Disclosure of Internal Deliberative Aspects of Agency Decision Making

The Supreme Court has held that the internal deliberative aspects of agency decision making are not subject to mandatory public scrutiny under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law (RTKL). See LaValle v. Office of General Counsel, 564 Pa. 482, 769 A.2d 449 (2001). In LaValle, our Supreme Court stated: Notably, in prescribing the right of access to public records, the General Assembly evinced no expression of intention to subject the internal, deliberative aspects of agency decision making to mandatory public scrutiny. Indeed, although it did not craft a specific exception or exclusion for records reflecting deliberative processes or work product, the General Assembly delineated the subjects of mandatory disclosure by reference to concrete decisional implements, namely, minutes, orders, decisions, accounts, vouchers and contracts. . . . We decline to infer that by prescribing a right of public access to minutes, orders, decisions, accounts, vouchers and contracts, the General Assembly meant to expose predecisional, internal deliberative aspects of agency decision making to mandatory public scrutiny. Thus, we hold that the definition of public records prescribed in the Right to Know Act, 65 P.S. 66.1, does not apply to materials or portions thereof which reflect such deliberative aspects. Id. at 496-97, 769 A.2d at 458.