Fight Intensifies Amid Probe of S.B. County Supervisor’s Staff Chief

San Bernardino County’s chief administrative officer suggested Thursday that Supervisor Dennis Hansberger’s beleaguered chief of staff step down because investigations into the aide’s land deal are sullying the county’s image.

“This embarrasses the county,” Mark Uffer said. “It raises questions about our commitment to ethical behavior.”

Uffer recently asked outside counsel to review whether Jim Foster, who has served on Hansberger’s staff for nearly a decade, bought a parcel of surplus county land through an intermediary, which would violate ethics rules the county set up after a mid-1990s corruption scandal. The district attorney’s office is conducting a criminal probe of the land deal.

“It’s up to Supervisor Hansberger to address these concerns,” Uffer said. “I can’t tell him what to do.”

Hansberger has placed Foster on paid administrative leave. The supervisor called Uffer’s comments “unprofessional” and balked at taking any action before outside counsel’s investigation is complete.

“We don’t say, ‘We’re going to do an investigation,’ and then in the meantime say, ‘You’re fired,’ ” Hansberger said.

In 2001, former Assemblyman Brett Granlund and his wife bought the four-tenths of an acre of surplus county land next to Wabash Avenue and Sunset Drive in Redlands with another couple.

Foster and his wife bought the Granlunds’ portion of the property in 2002. Last year, the Fosters and the other couple sold the entire parcel for $100,000 -- double its assessed value -- to two men who said they want to build homes on it.

Granlund is a lobbyist for Platinum Advisors LLC, which has represented the county in Sacramento since fiscal year 2002-03. Outside counsel is also examining whether he or Platinum played a role in the county’s recent purchase of an Adelanto jail, which the county denies. He did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Foster has insisted that the deal was legitimate and that he is being targeted politically.

“I guess [Uffer’s] the judge and jury,” Foster said Thursday, calling Uffer’s statements “highly unusual.”

“I’ve never seen this happen before in 40 years of being around San Bernardino County,” he said.

The situation has highlighted a political chasm on the county Board of Supervisors, with top staffers for Supervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane also calling for Hansberger to take action against Foster.

“[Foster] should have been terminated immediately, but taxpayers continue to pay his salary,” said Matt Brown, Biane’s chief of staff.

Postmus’ chief of staff, Brad Mitzelfelt, said Postmus “would not tolerate that conduct.”