Jay Murphy v. Office of the State Auditor (SPR 20171547)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords November 6, 2017 Michael P. Ruane, Esq. Assistant General Counsel Offise of State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump One Ashuburton Place, Room 1819 Boston, MA 02108 Dear Attorney Ruane: I have received your petition on behalf of the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) seeking an extension of time to furnish copies of the requested public record, or any portion thereof. G. L. c. 66, § 10 ( c); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4 ). As required by law, the OSA provided a copy of the petition to the requester. G. L. c. 66, § 10 (c ). In a request received by the OSA on October 19,2017, Jay Murphy requested three categories of documents: (1) "any complaints against audits, investigations, testimony; or depositions regarding, or reports on contracts or other matters involiving" involving certain individuals and entities; (2)"any correspondence with" similar individuals and entities as category one; and (3)"any correspondence with officers, emloyees, staff or representatives of' similar individuals and entities as categories one and two. Petitions for an extension of time Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shall not be limited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; (v) whether the request, either individually or as part of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. 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

Michael P. Ruane, Esq. SPR17/1547 Page 2 November 6, 2017 G. L. c. 66, § 10(c). If the Supervisor determines that the request is part of a series of contemporaneous requests that are frivolous or designed to intimidate or harass, and the requests are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity, the Supervisor may grant a longer extension or relieve the agency or municipality of its obligation to provide copies of the records sought. Id . The filing of a petition does not affect the requirement that a Records Access Officer (RAO) shall provide an initial response to a requester within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 CMR 36.06(4 )(b ). Current petition In your petition dated October 30; 2017 you indicate "OSA is hereby petitioning the Supervisor of Records for an additional ten weeks (from November 2, 2017, the original response due date) until January 12,2018 within which to respond to the instant request for public records." You explain "the request seeks records, in some instances, dating back to 1998, the OSA must, in addition to searching all available paper records, utilize unique IT resources to determine whether it even possesses potentially responsive computer records dating back that many years" and "OSA must search archived hard drives and e-mail accounts as well as active hard drives and e-mail accounts." The OSA indicates their IT "estimates that searching for and retreieving potentially responsive computer records to the instant public records request will require three OSA IT employees working full time (40 hours each) for approximate three weeks. This amounts to 360 hours of employee time." Further, the OSA explains IT "has scheduled preplanned replacements of all OSA employee computers due to an aging infrastructure" from October 30, 2017 through November 9, 2017. In an email dated November 1, 2017, Mr. Murphy indicated he would agree to the ten week extension, as well as narrowing the scope of the request with the understanding the records will be provided to Mr. Murphy as the OSA completes the request. It is my understanding a Public Records Division staff member contacted the OSA and confirmed this agreement. Conclusion Accordingly, I find that in light of the requestor's agreement for additional time, I find it is unnecessary to opine on the OSA's petition. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(b)(vi) ("the requestor may voluntarily agree to a response date beyond the timeframes set forth herein"). The OSA is advised it must provide the records in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Access Regulations. The requestor may appeal the substantive nature of the OSA's response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1 ).

Michael P. Ruane, Esq. SPR17/1547 Page 3 November 6, 2017 Sincerely, ~~ Supervisor of Records cc: Jay Murphy