As of Friday, the association had not responded to a May 18 request by two county councilmen for an accounting of the association's budget.

"It shouldn't take four months for them to respond," said Councilman Joe Hatch. "Obviously, UAC must be stalling."

UAC also has denied repeated requests by The Salt Lake Tribune, arguing it is not a government entity and, therefore, not subject to Utah's open-records law.

UAC Director Brent Gardner said the association's board is mulling over a policy on how to deal with records requests from its member counties. He said no county has ever asked to see UAC's budget before.

Gardner said he expects the UAC board to adopt such a policy in November. But he did not know whether the policy would allow detailed budget information to be released to the association's clients, the state's 29 counties.

If UAC refuses to disclose such information, it would be a departure from a representation UAC made to the County Council in a May 11 meeting.

UAC Vice President Camille Cain told the council then that the association would open its books to the county.

"We don't have a thing to hide," Cain said.

This week, however, Gardner indicated that commitment to Salt Lake County was uncertain.

"I told them we'd be happy to take [the request for records] back to our board and that's what we've done," Gardner said.

Hatch said he is becoming impatient with UAC and will "push" his request for UAC's financial records.

Salt Lake County, which provides more than $200,000 to UAC each year, has expressed concern in the past that UAC funds are supporting "parochial interests" in rural Utah, such as campaigns against wilderness and against federal restrictions on off-highway vehicles.