Katherine D. Shea, Esq. v. Office of the State Auditor (SPR 20180261)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records March 8, 2018 SPR18/261 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 ofrequested records. 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 February 1, 2018 Pyle Rome requested various records including and pertaining to an "audit file relating to OSA' s December, 2017 audit report involving the Department of Children and Families." On February 20th during a telephone conversation, Mr. Rome agreed to narrow the request. 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 iri 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). 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. SPR18/261 Page2 March 8, 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 your petition dated March 2, 2018, OSA requests "a twenty (20) business day extension, following the receipt of Pyle Rome's payment of OSA's amended good faith fee estimate." You indicate "OSA requires the instant extension for three reasons" including "[t]here are one thousand work papers regarding this audit," the documents contain "personally identifying information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) for children in the care and custody of the Department of Children and families," and lastly, because OSA must copy the file for redaction in order to preserve the original document. You estimate it "will take an OSA Audit Director forty ( 40) hours" to complete redaction. OSA indicates on February 26th "Pyle Rome also consented to an extension oftwenty (20) business days, following OSA's receipt ofPyle Rome's payment ofOSA's amended good faith fee estimate." OSA "respectfully requests that the Supervisor of Records adopt the parties' mutually agreed upon terms of extension." Conclusion Accordingly, I find that in light of the requestor's agreement to the additional time, I find it is unnecessary to opine on OSA' s petition. See G. L. c. 66, § 1O (b )(vi) ("the requestor may voluntarily agree to a response date beyond the timeframes set forth herein"). 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 OSA' s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Pyle Rome