By TONY CHEONG: Mayor Bao Nguyen, the Garden Grove Police Association and an allegedly secret taping of a conversation between Nguyen and union head Mike Viscomi is making news these days.
And getting ugly.
The alleged secret taping was first reported by the Orange County Weekly.
According to that publication, Nguyen called fellow councilman Phat Bui an expletive for painting him as pro-communist while the two were campaigning against each other.
By TONY CHEONG: Mayor Bao Nguyen, the Garden Grove Police Association and an allegedly secret taping of a conversation between Nguyen and union head Mike Viscomi is making news these days.
And getting ugly.
The alleged secret taping was first reported by the Orange County Weekly.
According to that publication, Nguyen called fellow councilman Phat Bui an expletive for painting him as pro-communist while the two were campaigning against each other.
Nguyen also reportedly said he was going to run for the Congressional seat that will be left open by 47th District representative Loretta Sanchez.
"I'm going national, man," he reportedly said.
And the coup de gras: The union accused the mayor of being drunk during the conversation.
Nguyen has not responded to the reports.
But the union has. It put out a press release taking to task the reporter who broke the story. First, the union attacked the reporter, calling him "biased and factually inaccurate" (it should be noted that Scott Moxley is a well-respected, award-winning reporter). Then the press release stated that "Sergeant Viscomi did not surreptitiously record Mayor Nguyen in the hopes of advancing a political agenda to politically assassinate Mayor Nguyen."
Following is an excerpt from the union press release that details how the mayor and Viscomi came to meet on that June 19 day, and frankly, it's odd, to say the least:
On June 18, 2015 at approximately 9:29 p.m., Mayor Nguyen telephoned the GGPD to initiate a call for service regarding a “drunk” subject who was disturbing the peace. Mayor Nguyen requested a telephone call follow-up.
Several police officers investigated Mayor Nguyen’s call for service but were unable to locate the “drunk” subject. Sergeant Viscomi, who was on-duty and working patrol, called Mayor Nguyen to advise him that officers were unable to locate the “drunk” subject.
On June 19, 2015, at approximately 1:18 a.m. (less than 4 hours later) Sergeant Viscomi received a telephone call from an unknown number. It turned out to be Mayor Nguyen, who asked Sergeant Viscomi to meet at a location on Shackleford Lane, which Sergeant Viscomi did not know at the time was Mayor Nguyen’s residence. Sergeant Viscomi also did not know the reason for the requested meeting.
At approximately 1:27 a.m. Sergeant Viscomi arrived and activated his in-car video system per GGPD policy. He was greeted by Mayor Nguyen, who appeared intoxicated.
Following the communication with Mayor Nguyen, Sergeant Viscomi followed department protocol and notified the on-duty Watch Commander of his contact with Mayor Nguyen and the existence of the recorded communication. That notice was forwarded through the chain-of-command.
One thing you have to know about this situation: Mayor Nguyen unseated longtime City Councilman and Mayor Bruce Broadwater in the 2014 election.
Nguyen couldn't be more different than Broadwater.
As mayor, Broadwater and the union were tight. Broadwater was an old-school, brusque, tight-lipped Army veteran who was monomaniacally focused on bringing business and money to the city. First elected to the council in 1992, he is generally credited with playing a key part in the expansion of the Harbor Resort area. He also fought, successfully, to keep city libraries open during Orange County's bankruptcy in 1994.
Nguyen's relationship with the union has been chilly. Nguyen is young, articulate, congenial and interested in not just fiscal issues but social ones. Case in point: He spearheaded the effort to have city staff lower flags at City Hall to half-staff after the horrific shootings in Charleston, S.C. that left nine African-American churchgoers dead.
Nguyen's resume, like Broadwater's, is impressive. It's notable that he went from being born in a refugee camp to becoming the first Vietnamese-American mayor of a U.S. city with a population of 100,000 or more.
The union has explained itself, or at least tried to. It's up to citizens to judge the veracity of that explanation.
It's your turn, mayor. Email me.
Do you have a comment, question or news tip for Tony? Email her at tonyontown@yahoo.com.
