The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge the Unicode Consortium — the Mountain View-based organization overseeing the digitized use of text in all of the world’s writing systems — to adopt the flag of a fallen government with historical and political significance to refugees from the Vietnam War who live in San Jose.

Standard smartphones only provide the use of Vietnam’s official flag representing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which draped the nation in 1976 under communist party rule. Yet the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled to the U.S. have rejected the banner over the following decades — instead clinging defiantly to the yellow flag with three stripes representing South Vietnam.

District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan led the push for the council’s formal request, just weeks after the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.

“For many Vietnamese refugees and their families, this flag is a powerful symbol of freedom, democracy and remembrance. As emojis become an essential part of our digital communications, it’s time the diversity of our community is reflected there too,” he said at the meeting.

Representatives for the Unicode Consortium — whose members include companies such as Adobe, Apple, IBM, Google and Microsoft — didn’t respond to a request for comment.

San Jose’s Little Saigon and other hubs around the U.S. have grown more dynamic and complex since the end of the war, as younger generations spring up with varying political views and no direct experience with the catastrophic and violent conflict. Yet scores of older Vietnamese Americans showed up to the council meeting as a reminder of its enduring memory.

“I’m very proud of my former country,” Viet Museum Director Hong Cao said during public comment.

Cao said what was once the symbol of a nation has now become a flag of “heritage.”

“For overseas Vietnamese, the emoji will provide a symbol of our identity and connection to the homeland,” Cao said.

The public turnout left an impression on Mayor Matt Mahan.

“We’re so honored to have you all here,” Mahan said at the meeting. “The least our big digital platforms can do is reflect that — in honor of that tradition and history of expression of freedom and sacrifice so many have made to come here and build a life and make our city and country stronger.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

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The report — submitted by History San Jose to multiple City Hall officials in February — was kept hush for months until San José Spotlight obtained it through a Public Records Act request. History San Jose is the nonprofit organization stewarding the historic homes, landmarks and artifacts of History Park, which hosted the festival in February and sits within the 14-acre Kelley Park.

The 36-page document raises questions about the festival’s future on the property. It alleges festival organizers repeatedly shrugged off major safety and traffic concerns, berated History San Jose employees for raising them and “severely” damaged the sensitive park grounds with unauthorized firecrackers despite multiple requests to stop.

When confronted by History San Jose employees, festival organizers — including a prominent Catholic clergyman — claimed Mayor Matt Mahan told them it was okay to set off firecrackers, according to the report.

Mahan’s spokesperson Tasha Dean denied this happened.

“Neither the mayor nor anyone else in our office sanctioned an unpermitted fireworks or firecrackers display,” Dean told San José Spotlight. “San Jose is one of the most diverse cities in the nation and that diversity deserves to be celebrated at our shared public spaces — safely. Regardless of whether the festival relocates, we should expect all events to abide by the rules in place to protect the community.”

Bill Schroh, president and CEO of History San Jose, declined to discuss the report.

For the past two years, the annual festival has been organized under the Vietnamese Catholic community of the Diocese of San Jose, as well as the nonprofit Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center. The festival celebrates the Lunar New Year known as “Tet” in Vietnamese and is recognized as a must stop for high-profile Silicon Valley politicians, including Mahan, District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan and Congressmembers Sam Liccardo and Zoe Lofgren.

“Worried for personal safety, (History San Jose) staff stopped trying to stop firecrackers when guests became more emboldened from the night, alcohol,” the report states.

Nhut Ho, a festival organizer and retired deacon with the Diocese of San Jose, where he still assists with Mass every week, allegedly claimed to have Mahan’s approval for the firecrackers. The report also said Ho “verbally berated” a History San Jose employee who shut off unsupervised inflatables for safety reasons. The yelling was so bad the employee didn’t come to work the next day, according to the report.

“(Deacon Ho) became irate, threatening, and called her a racist,” the report said. “Following a series of abuses by organizing staff, HSJ Leadership sent (the staff member) home for her own protection.”

Ho declined to comment.

Political battleground

The report lists more incidents that allegedly put History San Jose employees through the wringer, including being screamed at by vendors and almost getting run over by trucks.

