What were then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus and his county car doing for four days in Colorado, Utah and Nevada during the tail end of June 2006?

Was Postmus, now the county's elected assessor, conducting county business? Or was he taking a 3,600-mile personal trip on the taxpayers' dime?

Getting to the bottom of it proved difficult, to say the least.

Adam Aleman, an assistant assessor who has taken on the role as Postmus' unofficial spokesman, initially would not give a specific answer. Postmus himself declined to comment.

"All elected officials have the opportunity to have a county car or get paid $1,000 or so a month for using their own car," Aleman said, repeating the line verbatim several times. "They can take their county-issued vehicles across state lines."

That is a fact, said Betsy Starbuck, San Bernardino County's assistant auditor/controller/recorder.

But county employees - and that includes officials elected to county posts - cannot charge the county for gasoline used on personal trips, other than those deemed "incidental," such as picking up dry cleaning on their drive home.

"It only covers incidental personal use," Starbuck said.

Does out-of-state travel constitute an "incidental" trip that the county should pay for?

Starbuck said: "We would advise against that."

But on June 20-24, 2006, Postmus charged $195.38 in gasoline to his county-issued Visa card, making stops in Mesquite, Nev.; Richfield, Utah; Green River, Utah; and Colorado Springs, Colo.

The information can be found on a "Credit Card Justification Statement," which the county released earlier this week.

Part of the form states, "I hereby certify that all the above expenses were incurred in connection with the conduct of county business."

Below that is Postmus' signature. The document isn't dated.

Starbuck said she did not know how deeply Postmus' submission was audited. But, she said, even though he was essentially the leader of the county, his expenditures are scrutinized like every other employee.

"Accounts payable does a standard audit," she said. "They are pretty shameless."

Aleman at first declined to give any information on the trip.

After further attempts by The Sun to ascertain its purpose, Aleman said it was a personal trip but declined to elaborate.

Still, Aleman insisted that Postmus did not have to repay the county. He cited the county's exempt compensation plan that outlines the rules for elected official vehicle use.

It states: "Such officers and employees may use such vehicles for occasional personal use provided they reimburse the County at the current motor pool variable rate per mile for such use. Elected officials shall not be required to reimburse for such occasional personal use."

But what about the gas?

When asked what she would recommend in such a circumstance, Starbuck thought for a moment before answering.

"I'd recommend they pay the county back," she said.

But maybe it doesn't matter.

Later the same day, Aleman changed his story.

"It was a staff retreat," he said. "It was at a home owned by Bob Smith."

Smith, now running for state Assembly in the High Desert, is a former member of Postmus' staff who owns a house in Colorado.

Aleman said that three or four staff members, all county employees - possibly including himself, though he could not remember for certain - discussed "how we were going to plan out constituent services" on the trip.

"One thing about Bill is he is always working," Aleman said.

Postmus was also away from the county for two weeks in July 2006. County officials at first couldn't explain where he was during two major wildfires and later said he was on vacation but couldn't say when he left or when he would be back.

Postmus himself, in an e-mail to a Sun reporter, said he was on a two-week vacation.

The Sun sued the county for Postmus' calendars, and a judge ordered the county to release them. The calendars, however, contained no entries for Postmus' travel in July.

Asked why the story on the June trip had changed from a personal vacation to a work trip, Aleman said that at first, Postmus wanted it described as personal because he did not know how The Sun would characterize a staff retreat.

He then added, "What we are going to stick to is: It was a staff trip."

Contact writer George Watson at (909) 386-3884 or via e-mail at george.watson@sbsun.com.