The final map has Little Saigon in one Assembly district

Before the redistricting process even began, Tyler Diep jumped up and announced his intention to run for the Assembly. In some district. Didn’t know which one yet, but running nonetheless, Diep said then.

That turns out to be a clever call, as the final draft approved by the Citizens Redistricting Commission (interactive map here) provides for an Assembly district that’s dominated by the thicket of Viet voters known as Little Saigon.

Now of course if Diep could feel the Viet votes, so can many others. Just to name a few: Lactan Nuygen (click here), Joe Dovinh (click here), Long Pham (click here). (Pham is a current office-holder and may not risk his seat, but there’s nothing holding back the rest.) They all smell blood, and are unlikely to let Diep have a cakewalk.

The Assembly district, temporarily numbered 72, has a voter base that’s 28% Asian, 15% Latino, 1% black.

At the Congressional level, however, Diep’s boss Van Tran is not facing so good a prospect.

Three new Congressional districts share Little Saigon

Currently, Little Saigon is divided between Congressional districts 46 and 47. CD 46 has the majority share and is represented by Dana Rohrabacher; CD 47 has the smaller part and is represented by Loretta Sanchez.

The new district map puts even more of Little Saigon in the coastal district, leaving one small piece for a district that reaches into Long Beach, and a sliver in the Santa Ana/Anaheim district that’s Sanchez’s natural home.

Little Saigon today: in 2 Congressional districts

The district that runs along the coast, temporarily numbered 48, is 16% Asian, 12% Latino, and 1% black. The second district, reaching into Long Beach, is 19% Asian, 20% Latino, and 9% black. The third slice on the Eastern edge of Little Saigon is in Sanchez’s district and is 15% Asian, 42% Latino and 3% black.

Now, in places like Long Beach and Santa Ana/Anaheim, “Asian” doesn’t imply support for the right of the Republican party.

The new map also puts less of Little Saigon in Sanchez’s district than before, making the task of taking her on even more difficult.

So what it means is that if Van Tran wants to run, he will have to take on Rohrabacher – something he is not expected to do.

Not that it matters. Tran told Nguoi Viet’s Dzung Do that he ain’t planning no run for no offices.

Andy Quach’s booking photo

Today is the first anniversary of the arrest of Andy Quach on DUI charges, a reader emailed the Bolsavik to remind him. And apparently Chris Prevatt at theliberaloc also remembers.

One year ago in the wee hours this morning, the Westminster City Councilman drove his super expensive Mercedes-Benz into a car with 3 Viet occupants in it, spun around and slammed into a power pole and crashed a concrete block wall, cutting off power to hundreds of his own constituents.

His first explanation, given to Vietnamese paper Viet Bao, (photo right) was that he was sleepy because he was “working too hard.” That ruse didn’t last too long. Quach’s blood alcohol content level was later determined to be 0.26, more than 3 times the legal limit. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 days Caltrans work, three years of informal probation, fines and fees totaling $2,000, and a 9-month alcohol awareness program. The “accident” cost the Westminster Police Department an extra $1,943, according to information turned over to theliberaloc. It’s unclear how much the repair to the pole and the wall cost.

As Quach watched his political future sink, he grabbed his friends and dragged them down with him. He called Assemblyman Van Tran, who came to the scene and was accused of getting in the way of police conducting the investigation. Fellow councilman Tyler Diep (Diệp Miên Trường) is revealed to have, in the previous year, improperly attempted to block an investigation into Vietnamese bar / quán nhậu (“watering hole”) Citryst, where Quach had gotten drunk before killing the power pole.

Suspicions arose as to who else was getting drunk with Quach at Citryst. But that would be a secret Quach and the Citryst owner would take to the grave. By coincidence, the security camera, which Citryst was required to maintain as part of its beer and wine permit, broke down just as the Quach party was about the arrive. No charges were filed, and that was the end of it.