One of the festival’s main organizers, Viet Museum Director Hong Cao, said the report surprised him.

“We understand that History San Jose may be feeling hesitant about continuing to host the Tet festival. That’s disappointing to hear, especially after how successful and peaceful the last two years have been,” Cao told San José Spotlight. “We’ve always followed the rules, respected the venue and cleaned up thoroughly after every event. But if there’s a loss of trust or openness, then we may have to explore other venues that truly welcome and support the spirit of the Tet Festival.”

Cao said History San Jose and the Catholic festival organizers came to an understanding after city officials received the report.

“The issue had been resolved,” Cao said.

He also defended Deacon Ho, calling him a respected leader in the Vietnamese community.

“He’s devoted decades to humanitarian and religious service. I’ve worked closely with him, and I can confidently say he treats everyone with professionalism and kindness,” Cao said. “If there were any misunderstandings, I’m sure they weren’t intended as disrespectful.”

It’s another instance of History Park being caught in a political crossfire.

The park is home to the Viet Museum, a crown jewel for San Jose’s Little Saigon community, with the largest Vietnamese population for a city outside Vietnam. But the 147-year-old farmhouse — which stores hundreds of artifacts, photographs and art of Vietnam War refugees — has hung in limbo over a dispute between its founder, Loc Vu, and the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center which manages it. The dispute has been marked by charges of nepotism and suspicious bank-withdrawals.

“While we can’t confirm this report was influenced by that dispute, it’s possible certain individuals may be using moments like this to discredit current board members or organizers,” Cao said. “That context really matters.”
The History Park festival has only been organized at this scale for the past two years, Cao said, claiming it’s now one of the largest Vietnamese cultural events in the region, drawing thousands of attendees.

“Tet festivals have been a tradition here for over 20 years, but these past two years at History Park have taken it to a new level,” Cao said.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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The Feb. 3 lawsuit by Le Bail Bonds owner Hai Huynh says Doan wrongly described him as a convicted felon. In a June restraining order trial, Doan accused Huynh of threatening his physical safety and asked a judge for protection — characterizing Huynh as a widely-feared organized crime boss in the process. The judge last year denied Doan’s request and found no evidence suggesting Huynh was a dangerous criminal in the case that brought some of Little Saigon’s most well-known public figures out to testify.

The lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleges Doan’s restraining order request was an effort to silence Huynh’s online criticisms of the councilmember’s cozy relationship with a businessman at the center of a federal Oakland bribery scandal — Cal Waste Solutions CEO David Duong.

“Plaintiff (Huynh) is informed and believes, and thereon alleges, that Bien Doan and David Duong conspired against him to suppress his free speech right to voice his view that, similar to what allegedly happened at the City of Oakland, David Duong was incentivizing City of San Jose officials in order to procure CWS-city contract renewal,” Huynh’s lawsuit reads.

Huynh didn’t respond to requests for comment. Doan’s office declined to comment.

The lawsuit describes Huynh’s belief that Cal Waste Solutions improperly influenced the San Jose City Council to renew its citywide waste hauling contract after the company’s performance came under scrutiny in 2019.

Duong — who faces federal charges for bribing former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao — also chairs the Vietnamese American Business Association. The organization has been criticized by anticommunist pundits, including Huynh, for its cozy relationship with the Vietnamese government.

The organization found itself at the center of the June courtroom battle when Duong took the stand to support Doan’s claims against Huynh. Duong testified that Huynh was seen as a “Godfather” figure in the Vietnamese community. Huynh’s attorneys argued Duong had an interest in taking the bail bonds businessman down. Duong had filed his own defamation lawsuit against Huynh over posts Huynh made describing Duong as a “lackey” for communists who “recruited” the San Jose councilmember so they could work together.

Duong argued being labeled a “communist” can be a death sentence in the Vietnamese community, where older generations are still raw over the Vietnam War.
The defamatory remarks in question pertain to an exchange between Doan and Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong. Testifying in the June trial, Betty Duong recalled Doan personally warning her that the bail bondsman was “a convicted felon.”

