A feud between San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan and a prominent community member over changes to access and flag-raising ceremonies at the Viet Heritage Garden continues to sow division in the Vietnamese community, with other state and local officials now joining the fray to question who really has authority over the park.
Doan has pushed back on attacks from the United Vietnamese American Community of North America (UVACNC) and its leader Ha Trieu, who accused the District 7 councilmember of abusing his power and disrupting the group’s events on the first Saturday of every month that have taken place at the garden over the past three years since it adopted the park.
Doan said at the heart of the conflict were the group’s misunderstandings of what authority the city’s adopt-a-park program grants and why the city’s parks department, not him, implemented the changes. Those misunderstandings have since trickled down to other elected officials, agitating Doan further.
“We had multiple meetings with all of our community members to talk about this process and everyone agreed to it,” Doan told The Mercury News. “Now, when the state assembly members had a knee-jerk reaction without any communication to my office, the city of San Jose, or (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services), it was unfortunate. If they would have just given us a phone call, we would have explained the situation and there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so they didn’t get the full story.”
Flag-raising ceremonies carry a special meaning in the Vietnamese-American community – representing an opportunity to honor their past and present homelands.
Trieu’s group has maintained that its adopt-a-park application included a binding contract for indefinite access to the garden, including the right to hold flag-raising ceremonies on the first Saturday of every month without filing a permit with the city.
UVACNC had held ceremonies without a permit until this month, when Doan’s office alerted them he had formally requested their previous time slot on the first Saturday of each month and the city had decided to change the locks on the garden. Doan’s hold on the timeslot is not entirely for his use but so the city could implement a reservation system for the first Saturday of the month to ensure equitable access to the park for all interested parties, including Trieu’s group. Doan’s office also said the city had received reports from community members that Trieu attempted to use his group’s key to the garden “to manipulate influence and political favor” before the city implemented the changes.
“Our goal is to preserve and encourage the participation of all members of the community and diversify the number of organizations who wish to host a flag raising at the garden the first Saturday of each month,” Doan said. “It is important to everyone, especially our Vietnamese-American community.”
Since implementing the reservation system, the city has received requests from 11 other groups to host a flag-raising event, but not without more conflict arising in the community.
“Concerns over retaliation (and) intimidation have arisen within the Vietnamese community, especially among organizations who have already signed up to host a first Saturday flag-raising group like Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center (and the) Vietnamese Museum,” Doan said. “Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation has already been harassed, threatened and or pressured. No person or organization should be forced to operate out of fears, including protests at their home or businesses being called communists or any other form of intimidation.”
The dispute over the garden has also drawn the attention of five state assemblymembers representing San Jose, including Ash Kalra, Evan Low, Alex Lee, Marc Berman and Gail Pellerin, who questioned Doan’s influence over the park.
“It is highly unusual and very concerning that only one elected official would have full control of a public space and the permitting process to control the public’s ability to exercise their free speech rights and ability to gather in a public space,” a letter from five San Jose state assemblymembers stated.
Parks Director Jon Cicirelli emailed the assemblymembers to say that they were “misinformed,” noting that the city had always controlled the reservation of park space.
District 3 Councilmember Omar Torres and District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz have also asked the city manager’s office to clarify the situation after they said Vietnamese community members in their districts also expressed concerns.
“Over the past several weeks, there’s been conflict between organizations in the Vietnamese community and the city, with allegations that flag-raising events have become politicized,” Ortiz said during Wednesday’s Rules Committee meeting. “In the confusion over the changes in the process, my office has had difficulty answering questions from the Vietnamese constituents in my district over who is in charge and who is managing access to the garden. Because the Viet Heritage Garden is a resource for the Vietnamese community of the entire city, we’re requesting that the city manager issue an informational memo outlining a transparent and equitable process for future San Jose residents to preserve the Viet Heritage Garden for public flag raising events.”
Several Vietnamese groups at Wednesday’s meeting called for both sides to lower the temperature and end the feud.
“I come here looking for peace,” IRCC Director Loc Vu said. “I don’t want something like this in our community. I don’t like it and I want the two sides to have to sit down to talk together.”
But not everyone is ready to forgive and forget, as supporters of each side in the conflict, some dressed from head-to-toe in military garb, literally sat on opposite sites of the City Council chamber during Wednesday’s meeting.
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Ratcheting tensions further, Doan’s office said they heard that UVACNC had either paid or provided lunch to get some supporters to show up, a claim Trieu denied and called defamatory.
Van Le, who unsuccessfully ran against Doan and Maya Esparza for the city council seat in 2022, also criticized Doan, noting that he had attended flag ceremonies before he was elected and had never raised issues with the process.
“You may be king of (District) 7, but you are not king of the Vietnamese-American community and overrule the power of (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services),” Le said.
