Christopher Maza v. East Longmeadow, Town of - Board of Selectmen (SPR 20160235)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords April12, 2016 SPR16/235 Mr. Ryan Quimby Information Technology 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, Assistant Managing Editor of Reminder Publications appealing the response of the Town of East Longmeadow-Board of Selectmen (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 the Town Board of Selectmen members Angela Thorpe, Paul Federici, and William Gorman regarding Police Chief Douglas Mellis from January 1, 2016 to March 23, 2016. Mr. Maza appealed the Town's March 23, 2016 written response. 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 of the request. G. L. c. 66, § 10(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. In his petition Mr. Maza objects to the search terms used by the Town in searching for responsive records, stating the Town should have used both search terms "police chief' and "doug mellis." Mr. Maza believes the Town's response is not responsive to his request as the search was not complete. Accordingly, Town is hereby ordered, within ten (10) days ofthis order, to review Mr. Maza' s request for public records and provide a response, prepared 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 OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/pre

Mr. Ryan Quimby SPR16/235 Page 2 April12, 2016 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, § IO(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 ($10.00), 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 please refer to our publication, A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law. This document is available on the Internet, free of charge, at htt ://www.sec.state.ma.us/ rei re df/ uide. df. Attorneys on my staff are available during regular business hours to answer ge ral questions regarding the Public Records Law. In addition, members of my staff will visit a re ords custodian in person to conduct training workshops on the Public Records Law upon quest. Please contact my office directly at the telephone number provided in this dete for further information. ervisor of Records cc: Mr. Chris Maza Mr. Gregory Neffinger, Interim Town Administrator