The remark appears to stem from Huynh’s role as vice president of operations at Bay 101 Casino, where he was indicted for allegedly loansharking, threatening and intimidating witnesses, ordering an assault and having links to organized crime. A judge dropped the charges in 2000.

Huynh’s lawsuit claims Doan’s remarks cost him damages exceeding $35,000. A case management conference is scheduled for Oct. 30.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

Editor’s Note: Cal Waste Solutions has donated to San José Spotlight.

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The mural’s three panels — which depict Vietnamese people fleeing their homeland, a woman in cultural dress and the beauty of Vietnam — is a first for the East San Jose Asian American community. The artwork evokes the history of the Vietnamese American community in a city with the greatest number of Vietnamese residents outside of Vietnam. It also claims to be the largest Vietnamese mural in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to District 5 San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz.

The unveiling on Dec. 18 moved former members of the Vietnamese military to tears. Thuan Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese Business Association, said 2025 marks 50 years since the Vietnamese people fled their country due to the Vietnam War. Many resettled in San Jose, making the mural even more meaningful. It lets people know they’re part of the city, he said.

“Every time I look at the mural and I see the list of people who made it happen,” he said, “it shows the spirit of community as a whole, working together, making each other feel comfortable and understood and appreciated.”

Nguyen said it’s impressive to see funding for the mural come from outside the Vietnamese American community.

Painted by artists associated with 1Culture Gallery, the mural is located at 1737 Alum Rock Ave. on the side of laundromat Wash America. Ortiz’s office and Alum Rock Santa Clara Street Business Association collaborated with 1Culture Gallery on its creation. The Sobrato Organization, Community Housing Developers and residents also provided funding, including Hai Huynh, Hoàng Mộng Thu, Hannah Nguyen, Thuan Nguyen and Ha Trieu.

Philip Nguyen, executive director of the Vietnamese American Roundtable, said the emotional response of older residents to the mural can facilitate conversations around healing. He said more public art is needed to celebrate the rich cultural history of San Jose.

“I feel a deep sense of pride and belonging when I see the mural,” he told San José Spotlight. “Art, like this mural, allows children of refugees and immigrants opportunities to engage with their own families about their migration and resettlement histories, as well as to the shared, yet diverse experiences of what it means to be from East San Jose.”

Ortiz said although District 5 boasts the second highest Vietnamese American population in San Jose, the community historically hasn’t had representation in his district.

“I wanted to make sure they were able to see themselves in the story and the social fabric of the East Side,” he told San José Spotlight. “It makes people feel seen and heard. It shows them you are a member of this community. We welcome you and we’re going to work together.” 

Ortiz described Alum Rock as a living, breathing reflection of the rich cultures, dreams and entrepreneurial spirit of its diverse residents. He said adding more murals will help establish a sense of identity and portray the rich history of its people, as well as promote cross-cultural harmony and the Alum Rock business district. District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan sees the mural as a celebration of the Vietnamese American community’s vibrant culture, which is deeply rooted in San Jose.

“It’s a beautiful mural that tells a story through art of the Vietnamese immigrant community,” he told San José Spotlight. “The journey we made from Vietnam, the struggle and the triumph and establishing a new home far away from our homeland.”

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.

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The 147-year-old farmhouse, which stores hundreds of precious artifacts, photographs and art of Vietnam War refugees, now hangs in limbo over a dispute between the museum’s visionary, Loc Vu, and the nonprofit Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center that manages it.

The problems started when Vu announced his plan to retire as the nonprofit’s executive director, effective Jan. 1, and proposed appointing his son-in-law as his successor. The six other board members overseeing the nonprofit refused to go along with the suggestion, raising concerns about nepotism and calling for an open selection process. The disagreement opened a rift where Vu accused his board members of meeting secretly and violating the nonprofit’s bylaws, while board members claim Vu locked them out of the nonprofit’s bank account and paid himself $45,000 without their approval.

Vu, a former Army of the Republic of Vietnam colonel who spent significant time and money keeping the museum alive, denied any notion of nepotism or abuse of nonprofit funds.

“These were transparent, temporary loans from my family to address cash flow issues, documented and approved by colleagues long before succession discussions. Claims of impropriety are false and defamatory,” he told San José Spotlight.

