The county still needs to ask for $142, 546 to pay for costs incurred by five other departments including the sheriff's office. The state decided to contract out police work to the sheriff's office, and before any payment can be made, a memorandum of understanding must be signed by both the state and the county, Jensen said.

The state sent the memo to the county on Nov. 2 and hasn't received anything back since. However, on Tuesday the Salt Lake County Council reviewed an interlocal agreement between the two agencies so the reimbursement process can start.

"As soon as we get that, we're ready to get everything going," Jensen said.

Although state officials allegedly told Willmore he will not be fully reimbursed, Jensen said all FEMA-eligible costs will be paid back once the necessary paperwork is completed. Some things like overtime will not be reimbursed, he said.

Rumblings about slow FEMA reimbursement payments have been circulating throughout the county for months, Willmore said.

"Other states have been having similar issues throughout the country," Willmore said. "When I heard that could be happening here, I just wasn't surprised. I said, 'Oh well, we did a good thing and figured we'd do what we could.'"

Despite the county's concerns, Jensen said the state has worked well with FEMA to reimburse agencies that have submitted their costs.

"They've been reasonably quick in their response," he said.

Still, the Department of Homeland Security expects to continue to work with FEMA for some time making sure that everyone who assisted the hurricane evacuees are reimbursed.

"Typically on disasters it can take a pretty good amount of time before everything's closed off," he said. Costs to the state during its relief efforts are varied, according to a review of the documents obtained Wednesday. They include $32,000 for prescription drugs for the evacuees, provided by the University of Utah's hospitals and clinics, and almost $23,000 for airline tickets purchased by the Utah Department of Administrative Services to "reunite families."

The Utah Division of Emergency Services and Homeland Security has submitted three requests for reimbursement totaling nearly $144,000 for everything from transporting evacuees around Camp Williams to paying for food, lodging, travel and overtime for state employees working on the base between Aug. 27 and Oct. 21. Close to $90,000 of the total also went to pay back the Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association for staffing a health clinic at Camp Williams.

And nearly half the total reimbursement to date has gone to the Utah Department of Community and Culture to refund the Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County housing authorities for rental costs related to providing interim housing for the 399 evacuees remaining in Utah.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com; awelling@desnews.com