Hawkinson, John v. Cambridge, City of - Office of the City Solicitor (SPR 20150406)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords August 13, 2015 SPRlS/406 Ms. Anne Sterman, Esq. Assistant City Solicitor City of Cambridge Office of the City Solicitor 795 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Dear Attorney Sterman: I have received the petition of John Hawkinson appealing the response of the City of Cambridge (City) to his request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § 10(b); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, Mr. Hawkinson requested the electronic model of hypothetical development scenarios for the John A. Volpe National Transportation Center land parcel in Kendall Square. Initially, the City denied Mr. Hawkinson's request, claiming that the responsive records were exempt pursuant to Exemption (d) of the Public Records Law. At that time, the City had not met its burden of specifically explaining how Exemption (d) applied to withhold the records. Due to the intervention of this office, the City provided a second response via email on June 8, 2015 detailing how disclosure ofthe records would taint the City's deliberative process. It is the burden of the records custodian to demonstrate the application of an exemption in order to withhold a requested record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c); see also District Attorney for the Norfolk Dist. v. Flatley, 419 Mass. 507, 511 (1995) (custodian has the burden of establishing the applicability of an exemption). In a June 25, 2015 letter to this office and Mr. Hawkinson, you stated that the City was no longer withholding the records, and that the records are available free of charge on the City's website at: http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/zoninganddevelopment/Zoning/Amendments. The City is reminded that in order to meet the specificity requirement a custodian must not only cite an exemption, but must also state why that particular exemption applies to withhold or redact any portion of the responsive record. OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/ pre

Ms. Anne Sterman, Esq. SPRlS/406 Page Two August 13,2015 V~r .;1~ S wn A. Williams Supervisor ofRecords cc: Mr. John Hawkinson