The revelation raises uncomfortable questions about who gets access to taxpayer-funded opportunities at City Hall, whether politically connected applicants receive preferential treatment and what safeguards prevent public officials from influencing hiring decisions involving their own families. Although the city has confirmed the internship, the available records do not establish how Foster's son was selected or whether his father played any role in securing the position.
The controversy comes at a particularly precarious moment for Foster, who faces challenger Martha Abraham in Tuesday's November 3 election after finishing just 12 votes ahead of her in June's primary. With one of San Diego's closest political contests approaching its conclusion, the internship adds another question about transparency and accountability to an already contentious race.
According to an October 23 investigation by journalist JW August published in the OB Rag, Henry Foster IV worked as a paid student intern in San Diego's Purchasing and Contracting Department from June 3 through August 16, 2024, earning $5,991.93 in public funds.
The internship began less than two months after Foster was sworn into office on April 8, 2024. The department itself is particularly noteworthy: Foster previously served as manager of the city's Equal Opportunity Contracting Program within Purchasing and Contracting, a position he held for several years before becoming chief of staff to former Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe.
The younger Foster's employment was part of San Diego's Employ and Empower initiative, a state-funded internship program launched in 2022 to help young people gain professional experience and establish career paths in public service.
The city initially received approximately $18.5 million in state funding for the initiative, which prioritizes applicants from underserved communities, including low-income youth, unemployed individuals, former foster youth, people who have experienced homelessness and others facing significant barriers to employment.
The program does not prohibit applicants who fall outside those priority groups, and there is no publicly established evidence that Foster's son was ineligible. However, his selection raises questions about whether the hiring process adequately protects against preferential treatment and whether other qualified applicants received equal consideration.
City communications director Nicole Darling confirmed the younger Foster's employment dates and department to the OB Rag. Foster's campaign manager, Lydia Ball, responded that his son "did not work for Henry Foster III (council member) or intern for the District 4 office."
While accurate, that distinction does not fully address how the internship was obtained. Purchasing and Contracting operates under the mayor's administration rather than Foster's direct supervision, but the available reporting has not established whether Foster recommended his son, communicated with anyone involved in hiring or had any other involvement in the selection process. We reached out to Foster's team for more information and will update this article if we receive a substantive response.
San Diego's administrative regulations do not automatically prohibit relatives of public officials from working for the city. The city's favoritism rules permit immediate family members to be appointed in other departments provided covered supervisory or management employees do not recommend or otherwise attempt to influence their appointments. Whether those particular provisions apply directly to an elected councilmember is a separate legal question.
There has been no public finding that Foster violated any city ethics or employment rule. Nevertheless, the absence of publicly available hiring records leaves important questions unanswered about how the city evaluates applicants with family connections to influential officials.
Political science professor emeritus Carl Luna, who reviewed the situation for the OB Rag, said government employment demands greater sensitivity to potential conflicts than private-sector hiring.
"One of the price tags of public service, if you want to be a City Councilmember, is you have to forego certain other opportunities," Luna told the publication.
He also questioned whether the city's rules sufficiently address appearances of favoritism, warning that such situations can undermine public confidence even when no violation has been established.
The issue has surfaced at City Hall before. In June 2024, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on questions surrounding an internship awarded to the daughter of Paola Avila, a senior aide to Mayor Todd Gloria. According to the OB Rag, the mayor's office maintained that the arrangement did not violate city nepotism rules.
For Foster, the latest scrutiny arrives amid an already turbulent period in office.
In June 2025, SanDiegoVille reported on a video showing Foster engaged in a heated verbal confrontation with a District 4 resident identified as Kenny. During the exchange, Foster repeatedly called the resident a "punk" and told him to "go back to your momma's house" after the man questioned the councilmember's responsiveness to constituent concerns.
The encounter raised questions about Foster's temperament and professionalism, particularly because the man repeatedly identified himself as a constituent. SanDiegoVille sought comment from Foster's office at the time but did not receive a response.
Foster has also been at the center of contentious City Council debates, including his successful push to scale back San Diego's bonus accessory dwelling unit program. Supporters have praised his efforts to protect established neighborhoods from excessive development, while critics have argued that the changes undermine efforts to expand the city's housing supply.
More recently, Foster has challenged San Diego's use of Flock Safety automated license plate readers, citing concerns about surveillance, privacy and government accountability.
His reelection contest against Abraham has divided prominent local political organizations. Foster retains support from the San Diego County Democratic Party and several established political and labor figures, while Abraham, a neonatal intensive care nurse and business owner, has secured endorsements from the union representing San Diego firefighters and other organizations.
The June primary demonstrated how competitive the race has become. Foster received 9,138 votes, compared with Abraham's 9,126, leaving the incumbent ahead by just 12 votes out of more than 22,000 ballots cast.
District 4 encompasses several historically underserved southeastern San Diego neighborhoods, where questions of economic opportunity, public investment and equitable access to city resources carry particular significance.
That makes the circumstances surrounding the internship especially relevant. A program intended to create opportunities for young people facing employment barriers awarded a paid position to the son of an elected official with longstanding professional connections to the department that hired him.
The internship itself is not evidence of wrongdoing. The unanswered questions concern whether the selection process was sufficiently transparent, whether any preferential treatment occurred and what protections exist to ensure publicly funded opportunities are awarded fairly.
With Election Day arriving Tuesday, voters will soon decide whether Foster receives another four years representing District 4. Regardless of the outcome, the questions surrounding his son's internship highlight the importance of transparency in City Hall hiring and the public's ability to scrutinize how taxpayer-funded opportunities are distributed.
Originally published on November 1, 2026.
