Lisa Morales v. Onset Water Department/Fire District (SPR 20180705)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supemisor of Records May 29,201 8 SPRl81705 Ms. Melissa Goodell Records Access Officer Onset Fire District 15 Sand Pond Road, P. 0. Box 44 Onset, MA 02558 Dear Ms. Goodell: I have received the petition from Lisa Morales appealing the denial of access to public records by the Onset Fire District (District) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, 5 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On March 21,2018, Ms. Morales made a public records request to -- the District for meeting minutes, the dollar value of compensatory time owed to any employee of the District, the policy of compensatory time approval process, and a sample elections ballot. The District sent Ms. Morales a response on March 26,201 8 which Ms. Morales deemed unresponsive to her request. Ms. Morales then made an appeal via email to this office on May 14,2018. Ms. Morales is requesting documents concerning minutes of the March 8, 2018 meeting of the District and employee compensation time. Appeal Ms. Morales wishes to know if the District employee compensation time is in the District's possession. 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 of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, 5 lO(a)(ii), (b)(ii). Also, the duty to comply with requests for records extends to identifying the agency or municipality that may be in possession, custody, or control of the public record sought, if known. See G. L. c. 66, 5 lO(b)(iii). The District provided this office with a response to Ms. Morales' May 14"' appeal on May 17,2018 stating "the District asserts that its March 26t" response to Ms. Morales' March 21St[ request] was complete and satisfied its obligations under the Public Records Law." The District provided Ms. Morales with the minutes of the March 8thm eeting at no cost. The District also provided Ms. Morales with "the compensation agreement for the Water Department Superintendent with his accrued hours and Water Department Superintendent's rate of pay per week." The District explained to Ms. Morales that the Water Department Superintendent consists of only one person and "[nlo other employee of the District receives compensatory time." Lastly, the District explained to Ms. 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

Ms. Melissa Goodell Page 2 May 29,20 18 Morales that the Prudential Committee March 8thm inutes were "about a proposal to pay compensatory time to employees other than the Superintendent who are not paid for compensatory time." As such, the District confirms there is no other dollar value of all compensatory time owed, except to the Superintendent which was provided. In light of the District's May 1 7re~sp~on se describing and confirming there are no more responsive records in the District's possession, I find the District has met its burden in responding to this request. See G. L. c. 66, § IO(b)(ii)(iii). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Ms. Lisa Morales