Jessica Hutchins v. Longmeadow Public Schools (SPR 20180103)

~\ 1 . ' ' ' ~~ o'<"! The Commonwealth ofMassachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records February 5, 2018 SPR18/103 Martin O'Shea Superintendent of Schools Longmeadow Public Schools 535 Bliss Road Longmeadow, MA 011 06 Dear Supt. O'Shea: I have received the petition of Jessica Hutchins, Esq. appealing the response of the Longmeadow Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Attorney Hutchins sent an email on January 22,2018 indicating her dissatisfaction with the School's redaction of information which would make students identifiable and exempted personnel information. The School provided a fee estimate on January 24, 2018 to Attorney Hutchins. Fee estimates A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § 10 ( d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. I d. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for black and white copies for both single and double-sided copies of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10 ( d)(i). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities may include as part of the fee an hourly rate equal to or less than the hourly rate attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). A fee shall not be assessed for time spent segregating or redacting records unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). 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

Supt. Martin O'Shea SPR18/103 Page 2 February 5, 2018 Current Appeal The School's January 241 h fee estimate states "[a]fter some email exchanges yesterday 1/24/18 [Attorney Hutchins] suggested applying the following search terms to try the limit the scope of the above results 'Dalton', 'Ashton', 'Brad', 'Miller' and 'Boys Soccer'. The results of filtering by these search terms yielded 233 email records and 22 attachments." The School states "[t]he above estimates are calculated based on the hourly rate of the lowest-paid employee qualified to complete your request. You will not be charged for the time it takes to segregate or redact the requested records unless such redaction is required by law." The School has not stated the reasons the searches will require estimated times of forty-four and twenty-one hours. Further, the School has not indicated the employee who will be segregating the records, or identified which exemptions allow for the redactions of records, or specified how the exemptions apply to the withheld records. See G. L. c. 66, § IO(d)(iv) (written response must "identify any records, categories of records or portions of records that the agency or municipality intends to withhold, and provide the specific reasons for such withholding, including the specific exemption or exemptions upon which the withholding is based ... "). Order Accordingly, the School is hereby ordered to provide Attorney Hutchins with a revised fee estimate in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Jessica Hutchins, Esq.