Carroll Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge said yesterday that she is innocent of alleged ethics violations and isn't overly concerned about state investigators' inquiries regarding those allegations.

"Of course, something like this always makes you a little nervous, but I know I'm not guilty of anything, so I know I won't be found guilty," Gouge said in a brief interview yesterday after the county commissioners met.

State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said Monday that his office had "made inquiries" regarding ethics allegations against Gouge but had not opened a criminal investigation.

Gouge said yesterday that she had heard state investigators might be checking on the allegations, first raised during an investigation this year by the county's ethics commission. But state investigators have not contacted her, she said.

The county ethics investigation has produced no charges but was never officially closed, said ethics board Chairman James F.W. Talley. Among the allegations examined was the possibility that Gouge influenced a county-hired contractor to reduce by $1,000 the cost of a sewer line extension at her daughter's business in Hampstead.

Last week, Gouge's two newly elected colleagues on the board of commissioners asked for the resignations of all three members of the county ethics panel. Gouge, a Republican who was the top vote-getter among commissioner candidates while winning re-election to a fourth term last month, recused herself from that decision.

Yesterday she repeated her denials, first issued last summer, that she ever influenced the contractor, Charles Stambaugh, to lower his price.

"Why would I take 20 years in political office and, in an election year, mess it up by trying to have a price changed by $1,000?" Gouge said. "It just doesn't make any common sense."

According to county records, the price for the work changed from $9,490 on April 11, 2001, to $8,490 on June 21, 2001. County Public Works Director Doug Myers said yesterday that the price apparently was adjusted after someone from his office - he said he isn't sure who - called the contractor and said the initial price seemed high. The call was not prompted by a request from Gouge, said Myers, who added that such haggling is routine.

He said he was questioned by state investigators a few months ago but noted that his memories of the price negotiations with Stambaugh are fuzzy.

"This thing goes on and on, and I don't remember every little thing that happened," he said.

Wayne Lewns, retired director of the county utilities bureau, also said yesterday that state investigators interviewed him about a month ago in the Gouge investigation.

Lewns would not discuss the details of that interview yesterday.

The county investigation of Gouge began after Stambaugh complained to the ethics commission about an argument he had with Jill Gebhart, the commissioner's daughter, in December 2001.

Stambaugh accused Gebhart of using her mother's name to try to intimidate him.

In August, Gebhart wrote a letter charging that the ethics panel's investigation was a groundless attack by her mother's political enemies. Gouge also criticized the commission for "investigating" her daughter.

Talley said the board had never investigated Gebhart and had only wanted to question her in its inquiries about Gouge.

Last week, Gouge's new commissioner colleagues, Dean L. Minnich and Perry L. Jones Jr., authorized a letter from county attorney Kimberly A. Millender that accused the ethics panelists of bias and incompetence. The letter gave Talley, John Harner and Sue Primoff seven days to quit and said that if they did not, they would be fired Dec. 31.

The commissioners also announced plans to increase the ethics panel from three to seven members, a change that can't be made until after a public hearing, scheduled for Jan. 2.

The new commissioners said their votes on the ethics panel were not designed to protect Gouge from further investigation.

Talley said Monday that he and his colleagues would not resign and added that he would deliver a point-by-point response to the commissioners' allegations this week.