COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Republican Central Committee members agreed Tuesday to have the committee's financial records audited after more than a year of refusals.

Earlier this month, Precinct Committeeman Matt Roetter, who has tried repeatedly for the past year to have the party's books opened for committee members' review, requested an audit be discussed during the group's meeting this week.

"I was outmaneuvered," he said in an interview Wednesday.

Roetter went to the meeting prepared to make a motion to have the party's books audited for free by a licensed, certified public accountant.

However, Precinct Committeewoman Jennifer Locke beat him to it by presenting a resolution that put some restrictions on the audit.

"I just felt there was division on both sides of this issue," Locke said. "I talked with other people on the committee that have no problem with an audit, they just wanted to make sure it was fair."

Locke said she wrote a resolution that would require two CPAs to conduct the audit along with a financial review committee appointed by Central Committee chair Neil Oliver.

Locke suggested the committee approach CPA Cathyanne Nonini and retired CPA John McHugh to conduct the audits. She said she recommended those two because they seem to represent both factions in the party.

The resolution, which passed the committee on a two-thirds majority vote, also includes language that requires members of the financial review committee to sign nondisclosure agreements.

"I called for a 10-year audit so it didn't look like we are going after just one chairman of the committee," she said.

Committeeman Duane Rasmussen, who provided The Press with an audio recording of the Tuesday night meeting during which these issues came up, stood in opposition to the resolution.

"This appears to be transparent by name only," he said, referring to the resolution titled "Financial Transparency."

"In my opinion this is a blatant, bold-faced attempt at a cover-up," he continued, explaining his opposition to the nondisclosure phrase and that there is no requirement for a written report at the end of the audit.

In the past, the committee appointed a financial review committee to review the books. That committee simply reported that the members looked at the books and "they were fine," Rasmussen said.

He also took issue with the chairman appointing the new committee, saying it gives the chairman too much power over the audit.

Committeeman John Cross spoke in favor of the resolution, saying the chair always appoints committee members, and that the resolution was fair to everyone on the central committee.

Cross said the nondisclosure language was added to prevent finance committee members from leaking information to the public before the committee hears the results.

"For instance, let's say the committee is formed and the CPAs are hard at work and the work gets done in a week, but we don't have a meeting for three weeks after that," Cross said. "I think that is what the nondisclosure is all about. We don't want to read about it on Huckleberries (Online) before it is reported back to the full committee."

Chairman Oliver issued a press release Wednesday saying the audit was approved as a proactive attempt to quell rumors of financial impropriety.

He said in the release that a written report is expected at the end of the process.