William Murray v. Department of Correction - Legal Division (SPR 20180083)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division

Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records

January 26, 2018 SPR18/083

Kate Silva

Director of Public Records Massachusetts Department of Correction 50 Maple Street

Milford, MA 01757

I have received your petition on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Correction (Department) seeking relief from its obligation to produce responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). As required by law, the Department furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c).

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, § 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

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

Kate Silva SPR18/083 Page 2 January 26, 2018

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 Department is requesting that it “be relieved of their obligation to provide copies of the records sought by Mr. Murray.” The Department states that Mr. Murray “has sent a series of contemporaneous requests that are designed to intimidate or harass Department officials, managers and other employees, and are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public regarding government activity.”

In support of this claim, the Department explains “[t]o date, Mr. Murray has submitted approximately 80 ‘records requests’ to the Department since September 2016. Since December 15, 2017, Mr. Murray has submitted at least 31 requests via electronic mail seeking numerous documents including his own ‘records requests’ to the Department, personnel records, electronic mail messages (emails), notes, and meeting minutes.” The Department asserts these “back to back repeating request being sent daily” are solely to intimidate and harass the Department “based on the aggressive language used in these requests, the ambiguous nature of the requests themselves, and the increasing frequency in which they are sent, in addition to the fact Mr. Murray includes the Governor and other legislative staff in the emails.”

In particular, the Department references Mr. Murray’s November 14” follow-up email to a records request that exemplifies this intimidation and harassing where Mr. Murray claims they are concealing documents, as well as other governmental agencies. The Department also notes Mr. Murray’s December 17, 2017 communication where he “emailed eight (8) messages to Commissioner Turco within 30 minutes, the majority of which contained no records requests” and also accused the Department of lying. The last correspondence mentioned as evidence of intimidation and harassment is a January 16, 2018, email where he “copied to eleven 11 (Department) employees including Commission Turco” indicating “he is appealing [their] response claiming [the Department] was ‘nonresponsive intentionally.’”

The Department requests seven (7) forms of relief, all of which are outside the scope of statutory authority given to the Supervisor under the Public Records Law, except for the second form of relief requested. The Department requests that “the Supervisor relieve the Department of its obligation to respond to Mr. Murray’s pending records requests that are determined to be harassing, intimidating or frivolous.” Based on the information provided in the January 19" petition, I find that the Department has not met its burden to demonstrate “the requests are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity” as required by G. L. c. 66 § 10(c).

Kate Silva SPR18/083 Page 3 January 26, 2018

Conclusion

The Department must provide a response to Mr. Murray in accordance with G. L. c. 66, § 10(b). This response may identify any records, categories of records or portions of records that the Department intends to withhold, and provide the specific reasons for such withholding, including the specific exemption or exemptions upon which the withholding is based. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(b)(iv). . Sincerely,

Relereo. Musou

Rebecca S. Murray

Supervisor of Records ce: William Murray