He said he didn’t intend on his son-in-law succeeding him permanently.

“My son-in-law Minh, a long-time donor and volunteer, worked with two senior colleagues to draft a transition plan. Minh would temporarily assume my role while a talented team was recruited, after which he would step back, and IRCC would select a new executive director,” Vu said. “I supported this plan, but disagreements arose, with some wrongly labeling it as nepotism. It’s important to note the role is unpaid and focused solely on service.”

Vu, in letters to IRCC board members, has challenged the board’s legitimacy because it hasn’t followed its own bylaws for decades, which call for an 11-member board and annual elections.

While Vu maintains that IRCC is still a legitimate organization, he’s questioning the board’s authority over the museum and threatening a lawsuit. Vu sent a cease-and-desist letter to the nonprofit board which was later circulated with other community members, saying he spent $350,000 of his own money on the museum over 30 years “without receiving a single cent from the city.”

The Viet Museum opened its yellow Victorian doors in 2007 and welcomed tens of thousands of visitors a year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s located more than two miles from downtown San Jose and is among the few cultural landmarks in Silicon Valley that honors the Vietnamese boat people and their descendants. San Jose is home to more than 140,000 Vietnamese residents, making it the city with the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S.

Vu has long told a story of how San Jose and Santa Clara County officials weren’t interested in funding the museum in its early development. To turn his vision into reality, Vu rallied the Vietnamese community, as well as politicians—including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter—to support the project.

The museum’s architect is now trying to rally other community members to his side in his fight against the IRCC board – calling for public demonstrations.

“I never expected to be involved in this miserable dispute,” Vu wrote in Vietnamese to community members.

The nonprofit is now competing with Vu for community support,  and its leaders are forced to defend themselves as authorized decision-makers for the museum.

IRCC board member and community organizer MyLinh Pham said she respects Vu’s contributions to the community.

“While we recognize his intention to pass his leadership to the next generation, it raised important concerns,” Pham told San Jose Spotlight. “The board’s primary responsibility is to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability in all manners of governance. Choosing a family member without an open process created unease. It didn’t align with the nonprofit’s best practices.”

Tue Phan, a retired San Francisco immigration court judge and IRCC board member, said Vu prevented other board members from reviewing the nonprofit’s bank account activities by removing their names from the account. In a public letter that’s being circulated in the community, Phan also accused Vu of threatening to dissolve the nonprofit board, which responded by voting to terminate Vu ahead of his retirement.

“No matter how long he or she works or how much credit he or she claims, a CEO cannot view a nonprofit organization as a private inheritance that can be passed on to children and grandchildren,” Phan wrote.

The board has eight members but only six are regularly involved at meetings, according to Pham. The nonprofit board hasn’t followed its own bylaws for decades, including requirements that the board hold annual elections. Pham said the bylaws were drafted 40 years ago by refugees with limited knowledge of nonprofit governance and that it’s operated for decades with fewer members – with no objections from Vu until now.

Pham said the organization is taking steps toward improving its governance structure. She was elected to the board in a formal Aug. 23 meeting alongside Viet Museum Director Hong Cao and Vietnamese American Roundtable Executive Director Phillip Nguyen.

“Over the years, the Immigrant Resettlement & Cultural Center operated on the trust of Mr. Vu, informal practices that worked well for a long time,” Pham said. “But the board has to step in to protect this institution that reflects the community’s values and aspirations.”
 At 92 years old, Vu said he remains passionate about the museum, but his physical limitations require a leadership transition.

“As the museum’s founder, I am committed to ensuring it is led by capable individuals dedicated to its growth and preservation, not by any seeking control without accountability,” he told San Jose Spotlight. “It is a vital community asset that must be protected for future generations.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

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A common thread connected all these stories in 2024: unhealed wounds over the Vietnam War.

The Vietnamese community is more dynamic and complex than an ideological conflict during the 1970s. But labeling someone a communist for doing business overseas was enough to stir local defamation lawsuits, public protests and even scrutiny over San Jose’s multi-million-dollar recycling contract.

