Stephen Stoute v. Chelsea, City of (SPR 20170759)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords June 5, 2017 SPR17/759 Nancy A. Slater Legal Secretary 500 Broadway, Room 307 City of Chelsea Chelsea, MA 02150 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 § 1O A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Stoute is objecting the Department's latest response in which he claims that the Department's response does not include information on the citation that he had requested. No records on file In a response dated July 11, 2017, the Department informed Mr. Stoute that no such record exists regarding parking citations. 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 information. See 950 C.M.R. 32.04(5). No duty to create records In the aforementioned response, the Department informed Mr. Stoute that the City of Chelsea is not in possession of the records he seeks. 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 ofrecords at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § 1 O(a)(ii). In doing so, I fmd that the custodian has satisfied their burden to provide a substantive responsive. This administrative appeal is now closed. 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 7/759 Page 2 June 5, 2017 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Stephen Stoute