County auditor under scrutiny

Longtime Salt Lake County Auditor Craig Sorensen is coming under increasing scrutiny regarding his use of a county credit card to make gasoline purchases.

Sorensen, who turned in his county-owned Ford Expedition last week, bought 730 gallons of gas in the first three months of 2004 on the county dime (not including his first fill-up on New Year's Day), according to county fleet records.

With a reported 3,373 miles driven, that equates to 4.6 miles per gallon.

The U.S. Department of Energy ranks the Expedition at 15 miles per gallon.

In a three-day period, Jan. 1-3 — comprising a Thursday holiday, Friday and Saturday, only one of which was a regular work day — Sorensen bought 79 gallons of gas on his county credit card.

County employees using county-owned vehicles are prohibited from anything other than "incidental" personal use. In addition, county gas cards are to be used only for filling county vehicles.

There is a discrepancy in the mileage records. When Sorensen filled up on New Year's Day he recorded an odometer reading on the Expedition of 14,703 miles. On Jan. 2, he recorded 14,826. But on Jan. 3, the records show a reading of 14,807.

But if a mistake was made and the figure should actually have been 14,907, a curious record follows. Sorensen did not use the gas card again until Jan. 15 — two weeks later — recording 14,932 on the odometer. That's only 25 additional miles, yet he bought 31 gallons of gas that day.

County officials are not publicly accusing Sorensen of using the county gas card to fill up personal vehicles — yet. But privately they are seeking an explanation.

"You just can't explain (the mileage) unless he's filling up other vehicles with that card," one county official said.

Sorensen did not return repeated phone calls Wednesday and Thursday seeking comment.

Sorensen has had an amazingly long run as county auditor. He is in his seventh term in the office, more than a 25-year tenure. He was first elected in 1978.

Many county officials are still willing to give Sorensen the benefit of the doubt, even though all he has said so far regarding the matter is that he drove a lot for county business. Other than that, Sorensen has been mum.