Reed, Debra v. Plympton, Town of - Fire Department (SPR 20150754)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords November 4, 2015 SPRlS/754 Lt. Robert D. Law Town of Plympton-Fire Department 3 Palmer Road Plympton, MA 02367 Dear Lt. Law: I have received the petition of Debra Reed appealing the nonresponse of the Town of Plympton-Fire Department (Town) to her request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § 1O (b ); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, Ms. Reed requested a "transport form, for an accident my son Joel was in on April 10, 2015." Having received no response, Ms. Reed petitioned this office. Under the Public Records Law and the Access Regulations (Regulations) all requests for public records must be met with a response within ten (10) days ofthe request. G. L. c. 66, § 1O (b ); 950 C.M.R. 32.05. The response may be an offer to provide records, a fee estimate for provision of the records, or a denial. Town is advised that all records custodians must comply with both the Public Records Law and the Regulations with respect to the timeliness of response. Subsequent to the intervention by a member of my staff and several conversations later, on October 21, 2015 you informed this office that a written response was never provided to Ms. Reed although you had spoken with her on several occasions. By law you are required to make a written response to Ms. Reed. With the proviso that you make written response within 10 days, whereas this matter was opened based upon the Town's failure t provide a written response, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Ms. Ree may appeal the substantive nature of the Town's response within ninety (90) days. See 950 .R. 32.08(2). cc: Ms. Debra Reed OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/pre