Anyway, so now we’re a year later, and all politicians involved thin they’ve recovered from any bad effect of the crash. And the reader who emailed the Bolsavik asked this: “Don’t the voters in Westminster deserve better?”

Unfortunately, the answer is this: Whatever the voters may or may not deserve, the voters are not going to get anything better than the slate of candidates running.

What makes the Former Political Prisoners, the Yellow Flag Youths (Vietnamese: Thanh Niên Cờ Vàng), and Supervisor Nguyen the losing side, is that the other party was given the 5 o’clock slot – which is the time the Supervisor originally planned, and invited people, for her event.

You can check the invitation online here. That web site, the Trach Nhiem (“Duty”) online magazine, is the official newsletter of the Former Political Prisoners of Vietnam (in Vietnamese “Khu Hội Cựu Tù Nhân Chính Trị Việt Nam“), Southern California chapter. Along with the Yellow Flag Youths, they are part of the almost 30 groups that back Janet Nguyen in this dispute.

Read the background here and Register’s story on the council meeting here.

Janet Nguyen had had a valid permit to use the space for the whole day of April 30, called “Black April,” when Vietnamese everywhere remembers the day Saigon fell to the communist forces.

To get around the City Council — on which sits three Viets that the Supervisor doesn’t like, or doesn’t trust, or both — she went for an “intent to meet” permit.

It doesn’t require Council approval, and it’s almost as good as an event permit, except that you can’t have more than 300 people.

Which can be a problem because most Black April events in Orange County pull in at least a thousand.

When another group, commonly believed to be unfriendly to Janet Nguyen, tried to get the park, they found out she’d had it reserved for months. The group’s head, Lactan Nuygen, called Nguyen’s office, then things spiraled downward from there. Read more here.

The City then asked the two groups to meet with the City Manager and try to reach a compromise. By this time, the Nuygen camp has gathered its own set of allies.

At the meeting in the City Manager’s office, the two sides arrived at an agreement and came out smiling, hand in hand. Reportedly, Janet Nguyen’s side agreed to invite everyone to join her for the ceremony and Nuygen’s group gets to chair the organizing committee.

And then things went bad as soon as the groups left the building. At the very next meeting, the two factions couldn’t agree on who would speak first.

Janet Nguyen’s side claimed the agreement made in the City Manager’s office included having her speak first, in exchange for Nuygen’s group getting to be the chair. The other side said there’s no such agreement, and they would agree to the first speaker being anyone but Janet.

So back to the City they went, and on April 14 the council said the two sides ought to agree to something or the council will do it for them.

Nothing happened, and it’s at the April 21 that the City Council decided to split the baby. It passed 3-1-1, with the three Viets voting for (Tri Ta, Tyler Diep, Andy Quach), Councilman Frank Fry against, and Mayor Margie Rice abstaining.

The resolution says Janet Nguyen gets to be at the War Memorial between 9am and 4pm, and the other side gets 5pm to 9pm.

Which sucks for the Supervisor, because she’s been inviting people for 5pm.

Saying that Janet Nguyen had done nothing wrong – that she’d applied for her permit fair and square, and that this makes a bad precedent where a city gives something and then takes it back – Mayor Rice refused to back the timeshare solution.

Said she, “I will not be controlled by a group of people who think they run this city. I will not bend under pressure.”

Then she added, “This is America, not Vietnam.” Which is a little puzzling but, hey, most people have other fish to fry.

Last week, Westminster Police Department Sgt. Dan Schoonmaker confirmed with the Bolsavik that there was no current plan to charge Citryst.

As a condition for its beer and wine permit, Citryst was required to maintain continuous security camera coverage through midnight. However, when the police came to ask for security footage for the night Andy Quach crashed his car, the owner said the camera had been mysteriously turned off.

Here’s the story: Before 10:30pm or so on August 1, the consensus is that Andy Quach and others were dining at the West Coast Seafood Buffet on Beach Boulevard. As the Register reported here, the manager of West Coast said that Quach left at around that time, not drunk.

