Cynthia B. Gardner v. Cotuit, Town of - Fire District (SPR 20180087)

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

Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records

January 26, 2018

SPR18/087 Charles W. Eager, Clerk

Cotuit Fire District 64 High Street Cotuit, MA 02635

Dear Mr. Eager:

I have received your petition on behalf of the Cotuit Fire District (District) 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 District provided a copy of the petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c). In a request received by the District on December 19, 2017, Cynthia Gardner requested copies of correspondence between the District

and the Inspector General’s Office, or any other designated representatives of either party during 2017.

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;

(11) 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. ¢. 66, § 10(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

Charles W. Eager SPR18/087 Page 2 January 26, 2018

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

In the Distrcit’s petition dated January 19, 2018, you indicate “the Board of Fire Commissioners has been ill and the only reply to date is that Ms. Gardner has already received all correspondence between the Board and the Inspector General’s Office not protected by attorney/client privilege.” Further, you explain “the claim of attorney/client privilege might be incorrect and [t]he Board of Fire Commissioners are researching the matter.” The District

requests “an additional ten days to straighten out the matter and to get whatever documentation is due.”

A staff member of the Public Records Division attempted to contact Ms. Gardner to see if she would be agreeable to this extension, as well as attempted to contact a representative of the District to see if any correspondence has been exchanged with respect to the requester’ s agreement to the extension; this office was unable to speak with either party.

However, after reading correspondence that had been sent to Ms. Gardner, also on January 19", serving as what appears to be information responsive to Ms. Gardner’s

request, it is unclear whether the District still requires the aforementioned requested extension.

Conclusion

Accordingly, I find that in light of the District’s supplemental response sent to the requester on January 19", I decline to opine on this petition. The requestor may appeal the substantive nature of the District’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1).

Sincerely,

Reliteca Muna —

Rebecca S. Murray

Supervisor of Records ce: Cynthia B. Gardner