Christopher Maza v. East Longmeadow, Town of - Information Technology (SPR 20160217)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords AprilS, 2016 SPR16/217 Mr. Ryan Quimby IT Director Town of East Longmeadow Information Technology Department 180 Maple Street East Longmeadow, MA 01028 Dear Mr. Quimby: I have received the petition of Chris Maza of Reminder Publications appealing the response ofthe Town of East Longmeadow-Information Technology Department (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § 1O (b ); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, Mr. Maza requested electronic correspondence sent or received by Interim Town Administrator Gregory Neffinger on his municipally-issued email account regarding Police Chief Douglas Mellis in 2016. Mr. Maza appealed the Town's second written response of March 21, 2016. Responses of March 16 and March 21 Initially, on March 16, 2016, the Town provided Mr. Maza with a written response explaining that a search of the Town's e-discovery module resulted in two hundred fourteen (214) emails that were submitted to the Town's Attorney for redaction of non-public record material. Mr. Maza was also advised that the Office of the Board of Selectmen (Board) would notify him when the documents were ready for pick-up, and any related charges. On March 23, the Board informed Mr. Maza that the records were ready for him to pick up at the Board's office. This same day, Mr. Maza received a packet ofrecords along with a second letter of response dated March 21, which was not provided to Mr. Maza prior to notification that the records were ready. Your March 21letter states, "[b] ased off discussion with the Town Administrator, I modified the original query to not include the term, "police chief," as it included unrelated emails. The new search term I performed in our e-discovery module is, "all data sent between 2016-01-01 and 2016-03-16 terms: ("doug mellis") from accounts: greg.neffinger@eastlongmeadowma.gov." Mr. Maza appealed the March 21 response, OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/ pre

Mr. Ryan Quimby SPR16/217 Page 2 April 8, 2016 and has asked this office to compel the Town to fulfill the request as originally demanded by surrendering the 214 email results from the original query. The Public Records Law strongly favors disclosure by creating a presumption that all governmental records are public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c); 950 C.M.R. 32.08(4). "Public records" is broadly defined to include all documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any town of the Commonwealth, unless falling within a statutory exemption. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26). 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). The Town failed to meet its burden by not providing Mr. Maza with a detailed written response to explain why his original request was altered at the Town Administrator's direction. In order to withhold records that may be responsive to Mr. Maza's March 16 request, the Town must claim one of the enumerated exemptions in the Public Records Law. Accordingly, the Town is hereby ordered, within ten (10) days ofthis order, to provide Mr. Maza with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations. If the Town maintains that any portion of the responsive records are exempt from disclosure it must, within ten (1 0) days provide to Mr. Maza a written explanation, with specificity, how a particular exemption applies to each record. To meet the specificity requirement a custodian must not only cite an exemption, but must also state why the exemption applies to the withheld or redacted portion of the responsive record. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. If there are any fees associated with this response a written, good faith estimate must be provided. G. L. c. 66, § 10(a); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(2) (where cost of complying with a request for public records is expected to exceed ten dollars ($1 0. 00), custodian of records shall provide written good faith estimate). Once the fees are paid, you must provide the responsive records. To assist in requesting and responding to requests for public records I advise a review of our publication, A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law. This document is available on the Internet, free of charge, at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf. Attorneys on my staff are available during regular business hours to answer general questions regarding the Public Records Law.

Mr. Ryan Quimby SPR16/217 Page 3 April 8, 2016 In addition, members of my staff will visit a records custodian in person to conduct training workshops on the Public Records Law upon re uest. Please contact my office directly at the telephone number below for further information. ruly yours, n A. Williams cc: Mr. Chris Maza Mr. Gregory Neffinger, Interim Town Administrator