Mitzelfelt confirmed late Friday that he had received a subpoena requesting that he appear before the grand jury as a witness.

"I will go in there and answer any questions that they have," he said.

Postmus did not respond to requests for comment.

San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said Friday that he had informed the Board of Supervisors that grand jury subpoenas had been issued in connection with an investigation into the charter academy.

The fact that two of the county's top Republican officials have been subpoenaed does not necessarily mean they are targets of the investigation. It could be that the grand jury just wants their testimony in a broader review of the financial collapse of the charter school group in 2004.

It could also be that investigators are looking at one or both for possibly playing a more nefarious role.

Postmus, and possibly Mitzelfelt, worked for the charter school organization, which shut down in 2004 when Postmus was a county supervisor and Mitzelfelt was his chief of staff.

C. Steven Cox founded the academy in 1999. Before long, the organization had expanded to 60 campuses throughout the state with more than 10,000 students.

After the academy closed, the state superintendent of public instruction ordered an audit of the charter school group because of financial irregularities with a management company Cox created to run it.

The charter academy was funded in part with public money.

The audit, complete in 2005, found that more than $25 million in school funds had been misspent.

Both the district attorney's Public Integrity Unit and the FBI confirmed last year that they had begun investigations into the matter.

The FBI seized financial records used to compile the audit, which found that academy executives, staff and several High Desert politicians may have committed ethical and legal breeches.

U.S. attorney's officials could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

But with a grand jury now sending out subpoenas, it appears the county's investigation is moving forward.

Jim Hackleman, an assistant district attorney who oversees the Public Integrity Unit, said he could not comment on any matter related to grand jury subpoenas.

But he did say the charter academy case remains "an ongoing investigation. It's a high-priority case."

The state's findings could explain the subpoenas: One section of the audit is titled "Some CCA Board Members May Have Had Legal and Ethical Conflicts of Interest."

It states that several politicians engaged in inappropriate financial relationships with the charter academy's management company when they were supposed to be the watchdogs for its finances.

And that is where Postmus comes in.

Postmus is the former chairman of the Board of Supervisors who left the post after winning a brutal and expensive race for county assessor last fall. Mitzelfelt succeeded Postmus as the board's High Desert supervisor, though not as chairman.

The audit states that Postmus sat on two of the school's boards from 1999 to 2001. Over that stretch, Cox and the academy's management company gave Postmus - a voracious fundraiser - more than $25,000 in campaign contributions.

Postmus' father also received a consulting contract from the academy while his son sat on the board.

A year ago, when Mitzelfelt was Postmus' chief of staff, he said his boss "felt the organization was running properly when he was on the board" of the charter academy.

Also named in the audit is Tad Honeycutt, a Hesperia city councilman who worked closely with Cox.

Honeycutt was the business-development director for the school's private management firm. That gave him the ability to steer six-figure contracts to outside businesses and receive pay for work that auditors found questionable.

For example, Honeycutt started a company, Maniaque Management Group, which employed him as the chief executive officer and Cox as director. In one instance, the company received four checks for $6,750 each, totalling $27,000, from CCA.

"The audit team could find no evidence of services provided by Mr. Honeycutt or Maniaque for these payments that would justify the use of CCA funds," the audit report stated.

The audit also states that Honeycutt used his company credit card for "often quite significant" purchases, which "did not appear related to educational purposes." Cox totaled more than $712,000 over 2 years, while Honeycutt charged nearly $300,000 over two years, which included such purchases as $18,000 for two jet skis.

Honeycutt said Friday that he expected to receive a subpoena but had not yet. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, explaining the purchases highlighted in the audit as normal for a private business.

"It's baffling to me," Honeycutt said. "The audit that the state did was completely baseless. It's a glorified list of allegations based on nothing."

A state-ordered audit of the California Charter Academy found:

Founder C. Steven Cox served as CEO of the academy's management company and the four charter schools that contracted with the management company.

Cox was allowed to enter into contracts without review or approval from the academy's boards, leading to misappropriation of funds.

At least $8.3 million in state funding was inappropriately claimed by the academy.

More than $25 million was misspent.

Cox made credit card charges for such expenses as $42,000 for income tax payments and $11,000 for Disney-related merchandise and art. Other employees also had questionable expenses.

Public officials appointed to the academy's boards may have had legal and ethical conflicts of interest.