There were calls. And texts. And emails — all nudging Brian Helleland to use his role on the board of directors at CalOptima Health to ensure the agency kept backing a planned healthcare center in Westminster.
The messages were coming at all hours — the first one after 11 p.m. — from Hang Nguyen, a top regulator in Orange County for the state Department of Public Health, using her work email. Nguyen is in charge of investigating complaints against healthcare facilities, including the one Helleland works for.
LAist obtained email, text and other correspondence between Nguyen and CalOptima officials, who run Orange County’s Medi-Cal system, through a public records request.
In one email that she asked Helleland to pass on to his fellow board members, Nguyen wrote that she would personally benefit from the project for elderly Vietnamese-speaking adults in surrounding Little Saigon, saying her parent lived in the area and would be the health center’s “first patient.”…