Patrick Higgins v. Malden, City of - Assessor's Office (SPR 20170797)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records June 19, 2017 SPR17/797 Jim O'Brien Director of Assessing City of Malden 110 Pleasant Street, 3 rct Floor Malden, MA 02148 Dear Mr. O'Brien: I have received the petition of Patrick Higgins appealing the nonresponse of the Malden Assessor's Office (Office) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1 ). Specifically, Mr. Higgins requested a "copy of all the meeting notices, open session minutes, and executive session minutes for the Board of Assessors for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, whether accepted or draft." Claiming to not yet have received a response, Mr. Higgins petitioned this office and this appeal was opened as a result. Subsequent to the intervention by a staff member of the Public Records Division, I learned that the proper agent for handling public record requests for the Office never saw the inquiry; it should be noted that the individual who the request was addressed to has retired and since been replaced. Nonetheless, after the Office was made aware of this appeal, a representative within the Office noted their willingness to provide a response. Seeing that a response is forthcoming, accordingly, I will consider this administrative appeal closed. The nature of Mr. Higgins' request and the content of the provided responses raise issues that invoke the Open Meeting Law. Given that an interpretation of the Open Meeting Law falls within the authority of the Office of the Attorney General (AGO) and not this office, I encourage Mr. Higgins to contact the AGO ifthere are any future concerns regarding the Open Meeting Law. Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Patrick Higgins 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