But there were also major victories and milestones, including the historic election of Santa Clara County’s first Vietnamese American supervisor and the unveiling of a long-delayed community monument.

History made

Betty Duong became Santa Clara County’s first Vietnamese American supervisor in December — starting early on the job after her predecessor and former boss, Cindy Chavez, stepped down to move into a new role in New Mexico. But the historic milestone actually happened in the March primary.

The top two vote-getters that month came down to Duong and Madison Nguyen, who separately made history as San Jose’s first Vietnamese councilmember. The primary results solidified the community’s milestone — regardless of which candidate emerged victorious.

Star-studded trial

San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan became a lightning rod for community divide in 2024. In March, Doan filed for a restraining order against a prominent Vietnamese leader, Hai Quang Huynh, known for his work in the bail bonds and gambling industries.

Doan alleged Huynh threatened him on multiple occasions, and at times during public community events, prompting him to install metal gates and security cameras at his house and look over his shoulder after leaving city meetings at night.

Over the course of a summer bench trial, Doan, with the assistance of city lawyers, made his case by painting Huynh as a “Godfather” organized crime figure who instills fear in the community. They called a number of who’s-who’s in Little Saigon to testify, including Cal Waste Solutions CEO David Duong, who testified in support of Doan in a rare public appearance after an FBI probe into his company’s political activities in Oakland went public.

But Huynh denied threatening Doan, chalking their confrontations up to verbal disagreements over doing business in Vietnam. Huynh has been critical of Doan for being close with Duong, the recycling mogul who has an amicable relationship with the Vietnamese government. The Vietnamese American Business Association, a major community organization that Duong chairs, once co-sponsored a 2023 trip to Vietnam for Oakland officials that included former mayor Sheng Thao. Duong operates a waste management facility in the county. The FBI raided Thao’s home in June alongside the homes of Duong and his son, apparently in the same probe focusing on Duong’s company and family members.

A judge ultimately agreed with Huynh, finding no basis for his mob boss caricature and no evidence of physical threats. But the fighting didn’t end there.

Dueling lawsuits 

Duong separately sued Huynh for defamation after publicly labeling him a ‘communist.’ Duong argued that the label could put a target on his back. History has shown that such a charge incites violence. There was a string of political killings between the 1980s and 1990s of Vietnamese American journalists in the U.S., who in some cases merely printed advertisements for companies doing business with Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Tara Dang – a staff member at Mayor Matt Mahan’s office who testified in support of Doan during the June restraining order trial – launched her own lawsuit against nearly a dozen Vietnamese American community members for similarly labeling her a communist lackey.

The separate but interconnected legal dramas prompted a protest at City Hall by anti-communist organizers in August, who responded to Dang’s lawsuit with signs accusing her of trying to “silence” them. They also took aim at David Duong, calling for the city to cut ties with Cal Waste Solutions and end the company’s contract.

Embattled charity 

Dang’s lawsuit later prompted her critics to look into a much-admired local charity that she helped lead. The San Jose Vietnamese Running Club has for years raised money for underserved children in Vietnam. But its overseas mission became targeted by anti-communist campaigns who discovered the club raised money illegally with a suspended tax status.

Debate over control

The political drama extended into a debate over control of San Jose’s public parks. Doan’s office in August announced he would be taking more control over who can host a monthly flag raising ceremony at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden on the first Saturday of every month. The problem: It was the same date for the popular event that Ha Trieu — a community organizer who testified in support of Huynh’s restraining order trial — had for years.

The dispute prompted scrutiny from state lawmakers and even a fellow councilmember over who controlled city park space.

One unified place

The community logged another major win this year, the unveiling of the Vietnam War memorial at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden. The life-size statue of two armed soldiers — one American and one South Vietnamese. It marked a major turning point for the garden at Kelley Park, as a communal oasis and tribute to San Jose’s Vietnamese enclave, the largest of any city outside Vietnam. It also marked the merging of two troubled projects that had been stalled by years of community divide into one unified place.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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District 7 San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan said his office is looking into the theft of campaign signs supporting former San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, who is running for the county Board of Supervisors District 2 seat — and plans to file a formal complaint by early next week. It’s unclear who the complaint will name as an alleged culprit, as Doan’s office didn’t have an immediate answer.

