A county task force, convened some months ago by Mayor Peter Corroon, is finishing up its investigation into fleet operations, and Patterson said some of the allegations against Morgan were turned up in the course of that work.

Corroon is scheduled to present the task force's findings next week. "They identified some pretty significant (opportunities for) savings, and there's more to come," Willmore said.

Morgan denies any wrongdoing, and speculates that the allegations against him were initiated by disgruntled employees.

"There are a couple of employees we've had some problems with that may be interested in creating some problems for me," he said.

Morgan said his travel reimbursement procedures have been straightforward, and that any possible problems would have arisen purely from bookkeeping mistakes.

"After a trip, I just give everything to my secretary, and she fills it in," he said. "I sign it, and she submits it. If there's a problem, they ought to talk to me about it instead of going through all this."

Morgan took three trips on the county dime in the past year, to Tucson, Ariz., Fresno, Calif., and Dallas, Texas.

As for personal use of county time and equipment, "my attorney would e-mail me pleadings (in his lawsuit against the state), and I would read them, that sort of thing," but nothing else.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com