Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman is innocent until proven guilty, but my guess is that she would gladly write out a check right now for the $17,202.50 District Attorney David Yocom alleges she misused if the resultant furor would just go away.

The first official shot in The State of Utah v. Nancy B. Workman was fired yesterday when Yocom called a press conference for 10 a.m. to announce his decision whether to file felony charges against the mayor for using the $17,202.50 from county Health Department funds to pay a succession of accountants to help Workman's daughter in her job at the South Valley Boys & Girls Club.

As if to underscore the no-nonsense, we-mean-what-we-say approach the county legal department is taking to the matter, Yocom began the press conference at 10 a.m. sharp. This was no rock star arriving 20 minutes late or an eager rookie showing up 20 minutes early.

Wearing a dark business suit and with a sober manner, the DA exhibited no glee as he announced his decision to file the charges against the county's boss, alleging that the honorable mayor lied and cheated and then covered up her lies and her cheating.

Since Yocom is a Democrat and Workman is a Republican two months from Election Day, it's natural to think — as Workman and others in her party have suggested — that politics might have a hand in all this. But besides calling such allegations "totally unfounded and, on a personal level, distasteful," Yocom rode into battle with significant backing. Using the findings of an independent panel of prosecutorial peers like University of Utah quarterback Alex Smith used his offensive line last Thursday night, Yocom never broke clear of his blockers.

Yocom made it clear that Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, Weber County Chief Deputy Attorney William Daines, Summit County Chief Prosecuting Attorney David R. Brickey and Davis County Deputy Attorney Brian Namba spent more than two months examining the evidence before recommending that "based upon our collective experience as trial lawyers, we conclude that there is a reasonable probability of success if the matter were to go to trial."

And they did not mean success for the mayor.

Worse, for Workman, the bipartisan panel noted that it spent "considerable" time listening to explanations from both the mayor and her attorney, Ron Yengich, before recommending to Yocom that he file the felony charges.

The money, of course, is not the real issue. The amount of money involved — in the overall scheme of government — is pocket change. The county wastes that much just spilling gas at the pump.

What Workman is really charged with is not misusing funds, but power. She helped her daughter because she could. And she covered it up because she could. Between the lines, that's the indictment against her: that in this instance, at least, she behaved more like an old-style South American dictator than a duly elected civil servant.