The document was presented to council by mayor Bruce Meyer at a May 19 council meeting where the council absolved the $120,000 debt of the Kaniva Leeor Football Club.

Built in 2017, the Kaniva Community Hub project ended up with a $351,000 shortfall.

Allegedly, the document presented by the mayor was set to contain information around the Kaniva Hub project to support it was never a budget overrun.

Councillor Trevor Domaschenz brought forward the motion to allow the public to see the document at the June 16 meeting, due to concerns he had with transparency issues.

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The motion was defeated in a 3 - 2 split, with Cr Meyer, Cr Tim Meyer and Cr Tom Houlihan voting to keep the document confidential.

Deputy mayor Jodie Pretlove was the only councillor to support Cr Domaschenz's motion, and said she too had transparency issues regarding the document.

"The recently updated Local Government Act puts a lot of emphasis on transparency and community engagement," she said.

"I think it is important that this document, whatever or wherever it is, is filed. In fact, I support the whole motion that it does become public so that there is nothing sitting somewhere that nobody has cited."

Cr Meyer spoke against the motion, and said the document was council business and not a matter for the public.

"You are requesting here that they are open to the public. That is a matter for the governance officer to decide whether it is available to the public, and I believe the governance officer has made a ruling on that," he said.

"I don't believe that this should be released to the public. We are dealing simply with the application and tender form. Any councillor can go and request it."

Cr Houlihan, who had moved the motion to waive the football club's debt, defended keeping the documents confidential.

"I believe we have gotten this to a moment where a high percentage of rate payers are happy," he said.

"I believe that is where this issue should have finished."

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