Hawkinson, John v. Cambridge, City of - Office of the City Solicitor (SPR 20140254)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords July 10, 2014 SPR14/254 Mr. John A. Hawkinson 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 557 Box 397103 Cambridge, MA 02139-7029 Dear Mr. Hawkinson: I have received your petition appealing the response of the City of Cambridge (City) to your requests for public records. See G. L. c. 66 § 10(b); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, your three itemed request asked questions and sought copies of records for a specific time period. The City provided written, good faith estimates for the cost of searching for your requests numbered 2 and 3. You chose to pay for and receive the records in your request number 3. While the City did segregate information from the responsive records in your request number 3, the City waived all costs for segregation, and therefore there was no fee for the redactions. Assistant City Solicitor, Samuel A. Aylesworth informed you that the total cost of providing you with the records responsive to requests numbered 2 and 3 would be one hundred fifty-six dollars and twelve cents ($156.12). You informed this office that you paid for and received the emails in your request number 3 and that the total cost to you was one hundred eight dollars and 81 cents ($108.81), for two (2) hours and twenty (20) minutes of search time. On January 24, 2014, the City informed you that you would not be charged for the segregation time, and no fees for segregation (review and redaction) were listed on the estimate. On February 5, 2014, you wrote Attorney Aylesworth asking if he could summarize the time expenditures for request number 3. In a discussion with an attorney on my staff and a letter on May 23, 2014, Attorney Aylesworth explained that the only fees assessed were the costs of searching for and culling these records and copying them onto a disk. "Search time" is permitted by the Public Records Law and its Access Regulations (Regulations). I find that the City's estimate for the search time is reasonable and the City has complied with your request in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Regulations. Accordingly, this administrative appeal is closed. OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/ pre

Mr. John Hawkinson SPR14/254 Page Two July 10, 2014 VeryfC_ g} A. 'W1lltams Supervisor of Records cc: Mr. Samuel A. Aylesworth, Esq.