The vision for an archway welcoming visitors to Little Saigon may be dead; First District Supervisor Andrew Do has requested the city of Westminster refund his office’s $1 million contribution, citing the project was becoming more expensive than anticipated.
Do first introduced the idea in May at a City Council meeting where he proposed the sign standing over Bolsa Avenue at the south entrance to Little Saigon and pledged the $1 million from his district’s discretionary funds, as well as additional funds to help cover expenses that may arise.
Each supervisors has a pool of money they can use at their discretion for public programs and projects in their districts.
In November, Chris Wangsaporn, Do’s chief of staff, gave details on where to send back the funds to Westminster Assistant City Manager Adolfo Ozaeta in an email obtained by The Orange County Register.
Ozaeta said in his email response on Nov. 20 that the city’s staff had released requests for contractors to submit proposals for the design and construction of the archway. City staffers were intending for the council to award a contract at their Dec. 13 meeting, Ozaeta wrote, adding they were “disappointed to hear that we may not be moving forward.”
“In late October 2023, we were excited when your office informed us that you would be contributing an additional $740,000 towards the delivery of the project,” Ozaeta said in his email. “In response to your request to return the $1 million in funding, please provide a letter signed by Supervisor Do, officially requesting the return of the funds and terminating the partnership.”
The estimates Do’s office was getting for the cost of the archway were reaching $2 million and the “city did not have any funds to chip in,” Wangsaporn said in an email to the Register in response to questions about the request for the return of funds. He said Do is working with Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen on other ways to help the city, but did not specify in what ways.
When addressing the City Council at the May 24 meeting, Do said, “the design and the construction of this gate should fall within the million dollar allocation,” but additional funds, “at most $100,000,” from the city might be necessary for plan review, permits and repositioning utilities.
Do said during the meeting he hoped construction could begin soon after the 2024 Tet Parade, which was held Feb. 10. He said he spoke with a team of engineers who told him the design and construction of such a project would be about $1 million.
“Now, that’s not including the artwork, which I will also take care of. The key here is to have a gate, what we put on the gate, that’s still up for us to decide. But I will also take care of that expense myself,” Do said at the meeting.
Councilmember Carlos Manzo said at the council meeting that he had brought a similar idea to the dais before, but funding was an issue.
“We just could not find a way,” Manzo said. “If you go to Little Italy, they have the Little Italy sign. You go to Chinatown, you go to all these other areas, not only in California but in New York, Chicago. Why don’t we have one in Little Saigon? Thank you so much for bringing this funding to us.”
Westminster City Manager Christine Cordon said the process hadn’t even gotten to the stage where there would have been discussions as to whether or not the city could contribute.
“It just wasn’t going to work out. It looked like things on their end, it wasn’t on our end,” said.
A county spokesperson said on Thursday the county had yet to received funds from Westminster. Until Do’s office sent an official letter formally requesting the refund, Cordon had said the city would continue to retain the money.