Tam Truong for San Jose City Council in 2024?

Policeman Tam Truong, 42, has a history of making news in the Vietnamese - American community.  In 2012, he made the headline as a 30 year-old candidate running for the D4 City Council seat against the incumbent Kansen Chu.  Former Mayor Chuck Reed and his wife hosted a fund raiser at their house in D4.  Former Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen gave a nice speech endorsing him.  With all the powerful endorsements and funding supports, he managed to raise as much campaiging money as Chu.  San Jose D4 at that time had 25% Vietnamese-American registered voters.  He was walloped by Chu.

Now he is running for D8 City Council seat against the incumbent Domingo Candelas with a campaign slogan of safety, trust and integrity. 

In between his new campaigning endeavor, he managed to be charged with wage theft of $34,000 for not paying a former employee of his private security firm, Training and Protective Services.  He promptly declared bankruptcy to get away with paying the penalties and salaries.  

Recently, he was indicted by Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen's office for alleged mortgage fraud.  The one count of grand theft of personal property filed on Sept 5 in a criminal complaint alleging that Truong defrauded title and insurance companies and pocketed $540,000.  The details can be read in San Jose Spotlight and Mercury News. 

The same day that the indictment was served, Truong and Candelas were having their debate hosted by the D8 Community Roundtable.  A question from the audience was if Truong has any skeletons in his closet that he should disclose.   He replied:"No, I don't".   It was about 7:00 pm when he answered as noted by the blogger who put the debate video on the Nexdoor portal.  The criminal complaint was received by Truong in the morning. 

As expected, Truong had his lawyer issued a statement denying the charge and blasted the criminal indictment as a political ploy against him before the voting begins. He went on Vietnamese-American media vowing to continue his campaign and again claiming
to be a victim of dirty politics by the DA office.  

Matt Mahan from tamsj.com

In the meantime, SJ Mayor Matt Mahan immediately withdrew his endorsement.  This is a serious charge that requires a fair, thorough and timely investigation,” he told San José Spotlight. “While I understand Tam Truong has stated he is innocent of this single charge, that must now be determined through our judicial system. Given these facts I am withdrawing my endorsement until such time as this case is resolved.”

Truong is now on administrative leave from his police duty.  He has not shown up for any debates or planned rallies.   His campaigning staff is on furlough until further notice.  

Interestingly enough, even before the criminal indictment, the SJ Police Officers' Association (POA) did not endorse him but his opponent, Candelas.

Some of the Vietnamese-American businesses around the area have expressed relief since some were approached by Truong asking for support.  He made them felt very intimidated if they didn't support him as he purposedly presented himself as the authority in position of power.

This criminal case will have a life of its own as Tam Truong will have his day in court to be proven guilty.  But the conventional wisdom tells us that he is cunning enough to cut the deal with the DA while hoping that he can still win the city council race.  

Anthony Phan for Milpitas Mayor in 2024?

 

Recently, the last-minute announcement by the termed-out Milpitas Councilmember Anthony Phan to enter the 2024 Milpitas mayoral race caught a lot of voters by surprise. 

By the city’s term limits, no person shall serve more than 10 consecutive years as an elected city official.  Phan is ending his 8 years as city councilmember and if he wins, he only can serve 2 more years as mayor.

Also, Anthony Phan is being linked by a recently released FPPC court document for allegedly receiving illegal donations from the Duong family as they tried to win waste recycling contracts in Milpitas.  The FPPC is the state commission responsible for investigating unethical and criminal election activities.

David Duong is the waste recycling mogul in the Bay Area where he is being investigated by the FPPC for illegally using straw donors to buy political influence in Oakland, San Jose, and Milpitas.  Three months ago, the homes of David Duong, his son Andy Duong, and their California Waste Solutions headquarters were raided by the FBI, IRS, and USPS as part of the on-going criminal investigation of corruption in Oakland city government.

 Phan asked the Duong family to support his city council campaign.  Andy Duong arranged for political donations from a dozen people. The donors had neither addresses nor occupations.  Phan asked Andy Duong for information and never received any answers. Phan decided to create fake addresses and employment information in his Form 460 filing to the FPPC.   The campaign contribution laws required full disclosure in order to prevent illegal contributions and crooked elected officials from being bought.

The FPPC document can be found on the Oaklandside website as well as exposés detailing the federal investigation against Andy Duong/David Duong, their illegal activities and politicians that were involved.  The FPPC case number is 19/931.  

Phan was found guilty of FPPC rules previously for not reporting $43,000 of campaign contributions in 2016.  He claimed that his 14-year-old cousin who was his treasurer put the money in a Nike shoe box and forgot to report the money to the FPPC.  He was fined $15,000 for gross negligence.  To prevent such a loophole and making mockery out of campaigning laws, state legislatures passed new rules prohibiting anybody under 18 to involve in  fincial matters for election campaigns. 

His opponents for the mayoral race are the current Milpitas Councilmember Hon Lien and the current Mayor Carmen Montano. 

Councilmember Hon Lien is running with the endorsements of the Milpitas POA (Police Offices’ Association) and  Milpitas Firefighters Local 1699.  A successful busineswoman and President of the Milpitas Rotary Club, she also was a fomer trustee of Milpitas Unified School District.  

Mayor Carmen Montano has the endorsement of the controversial former Mayor Richard Tran who is in business development for companies in the US and Vietnam. She was a city councilmember from 2012 to 2020.

Milpitas has about 38,500 registered voters, ~60% Asian, ~15% Latino, and the rest are non-Asian/Latino.  Vietnamese American voters at about 23% are the biggest minority majority.