“My office will be filing a complaint with the Board of Fair Campaign and Political Practices and requesting a full investigation into this matter with the Fair Political Practices Commission,” Doan told San José Spotlight.

Nguyen didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Her opponent Betty Duong, chief of staff for District 2 Supervisor Cindy Chavez, said she hopes Doan will look into the theft of her signs as well. She said a supporter in Alum Rock called her last month to report people “running up and down the street” taking her signs from yards.

Duong said banners and signs have also been defaced or removed in the neighborhoods of Japantown, Northside, Seven Trees, Communications Hill and along Monterey Road.

“If the councilmember is going to launch an investigation I hope he’s also inclusive of me,” Duong told San José Spotlight.  “Bottom line, stealing campaign signs from anyone is not cool and I don’t condone or support it and think it’s wrong.”

Stealing a sign can constitute petty theft, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment and/or fines up to $1,000 in California.

Duong provided San José Spotlight photos of a man carrying her crumpled up signs, as well as another video and photo of defaced signs.

Nguyen has provided photos of torn signs, but previously told San José Spotlight she has not received video evidence.

But a video circulating around social media claims to have caught someone in the act of removing and collecting Nguyen’s signs. The video shows a man towing a stack of signs that allegedly support Nguyen and District 8 San Jose council candidate Tam Truong — though the video quality isn’t clear enough to confirm. Rattled by the confrontation, the man being filmed gives the person filming him the phone number of who he said paid him to remove the signs.

San José Spotlight has called and texted the number, but has yet to receive a response.

Nguyen, a business-backed candidate, and Duong, a labor-backed candidate, have kept their campaigns positive. But some of their supporters come from opposing factions of a bitter political divide in Little Saigon marked by court battles, City Hall protests against a mayoral staffer, the targeted takedown of a community running club and political jockeying for control of San Jose’s Vietnamese Heritage Garden.

Doan — who had campaign signs stolen when he ran for office in 2022 and whose district covers much of San Jose’s unrivaled Vietnamese American population — maintains he’s not choosing a side in the supervisor race.

“However, I want to be very clear that this type of behavior, if true, is election interference — and such tactics show a blatant disregard for the law and undermine the voices of our community,” Doan told San José Spotlight.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Until this month, the billboard on Story Road read “Bầu cử sơ bộ (Primary election)” and “Ngày 5 tháng Ba, 2024 (March 5, 2024).” It should say “Bầu cử tổng quát (General Election)” and “5 tháng 11, 2024 (Nov. 5, 2024).” The translation flub from the Registrar of Voters has Vietnamese American residents groaning about an avoidable error — especially as county elections officials invest in voter outreach to non-English speakers and people who speak English as a second language.

“It is disappointing to see mistakes like this when it is vital that we do everything we can to get turnout from communities of color,” Huy Tran, executive director for the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, told San José Spotlight. “With everything that the county has invested into language access, this kind of mistake should not have happened.”

Truc Viet, a Vietnamese media commentator and writer with Viet Wave, said this kind of error can be dangerous in a community plagued by online misinformation. She thought the billboard was photoshopped when she first saw a picture of it on Facebook.

“I could not believe that the registrar would be that careless. It indicated that we’re treated like an afterthought, even if San Jose has one of the largest Vietnamese populations nationwide,” Viet told San José Spotlight. “Local leaders always talk about language sensitivity and especially equity — I don’t see any equity in this billboard. I see negligence.”

Registrar of Voters spokesperson Michael Borja said his office is fixing the billboard.

“We were aware of an oversight in the billboard graphics, and we sincerely apologize to the Vietnamese community for the error. The incorrect billboard has been taken down and replaced with a Spanish version,” Borja told San José Spotlight. “We are correcting the Vietnamese version and it will be installed above the Spanish billboard soon.”

Borja didn’t respond when asked how long the billboard had been up or whether the error prompted a review of the registrar of voters’ procedures for approving translated materials.

Multilingual voting resources became a hot topic this year when the county’s $250 million budget deficit threatened ballot translation services for Japanese, Hindi, Korean and Khmer language voters. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors backed away from the cuts after public outcry.

