Patrick J. Mason v. Lawrence, City of - Legal Department (SPR 20180441)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords April 11, 2018 SPRlS/441 Raquel D. Ruano, Esq. City of Lawrence City Hall - Room 306 200 Common Street Lawrence, MA O1 840 Dear Attorney Ruano: I have received the petition of Patrick Mason appealing the response of the City of Lawrence to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Mason requested records regarding officers who worked a certain detail. The city responded that no responsive records existed. Mr. Mason appealed questioning whether those documents indeed exist. Subsequent to the intervention by a member of the Public Records Division staff, the City confirmed that no other responsive documents exist. Under the Public Records Law, the Department is not required to create a record in response to a public records request. See G. L. c. 66, § 6A( d). The duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian ofrecords at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(ii). Accordingly, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Patrick Mason 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