At around midnight, Quach clipped another car and crashed into a pole, knocking out power to 300 homes. His blood alcohol level tested to 0.26 percent, more than three times the legal limit.

What happened between 10:30 and midnight?

Some rumors were running that Quach then went to get really drunk at Citryst. When police came to Citryst looking for the security video, however, Citryst’s owner couldn’t produce video after 10:30, saying that the camera was somehow turned off even though it was required to stay on until midnight, reports the OC Register here.

As mentioned above, the Westminster PD has confirmed that there will be no charges filed arising out of the missing video. Previously, Citryst’s owner Amanda Mydung Nguyen pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting, delaying or obstructing a police officer over an incident in February when she was blocking police from inspecting the restaurant.

It was the same incident that gave rise to Tyler Diep barging into the Westminster police station berating the officers for daring to inspect Citryst.

The restaurant had a grand re-opening last week, well attended by members of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce and a number of public officials. That’s Amanda holding the big scissors in the photo to the right. Conspicuously absent were Andy Quach and Tyler Diep.

Audio files posted on the OC Register web site here shows Tyler Diep to be more knowledgeable of what he was doing than the image of an inexperienced new council member he made himself out to be on Vietnamese-language media.

He knew, for example, that his phone call to the police department was being recorded and so asked the watch commander to call him back instead of speaking on the police line.

The issue is whether and to what extent Councilman Tyler Diep interfered with police inspection on behalf of the owner of a Little Saigon area watering hole called Citryst (commercial vidcap shown above).

The Reg’s Deepa Bharath reports here that a review of campaign finance disclosure shows no contributions from Citryst or its owner Amanda Dung Nguyen. So at least we know that it’s not because of public campaign contributions that Diep woke up in the middle of the night to try to stop the police from inspecting the place.

Anyway, so on the night of February 6 – 7, 2008, three officers showed up to conduct a routine business check at Citryst.

But, when they got there, the owner Amanda Dung Nguyen told her security guard to bar the glass door and keep the cops from going in.

Later, when they were let in, there were no problems to be seen.

And then, Amanda Dung Nguyen called Diep.

Barely 20 later, at about 12:15 am on Feb. 7, Diep called the Westminster Police Department. He sounded upset, but alert enough to be careful about being recorded.

The conversation, shown on the Reg’s web site, went like this:

Police: Watch commander, Sgt. Vu, how may I help you?

Diep: Hi. What’s the… Who’s the watch commander tonight?

Police: This is Sgt. Vu I’m the watch commander right now. Can I help you sir?

Diep: Sgt. Vu, uhm. It’s, it’s Tim Vu right?

Police: I’m sorry? Yes. Timothy Vu, yes, yes sir.

Diep: It’s Timothy Vu.

Police: Your voice sounds really familiar, sir. Is this Councilman Diep?

Diep: Yes.

Police: How are you?

Diep: I don’t know. I have to get out of my bed at midnight. I, uhm, you, uhm, you have an officer named Officer Tran, on shift tonight?

Police: Yes sir we do. (pause on both ends) Is there, is there something that’s going on?

Diep: Uh, uhm, how do I say this. Uh. Now, by, I guess, policy, you have to log in this call when I called you.

Police: Yes sir. Everything on this line right here is being recorded.

Diep: (pause) Ok. I’m going to give you my cell phone number, can you give me a call back?

Police: If you like, sir, what’s your cell phone number?

Diep: <number bleeped out> Give me, hold on, give me… It’s midnight and I have to deal with this crap. Did you send anybody … Just give me a call back on my cell phone.

Police: You want me to call you right back, or give you a few minutes and then call you back?

Diep: Give me, give me 15 minutes and then call me back.

Police: I’ll call you back at 12:30 sir.

Before the time came for the sergeant to call Diep back, lo and behold Diep materialized in the flesh at the police station.

