Stephen Stoute v. Chelsea, City of - Retirement System (SPR 20170689)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Superviso;, ofR ecords May 25, 2017 SPR17/689 Nancy A. Slater Legal Secretary 500 Broadway, Room 307 City of Chelsea Chelsea, MA 0215 0 Dear Ms. Slater: I have received the petition of Stephen Stoute appealing the response of the Chelsea Law Department (Department) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Stoute requested a "video recording in the area around the city clerk office on April 8, 2016 from 8:30 AM - 12:00 noon" as well as a "list of all federal grants given to the city of Chelsea from 2014- 2016, including those for the city clerk's office." Mr. Stoute is appealing the latest response from the Department in which they claim to not be in possession of any of these records. No duty to create records In two separate responses the Department has informed Mr. Stoute that the City of Chelsea is not in possession of either of the records he seeks (July 11, 2016 and April 25, 2017). Under the Public Records Law, the Department is not required to create a record in response to a public records request. See G. L. c. 66, § 6A(d); 32 Op. Atty Gen. 157, 165 (May 18, 1977). The duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(ii). No records on file Per the Municipal Records Retention Schedule, audio/visual tape or digital recordings, security and surveillance tapes are only required to be stored for one month (Series 01.007). As such, a representative informed this office that the requested video has been disposed of. Furthermore, the Department claims that no such record exists in the case of a list for federal funding grants. In accordance with the Public Records Law, custodians are expected to use their superior knowledge of the records in their custody to assist requesters in obtaining the desired One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Nancy A. Slater SPRl 7/689 Page 2 May 25, 2017 information .. See 950 C.M.R. 32.04(5). In doing so, I find that the custodian has satisfied their burden to provide a substantive responsive. This administrative appeal is now closed. Sincerely, ~ ' Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Stephen Stoute