LBPD OFFICER AND WESTMINSTER COUNCILMEMBER

 This is a pivotal time in our city’s history, and together we can make our community stronger and safer for our future generations. Since becoming your Councilmember, I have been championing three issues, Transparency, Accountability, and Fiscal Responsibility, which will have a long-term impact on our city and residents, especially in public safety and sustainability. 

As a Candidate for Mayor, I believe this is the time that our community of Westminster needs new leadership. The leadership that transforms Westminster into the city it has, for decades, promised to become. Once elected as Mayor, I will bring new perspectives and ideas to the table, and what it takes to solve problems we are currently challenged with. Based on my lifelong service to the community, I understand the pain and frustrations that many of the people in Westminster are dealing with during these times.  

My time on the city council has shown that I have led courageously and served selflessly. 

I am committed to connecting the community closer to City Hall. I am the candidate who will listen actively based on my own real-life struggles and experiences. 

I am honored and humbled to ask for your votes. 

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Tai was born in the city of Bien Hoa, Vietnam, during the peak of the Vietnam War, just a few months before the Têt Offensive in 1968. Tai was the second youngest of ten siblings. Despite growing up in poverty, his parents were a quiet, moral, and hardworking couple who created a successful retail business in Vietnam. His father’s motto was, “Those who do not work, don’t eat!” He instilled the importance of hard work and perseverance in his family and Tai’s mother 

Tai arrived in the United States in the spring of 1984. He settled in Santa Ana, California, and attended one year at Santa Ana High School before moving to Santa Ana College when he turned 18. Tai graduated from Santa Ana College with a degree in Criminal Justice, earning a California CTE Clear Teaching Credential.  

Like many young Vietnamese immigrants, Tai was busy learning a new language and assimilating to the new culture in the United States. However, after witnessing his people’s mistreatment, being physically assaulted and violated by other people in a foreign country, government and police corruption, Tai wanted to do something to make a difference in people’s lives and to have the skills necessary to halt injustice and protect people. Tai had seen how police officers in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore treated people and had beaten himself for not speedily picking up his belongings to the officer’s satisfaction. He didn’t want what he had lived through to happen to another human being. 

Tai realized his dream of coming to the United States and became a police officer with the Long Beach Police Department in 1996. Tai has worked in Patrol, Juvenile Detectives, Police Athletic League, Recruiting, Field Training Officer, and as an instructor at the Long Beach Police Academy and the Rio Hondo Regional Training Center Police Academy. 

Tai is a true believer in the Community Policing model, which recognizes that police can rarely solve public safety problems alone and encourages interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders and citizens within the community. While Tai has employed this strategy for many years with his position at LBPD, he was recently elected to the Westminster City Council to serve the city he makes his home. Tai hopes to use these same strategies in working on a larger scale in his new position, serving with integrity, principles, and care for the quality of life of all citizens.

In 2018, Tai decided to run for elected office in his hometown of Westminster, California. 

His dedication to community service and courage to take on complex tasks were inspiring to his peers and hometown electorate. At one point, 13 people were vying for only two seats on the council. However, when the votes were finally counted, Tai received more votes than any other candidate and was easily elected. On December 12, 2018, Tai was formally sworn into office in front of a packed crowd at the Westminster City Hall.