Curtis, who doubled as legal counsel to County Mayor Nancy Workman, resigned his county post in June after questions surfaced about the use of his assigned Ford Explorer. But the district attorney's office says it could not prosecute Curtis for taking $767 in state reimbursement while he was driving the county SUV.

"The acceptance of such payments, which should have been forwarded to Salt Lake County as the owner of and the supplier of all operating expenses for the vehicle, may have been unethical conduct, but it did not constitute prosecutable criminal conduct," District Attorney David Yocom wrote in a letter to Curtis on Monday.

Curtis, a Republican from Sandy and a candidate for House speaker, paid back the money to the state in May after a county vehicle-abuse scandal broke. Yocom said the case would be closed when that money is paid to the county.

Yocom personally informed Curtis last week that he would face no charges.

"I'm relieved, and and I think it pretty much identifies with what I said all along," Curtis said Monday by phone from New York City, where he is attending the Republican National Convention. "I didn't do anything wrong. I had an oversight. I corrected it."

Curtis also had admitted to taking two unapproved trips - once with family, once with fellow legislators - to southern Utah in his county-provided Ford Explorer, but says he understood such trips were allowed by policy.

The district attorney's office launched an investigation into county officials' use of government-owned vehicles after news reports showed questionable purchases on gas cards. Former Auditor Craig Sorensen, who resigned his elected post in May, pleaded guilty last week to attempted misuse of public money, a third-degree felony, for charging gasoline to the county for his personal cars over a three-year period.

Curtis apparently is the first official to be cleared in the investigation, though the district attorney's office will not discuss who else is part of the inquiry. Randy Allen, the county's former chief financial officer, was the first in the scandal to step down after he admitted to two personal trips to Lake Powell in his county-provided Ford Explorer.

Workman, herself the subject of a criminal probe looking into hiring practices, declined through a spokesman to comment on the district attorney's decision on Curtis.

After the scandal became front-page news, the mayor ordered 22 of her staffers to give up their cars and forgo car allowances. She also appointed a five-member citizen-review panel to look into fleet practices and procedures.

Curtis said he was pleased to know the outcome after nearly three months of waiting for a decision. "That's a lot of time to have that hang over your head," Curtis said. "I've been cleared. I'm just grateful to move on."

tburr@sltrib.com