Like pulling a thread on your sweater that gets longer and longer until it has unraveled half the sleeve, the task facing a panel examining Salt Lake County vehicle policies is becoming more and more involved.

In the latest development, the panel is examining the county's purchase of 34 new garbage trucks in 2002 — which losing vendors maintain was rife with wrongdoing — on the heels of District Attorney David Yocom's conclusion that, while there may have been some policy and legal violations, they were not worth prosecuting.

"We're just wanting to see whether something went on that didn't follow policy," panel member and business consultant Vern Della-Piana said.

The panel — five Utahns prominent in business, law, accounting and fleet management brought together by county Mayor Nancy Workman last month in the wake of the "guzzle-gate" scandal to examine county vehicle use — originally said it would complete its work by July 16. That date has come and gone with no firm substitute.

"I'd say we won't have anything at least until mid-August, but that's just a wild guess," Della-Piana said. "All of us are very anxious to get it done, but we're also anxious to do a good job."

The panel's work has slowed partly because it agreed to be bound by Utah's open meetings act, but also because the more it digs into county vehicle policies the more it finds — who gets a car or car allowance, how the cars are sold and how they are bought (including the garbage trucks).

"It's not like there's a lack of stuff to look at," Della-Piana said.

Some people close to the process joke that the panel may have made a mistake in inviting suggestions from interested parties on things to look into. It has been inundated.

"People are calling them and e-mailing them about everything in the world," Workman said.

There are plenty of potential targets: Craig Sorensen, who resigned as county auditor after it was revealed he was stealing gasoline; Randy Allen, who resigned as chief financial officer after taking personal trips in his county car (he has since been rehired in a different department); Greg Curtis, who resigned as the mayor's counsel after momentarily (and, he maintains, inadvertently) "double-dipping" county and state vehicle funds; fleet manager Nick Morgan; Yocom, whom disgruntled vendors accuse of whitewashing the garbage truck investigation; and Workman herself.

Panel members, however, have repeatedly emphasized they do not intend simply to find wrongdoing and place blame for it. Rather, they intend primarily to examine vehicle policies and practices for systemic failures and make suggestions for how those can be avoided in the future.

They generally have declined to comment on the substance of their investigation.

"All we can say at this point is, it's a good idea that this panel was put together," Della-Piana said.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com