Maya Shaffer v. Office of the State Auditor (SPR 20171777)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records January 8, 2018 SPR17/1777 Michael P. Ruane, Esq. Assistant General Counsel Office of the State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump One Ashburton 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 a requested record, or any portion thereof. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c ). As required by law, the OSA furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. Id. In a request dated December 12, 2017 Maya Shaffer requested "all guidelines/policies/memos/etc. in place for accessing the MassHealth patients medical information" and "all correspondence between your office and the MassHealth office in 2017 related to medical records access." 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. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). 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. SPR17/1777 Page2 January 8, 2018 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 C.M.R. 36.06(4)(b). Current petition The OSA's petition dated is December 28, 2017. It should be noted that this petition was properly filed within twenty business days from the OSA's receipt of Ms. Shaffer's request. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(c) ("a records access officer may, as soon as practical and within 20 business days after initial receipt of the request ... petition the supervisor of records for an extension of the time for the agency or municipality to furnish copies of the requested record, or any portion of the requested record, that the agency or municipality has within its possession, custody or control and intends to furnish"). Further, an agency or municipality must provide a written response to the requester within ten business days. G. L. c. 66, § lO(b); 950 CMR 36.06(2)(a)-(b). The OSA indicates that on December 21, 2017 it provided a response to Ms. Shaffer that suggested a modification of the scope of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § 1 O(b )(vii) (providing that an agency or municipality may "suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requestor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the agency or municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably"). You explain that Ms. Shaffer agreed "to exclude the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) from Part Two of her request and limit the scope of Part Two of her request to 15-20 employees who work in OSA's Division of Medicaid and Health Care Audits." You assert in your petition that "[e ]ven with the narrowed scope of Part Two of the request, however, OSA IT must still search networked computers and e-mail accounts for 15-20 employees. Various OSA IT staff are on vacation over the next few weeks-due to previously scheduled holiday vacation time." You also explain that "OSA IT estimates that searching for and retrieving potentially responsive records to the instant public records request will require one or two OSA IT employees working full time for approximately an additional one to two weeks." The OSA "emailed Maya Shaffer requesting that she agree to a ten (10) business day extension forOSA to respond to the instant request-until Friday, January 12, 2018." I understand that subsequent to submitting its petition, the OSA provided certain records responsive to part one of Ms. Shaffer's request on January 3, 2018. In the January 3rd response

Michael P. Ruane, Esq. SPR17/1777 Page 3 January 8, 2018 you also note that OSA continues to require the ten business day extension-until January 12, 2018 - to respond to part two of the request. I find that in light of the volume of responsive records, the actions required of the OSA to respond to the request and the efforts undertaken to do so, along with the capacity to produce the request, the OSA has established good cause to permit an extension of time. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c)(i), (iii), (iv). I hereby grant the OSA an extension until January 12, 2018 to produce the remaining responsive records. To the extent possible, the OSA must continue to provide responsive records on a rolling basis. Conclusion For the reasons discussed above, the OSA is granted an extension of time to comply with the order in the manner described above. The response must be provided in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Regulations. Ms. Shaffer may appeal the substantive nature of the OSA's response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Please note that the requester has the right to seek judicial review of an unfavorable decision by commencing a civil action in the superior court. See G. L. c. 66, §§ IO(c), IOA(c). Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Maya Shaffer