Land Deal Is Probed in S.B. County

San Bernardino County prosecutors are investigating a land deal involving Supervisor Dennis Hansberger’s chief of staff, which county administrators are also reviewing to see whether the purchase violated ethics policies adopted after a mid-1990s corruption scandal.

Chief Administrative Officer Mark Uffer last week asked the district attorney’s office to investigate the purchase of four-tenths of an acre of surplus county property, a transaction involving Jim Foster and former GOP Assemblyman Brett Granlund of Yucaipa.

The district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit is conducting the criminal investigation.

This week Hansberger placed Foster on paid administrative leave while the county’s outside counsel reviews the deal. Uffer said he also would like to expand the probe to all transactions involving the purchase of county land over the past five years.

The attorney hired by the county to investigate the matter, Leonard L. Gumport, represented the county in its civil suits against key figures in a mid-’90s corruption scandal that implicated two former county administrators and Supervisor Gerald “Jerry” Eaves in a bribery and kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

“There’s no determination of guilt; it just looks like something’s awry,” said Uffer, who called for an investigation after copies of the land-deal records were dropped off at his office anonymously. “In our county, I don’t think the public deserves anything less than an investigation, based on the history of corruption here.”

At issue is whether Foster purchased county land through an intermediary, an act San Bernardino County has barred its officials from doing since 2001, when policy changes were implemented in the aftermath of the corruption scandals.

The county periodically auctions its surplus land. The parcel, which the county acquired in 1981, is adjacent to Wabash Avenue and Sunset Drive in Redlands and is zoned for single-family homes.

In 2001, the county sold the property to Granlund and his wife, Lonni; and Louis and Amy Curti. Granlund works for Platinum Advisors LLC, a firm that lobbies for San Bernardino County in Sacramento.

A year later, Foster and his wife, Linda, purchased the Granlunds’ portion of the property for $10,000, Foster said. The entire parcel -- which has valley and mountain views -- was assessed at about $37,000 in 2002.

The Fosters and the Curtis sold it two years later to George Saunders and Donald R. Paulson for $100,000, double its assessed value, county records show.

The Granlunds, the Curtis, Saunders and Paulson did not return phone calls seeking comment. Saunders and Paulson told a local newspaper that they planned to use the parcel as part of a housing development.

Granlund has maintained that he acted as Foster’s agent during the deal, Uffer said.

However, Foster said Thursday he bought the property because the Granlunds wanted to get rid of their share.

According to county records, Foster inquired about the auction of the parcel in an e-mail exchange with a county property agent in 2001, telling her to put it back up for auction after it drew no bids.

Foster, part of Hansberger’s staff since 1996, insisted the deal was aboveboard.

“Why would you want to risk your entire career for something like this?” he said. “There’s a contingent [in the county] that would like to see me gone and see Hansberger gone.... I did nothing wrong. This will prove I did nothing wrong, and that will be the end of it.”

Hansberger said that after reviewing the transaction, he wasn’t sure it required a criminal investigation, but “there’s clearly a perception that has to be dealt with” at the county level.

“There’s no question that I hope the investigation will exonerate Jim. But I need all the facts,” the supervisor said.

The incident is the latest black eye for a county tainted by scandals during the past decade. In May, the county won $10.6 million in a civil lawsuit against key figures in the case.

Former County Administrative Officer Harry Mays and former landfill executive Kenneth James Walsh served time in prison. Mays’ predecessor, James Hlawek, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges.

Last month, supervisors found themselves defending settlement talks with a Rancho Cucamonga developer that is suing the county. According to a confidential memo leaked to local newspapers, Supervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane had negotiated a settlement with Colonies Partners that county lawyers rejected as too pricey.

Biane blamed Hansberger for the leak, though district attorney’s office investigators said last week that they could not determine who leaked the memo.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Biane called for expanding the Foster probe to a decade’s worth of county land sales, saying ethical violations would not be tolerated.

“The air of corruption, I’m hoping, is behind the county,” he said.

Times researcher Lois Hooker contributed to this report.