HONOLULU -- The Honolulu Police Department spent $248,000 on overtime to protect President Barack Obama and his family during their Hawaii vacation over the holidays.

HPD must absorb the majority of that cost because it will not be reimbursed for presidential security.

While that is a lot of money, it is just 1 percent of the police department's annual overtime budget.

It is also a preview of the major security cost to come when Hawaii hosts the largest international event ever to be held on Oahu next year.

Officers from HPD's Patrol, Traffic and Specialized Services Divisions provided Obama and his entourage with security during his nine-day visit over Christmas and New Year's, assisting the Secret Service.

The final bill to Honolulu taxpayers was an average of $27,555 dollars a day.

"I think the new police chief coming in understands that this is a cost that he has to bear every year, once a year. So, he'll be sure to include that in his budget," Honolulu City Council Budget Committee Chairman Nestor Garcia said.

The worldwide publicity from the president's visit should outweigh the money the city spent protecting him while he was here, Garcia said.

"That measure of pride is hard to quantify, so if the president feels like he needs to come home and vacation and have some downtime, he's welcome to it," the councilman said.

The $248,000 bill for presidential security is more than twice the $107,000 HPD spent a year ago, when Obama was still president-elect.

It is expected to be a fraction of the security bill the police department will face when Honolulu hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November 2011 with leaders of 21 Pacific Rim countries in attendance.

"There's going to be a cost-benefit analysis, and I think the benefits will probably be on par, if not outweigh the cost of hosting APEC," Garcia said.

Garcia said he hopes that APEC will reimburse the city for some of its security costs for the conference.

The police department doesn't have a separate budget line for dignitary protection. It just takes money out of its operating budget to pay the extra expenses of protecting the president and other world leaders when they are in town.