More than 1,200 voters cast ballots in those languages in the March primary election, and the total number of registered voters in these languages has increased to 68% over the last four years, according to a June statement from Supervisor Otto Lee’s office objecting to the cuts.

County officials didn’t respond when asked for data on Vietnamese voter turnout in the March primary. The county issued more than 32,000 Vietnamese language ballots in 2022 according to county data — with Vietnamese voters submitting more than 15,000 ballots.

Viet questions how county elections officials will learn from the error.

“Of course they will take responsibility and apologize and fix it. But why do we have to speak up in the first place?” Viet said. “They need to look at quality control and guarantee that it will not happen again.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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State records show the California Franchise Tax Board suspended the running club, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in 2021. Yet the club has reported at least $475,000 in revenue since that year, according to tax records. While suspensions stem from not filing tax returns or paying taxes and other fees, club Chair Luong Le blamed it on a former accountant who failed to submit the required paperwork. It’s illegal for an entity to do business when its tax-exempt status is suspended.

Le said he’s rectified the non-compliance, but declined to answer questions about why the club has been fundraising while suspended.

“We have been diligently working on this matter for the past one and a half years, following some challenges we faced due to our previous CPA’s oversight on submitting paperwork and keeping us up to date with our status,” Le told San José Spotlight.

The club holds races in San Jose and Orange County — both major enclaves for Vietnamese Americans and refugees from the Vietnam War — to raise money for scholarships and public benefit projects across dozens of provinces in Vietnam. The running club also does disaster relief fundraisers for people in other countries, including for victims of the Turkey and Ecuador earthquakes of 2023.

Events have been attended by public figures such as San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors candidate Betty Duong and Mayor Matt Mahan. The mayor’s office is listed on the club’s website as a sponsor of the organization. Mahan, Doan and Duong declined to comment.

The club has drawn anti-communist ire over claims it accepted an award from the Vietnamese Red Cross Society, an organization seen as close with the Vietnamese government, which is a socialist republic under singular Communist Party rule. There’s been debate for decades in California’s older Vietnamese American communities about whether to affiliate with the Vietnamese government or do business in Vietnam generally. As a result, the club has become ensnared in a community divided over perceived communist sympathizers, mainly among older war refugees. The issue is spilling over into the courtroom.

Lawsuits and disagreements

Tara Dang, a neighborhood outreach coordinator for Mahan’s office, is suing nine people for wrongly smearing her as a communist over her role as the running club’s race events and charity director.

Dang declined to comment.

One person named in her lawsuit is Nam Xuan Nguyen, a Vietnamese media journalist and anti-communist pundit. His attorney, Patrick Evans, filed a motion in response to Dang’s lawsuit that alleges the running club established overseas “sister” running clubs in 26 out of 42 Vietnamese provinces while its tax-exempt status was suspended in California.

This isn’t Evans’ first rodeo in the contentious political saga. Earlier this summer, he represented another local outspoken anti-communist, bail bonds businessman Hai Huynh. Councilmember Doan hit Huynh with a restraining order request after Huynh criticized him and confronted him in public. Doan and others tried to paint Huynh as a “Godfather” figure in Little Saigon over alleged mob ties. Dang testified in the case, and a judge ruled there was no evidence to support the claim and denied Doan’s request.

Evans said Dang made a mistake in suing his clients — a list that goes beyond Nguyen and also includes Van Le, an East Side Union High School District trustee.

“(Dang has) opened a real can of worms,” Evans told San José Spotlight. “She started the issue with her lawsuit. So in response, the defendants checked up on the running club and found it was suspended, which is really kind of astounding in my opinion. Normally that’s corrected right away, and if not, there are serious repercussions.”

After learning about the running club’s suspended tax status, Nguyen filed new papers with the Secretary of State on Sept. 23 to register  “San Jose Vietnamese Running Club” under his own name. That threw a wrench in Le’s plans to reestablish the existing running club with its original name. State records show Le was forced to reapply for 501 (c)(3) status and register a new name under a new tax identification number, “SJVRC One Mile for One Child,” on Sept. 27.
“Once suspended, a business loses its right to maintain the name of the business,” Andrew LePage, spokesperson for the state tax board, told San José Spotlight. “In this scenario, where another organization has registered under the original business’s name, if the (first) business wants to revive and get back in good standing with (tax board), the business will need to choose a new name.”

