The saga of the UC Berkeley personal trainer who was put on paid administrative leave over questions about his relationship with Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and his wife gets stranger by the day.

Devin Wicks was the subject of a whistle-blower tip that he was giving free training sessions to Dirks and had accompanied the chancellor’s wife, Janaki Bakhle, who is an associate professor in history, on an alumni association-sponsored trip to India — all on the campus’ dime.

Thanks to Wicks, Dirks had also received an annual membership at the campus’ Recreational Sports Facility valued at $420.

Now, after six months of investigations, Wicks’ former boss at the Recreational Sports Facility has filed his own whistle-blower complaint with the university and UC President Janet Napolitano’s office — accusing them of wasting money by hanging Wicks out to dry for so long.

“He has no idea if and when the investigation will ever be over,” said Wicks’ former boss, Michael Weinberger, who retired as head of the Recreational Sports Facility in February.

Weinberger tells us that he was the one — and not Wicks — who authorized the chancellor’s free membership as a way to encourage Dirks to pay more attention to the school’s recreational needs.

According to his whistle-blower complaint, if there’s been any improper spending, it’s the more than $53,000 in salary and benefits that has been wasted these past six months keeping Wicks on the payroll but not allowing him to work.

Weinberger said Wicks was going through a “Kafkaesque experience.” UC officials have ordered him not to speak to anyone at the university or to reporters, but he’s been given no updates on the status of the case or been charged with any wrongdoing, Weinberger said.

“Also, it should be noted that while this investigation has dragged on, the chancellor was never put out on administrative leave,” Weinberger said.

On Friday, Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for Napolitano, said that “the investigation isn’t finalized, but we anticipate that it will be soon.” Beyond that, she said, she couldn’t comment.

The embattled Dirks recently announced he will step down at the end of the school year. In an earlier interview with us, he described Wicks as one of his and his wife’s “dearest friends” and said there was nothing improper about their relationship. He also said he had begun paying for his training sessions with Wicks after questions were raised about the perk.

As for Wicks, he isn’t commenting.

On the record: A freshly released arrest-warrant affidavit in the San Francisco City Hall “pay to play” case against three political insiders offers some interesting insights into the lengths to which federal investigators went in their search for public corruption.

The 61-page statement says the FBI wiretapped about 30,000 phone calls involving lobbyist and former school board President Keith Jackson and former state Sen. Leland Yee during the years-long investigation.

Both men subsequently pleaded to federal corruption charges and were sentenced to prison terms of nine years and five years, respectively.

Now, Jackson — along with former city Human Rights Commission member Nazly Mohajer and commission staffer Zula Jones — have been charged by San Francisco prosecutors with laundering $20,000 in political donations to retire Mayor Ed Lee’s debt from the 2011 campaign in exchange for the promise of political favors.

In one recorded meeting, Jones boasted to undercover agents about her ability to deliver such favors, if the money was right.

“We eat, sleep money in this town,” Jones was recorded as saying, according to the affidavit. “We go to bed, we dream about money. ... We wake up, we dream about money.

“Here there’s no limit, if you got the right hookup,” Jones is quoted as saying.

Curiously, about the only thing the feds didn’t capture on tape was the meeting where Jones and her cohorts introduced the mayor to the FBI agents who were posing as businessmen looking to build senior and low-income housing.

Instead, there are only the agent’s recollections of the meeting, which have the mayor saying little and making no commitments.

“Everything about this case is strange,” said Jones’ attorney, John Keker, who insists his client is innocent.

But then, he said, it might be to the prosecutors’ benefit that there’s no recording with Lee’s voice on it.

“There’s a lot more flexibility in describing what happened in a conversation if you didn’t tape it,” said Keker — who adds that he’s convinced the mayor did nothing wrong.

Off the court: The Golden State Warriors’ proposed San Francisco arena may be a polluting health hazard, according to environmental groups.

A joint court filing by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Coalition for Clean Air and Communities for a Better Environment says that, in the rush to approve the 18,000-seat arena, the city “failed to quantify and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions” from the project “or inform the public about cancer-causing toxic air contaminants.”

The friend-of-the-court filing is the latest salvo by those hoping to keep the Warriors from building the arena in Mission Bay.

“It repeats arguments that the Mission Bay Alliance (leading the fight against the arena) has already made, and the trial court has already rejected,” said Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston. “And we expect the Court of Appeals to reject it as well.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross