The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has begun a "preliminary inquiry" into issues raised over Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's spending decisions.

However, an office spokesman would not say Tuesday whether District Attorney David Yocom has a conflict of interest in dealing with Anderson.

In 2003, Yocom, a Democrat, donated $100 to fellow Democrat Anderson's re-election campaign. Spokesman Bob Stott wouldn't say whether the office was considering the conflict-of-interest issue or whether he thought the campaign contribution constituted a conflict of interest.

"I'm not going to respond to that," Stott said.

He said to comment would be giving credence to "somebody off the wall saying things like that."

"The only comment I'm going to make is that we are conducting a preliminary inquiry into the matter" of Anderson's spending, he said.

Stott wouldn't say whether a preliminary inquiry was the same as an investigation or whether the result of the inquiry could be potential charges.

That inquiry "will lead us one place or another as far as what we will do next. . . . I think it's going to take a little while."

County Republicans sent a letter to Yocom two weeks ago asking that he investigate Anderson for misusing public funds, which can be either a second- or third-degree felony.

"We've looked into the letter and we're conducting a preliminary inquiry into the matter," Stott said.

The county GOP has brought up two spending issues.

The first is that Anderson used his city credit card to pay a $457 bar tab at the Grand America Hotel lobby lounge. The bill covered private club memberships, food and alcohol, Anderson said. Last week, Anderson announced he had repaid the city for the bill, since at the time it was against city policy to spend tax dollars to purchase alcoholic beverages.

County GOP Chairman James Evans said even though Anderson paid back the bill, he still violated the policy in the first place.

The other issue surrounds a city-sponsored trip to Torino, Italy. The trek took an Olympic message from Salt Lake City to Torino using environmentally friendly modes of transportation. Anderson and his girlfriend joined the European leg of the trip, as did Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart's wife and a Park City couple who are friends of the mayor. All members of the Torino team had some of their meal and room expenses paid.

The trip was funded through private donations, not tax dollars. However, Republicans maintain those donations are still "public monies" by law and subject to some of the same spending rules as tax dollars. Because public monies were involved, the mayor should have conducted a more open process regarding who went on the trip, especially since some expenses were paid, Republicans say.