Disputes and claims

Nguyen claims he took the rights to the “San Jose Vietnamese Running Club” name to hold Le’s organization accountable. He said he admires the work the running club does, but that its leaders aren’t transparent.

“(The running club) needs to be accountable and transparent to everyone that donated time, money and faith into its organization over the last eight years to restore confidence in its nonprofit mission,” Nguyen told San José Spotlight.

Le said the running club is “rebranding.”

“Because it’s so soon, we do not yet have anything to announce, but we will have updated information down the road,” he told San José Spotlight. “We are still doing the same work to help the less fortunate children, which is always our focus.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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The issue reached a handful of councilmembers at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee, which voted unanimously with brief discussion for a clear explanation as to how the parks department manages access to the Vietnamese Heritage Garden for public events. This comes after District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan last month announced he would limit a political rival’s control of a monthly flag-raising ceremony at the garden. City parks employees then changed the garden’s locks — keeping it closed to the public except during special events and causing yet another rift in the long-divided community.

Doan held a news conference ahead of the meeting, where he accused his political rival Ha Trieu’s group of using a private key to the garden to “manipulate, influence and strike political favor” in the community. Doan further alleged Trieu’s group harassed and intimidated other organizations like the Vietnamese American Roundtable and Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center. Neither of those groups responded to requests for comment.

Trieu, chairman of the United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, denied those allegations.

“I never talked to the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center or Vietnamese American Roundtable about the flag raising, all statements are false,” Trieu told San José Spotlight. “I categorically deny the false statements and I will engage an attorney to respond appropriately to any false statements.”

Since 2021, Trieu has held his own key to the garden after becoming a “park adopter,” which he has argued allows him certain privileges like hosting events without reservations.

Doan is reserving the garden on the first Saturday of every month, the same day Trieu’s group holds its own event. Doan says this gives other community groups an opportunity to run the show and that his office has already received 11 applications. He said Trieu’s group would still be allowed to apply. Doan didn’t specify on how the city parks department would judge each application and decide who gets access to the garden.

“The parks department is overseeing the whole process at this point,” Doan said.

More than a dozen residents spoke during public comment, but City Hall was left fumbling when most speakers made their comments in Vietnamese. The city didn’t have a human interpreter on hand, instead relying on the artificial intelligence software Wordly which failed to translate properly.

The issue prompted an apology from Councilmember Pam Foley to the audience, imploring the speakers to comment in English if they could. Doan presented an employee of his own office to pause each speaker every few sentences so she could translate in real time.

Speakers like Mary Nguyen questioned the need for Doan’s new rules, saying the flag-raising ceremonies have gone for years without a hitch under Trieu’s group.

“Does the Vietnamese Heritage Garden belong to the city or council District 7?” Nguyen asked.

Other speakers sided with Doan, lauding him for opening the event-hosting opportunity to different organizations, and dismissed the need for a council discussion at all.

District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who also represents a portion of the city’s Vietnamese American community and has raised concerns over Doan’s rules, requested the committee take up the issue. He said his office has had difficulty answering questions from constituents over “who is in charge.” He’s waiting to see if the parks department will offer those specifics on how it will evaluate the different groups that applied to run the flag raising ceremony.

“I am hoping it will,” Ortiz told San José Spotlight.

State lawmakers raised similar concerns last week over Doan’s announcement, which came after Doan found himself at odds with Trieu during an unrelated June restraining order trial that roused drama in the Vietnam War refugee generation over who in the community is viewed as sympathetic to the Vietnamese government.

The garden dispute opens a bitter new chapter of political divide in Little Saigon’s older social circles. Since June, the divide has sparked a tense courtroom battle between Doan and a powerful businessman. Meanwhile, a staffer in Mayor Matt Mahan’s office who testified in that trial is suing several members of the community for defaming her as a communist over a charity she helps run that does work in Vietnam.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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