COEUR d'ALENE - Lake City Development Corp.'s check register is now online.

It's just not online at LCDC's Web site.

As of today, urban renewal watchdog Dan Gookin - and anybody else, for that matter - can view the organization's record of checks from 2003 to 2009 at cdapress.com.

"I think everything should be online, every single document that they have," Gookin said Tuesday.

Publicly accessible documents promote transparency, he said.

In February, Gookin requested to review the check registers from both the agency's Lake and River districts, but didn't want to pay the agency $58.10 to do so since he didn't request that they be copied.

Around two weeks ago, LCDC Executive Director Tony Berns said he spent more than three hours locating and compiling the roughly 150 pages of check records from storage.

According to state statute, because the document retrieval required more than two hours, Gookin would be required to pay for the third hour. The $58.10 represents one hour of Berns' pay.

But Gookin didn't pay, saying they were public records and no money should change hands because he wasn't requesting copies. After speaking with Gookin, Press Managing Editor Mike Patrick had the records purchased.

"It was our intent, since LCDC wasn't sharing this info with the public, we would," Patrick said. He added that The Press will be requesting similar records from other public entities.

LCDC said during its meeting last week that it would begin including monthly financial statements, and the monthly payable sheet, as an appendix to the monthly LCDC minutes. The added attachments will be found online at the LCDC Web site: www.lcdc.org, beginning with the March minutes.

That step would be a way "to continuously improve LCDC's ability to cost effectively communicate LCDC information to the public," the March meeting minutes state.

Berns also said the agency hasn't charged for document requests that took under two hours to produce.