not only did the mail firm receive tens of thousands of dollars from Steel’s campaign and thousands of taxpayer dollars from her congressional office…but also major business from Andrew Do.
Key findings from LAist’s reporting:
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