Chester Water Auth. v. Pa. Dep’t of Cmty and Econ. Dev. involved consolidated appeals arising under a law generally requiring public access to governmental records in Pennsylvania. The primary issue was whether a statutory deliberative-process exception extends to records exchanged between a Commonwealth agency and private consultants. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Commonwealth Court and held that 65 P.S. § 67.708(b)(10)(i)(A) does not serve to insulate communications exchanged between a Commonwealth agency and a private consultant from the Law’s general requirement for openness.