He was still so upset he couldn’t quite say what he wanted. One officer even offered to help:

Police: What is it you would like us to do?

Police: How can we help you?

Police: You seem frustrated.

<something the Bolsavik couldn’t make out>

Police: You seem upset.

Diep: I am.

Police: If you talk to us about it. If you don’t, we won’t be able to help you.

Diep: Why were your men out there again?

Police: Why were the officers out there?

Diep: Yeah.

Police: My understanding is they were just out there to do a routine business check. It’s a third or fourth cafe/restaurant they were at tonight.

Quach claimed he was at West Coast Buffet, but the manager there said the group had left by 10 and Quach didn’t crash his car until near midnight. Not to mention that he was not driving away from West Coast at that time.

In today’s issue, Diep speaks to a reporter of Nguoi Viet Daily News (not the Bolsavik) and apologizes for his involvement in stopping an investigation of a Little Saigon drinking hole.

The events took place in February 2009, two months after Diep took office. In his public apology, Diep states that as a new council member, he was still “inexperienced” and did things he shouldn’t have.

The watering hole at issue is Citryst, at Brookhurst and McFadden. On Nguoi Viet, the owner said her place is not a “bar.” Obviously, whether something counts as a “bar,” or a “pub,” or just a plain old whatever you call place where people go to get drunk, is all in the eye of the beholder, and the Bolsavik doesn’t consider it an issue.

What happened was that Citryst was investigated by the Westminster Police Department, so the owner called Diep and asked him to do something about it. So he did.

He called the investigating officer. Then he came to see the officer in the police department on a night when the officer, Sergeant Tim Vu, was watch commander. Then he came to see the big boss, Chief Andrew Hall.

Depending on who you’re talking to, Diep was either trying to tell the police to leave Citryst alone, or as he says, he was trying to ask questions to determine what’s going on. Or something in between.

Anyway, the conversations between Diep and the sergeant was recorded on audio.

Everyone will get a chance to see if Diep was just asking questions, because apparently the Register has a copy and Diep knew it.

So Diep apologized first, hoping to head off any fall-out.

The OC Register’s Deepa Bharath ran this story about Westminster’s newest city councilman changing his first name. Now he’s known as Tyler Diep.

The Reg story says he did it to “help city staff members and others pronounce and spell his name correctly.”

It may be easier to pronounce, but “Tyler Diep” sounds just like - well, let’s just say the Bolsavik is glad Diep didn’t choose something like “Plower” or “Dewer” or “Layer.”

Diep is not the first Viet to change his name after getting to office. Judge Nho Trong Nguyen as a sexagenarian all of a sudden decided to change his name to John.

Query: Who will tell Ky Ngo and how long until Ngo changes the name on the effigy that’s hanging on his truck now, alongside Councilman Tri Ta‘s?

UPDATE: The Little Saigon Inside blog claims here that Truong, err, Tyler Diep has stated his interest in running for Van Tran’s seat in the Assembly when the latter terms out next year.

Ky Ngo, the perennial protestor outside the offices of Nguoi Viet Daily News, held a party today Sunday.

It’s not clear what it is Ky Ngo (far right in the photo) was celebrating. It could be a Tet’s eve party. Or it could be the one-year anniversary of the protest, which began a year ago Monday.

Either way, ’twas the occasion for Ky Ngo to inaugurate three new effigies, shown leaning against the wall in the photo above.

The effigies are of, from left to right, Dat Phan the current CEO of Nguoi Viet, and next to him, Westminster City Councilmen Truong Diep and Tri Ta.

Two things could have triggered the new effigies. Last weekend, Westminster cops came and towed away his truck for overtime parking. Maybe that’s why Ngo is unhappy with the Viet members of the Westminster city council – and may have spared Andy Quach for sentimental reasons. Or maybe because Nguoi Viet held its 30th anniversary party earlier this month and Diep and Ta dared show up.

One thing you must admire about Ky Ngo though — the man will never run out of gimmicks….