Ronald Alexander v. Natick, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20180718)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records June 1, 2018 SPR18/718 Timothy Luff Assistant Superintendent Natick Public Schools 13 East Central Street Natick, MA 01760 Dear Mr. Luff: I have received the petition of Ronald Alexander appealing the response of the Natick Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on April 25, 2018, Mr. Alexander requested to inspect all communications between certain individuals and any member of the Natick School Committee from February 1, 2018 to the present. The School provided Mr. Alexander a fee estimate for the production of records on April 26, 2018 that explains "Natick Public Schools has counted more than 2578 emails that may be responsive to this request. To segregate and redact confidential information, and based upon my completion of your previous request for all January and March School Committee emails (which took me 3 days personally), this will take an estimated minimum of 24 hours to complete by one of our secretarial staff." Please note this request was the subject of a petition submitted by the School seeking to charge in excess of $25 an hour. See SPR18/733 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (May 25, 2018). Fee estimates 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. 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 (Supervisor) under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iii); 950 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

Timothy Luff SPR18/718 Page 2 June 1, 2018 C.M.R. 32.06-(4--'----})~. _____ In my May 25th determination related to SPR18/733, I found the School had met its burden to explain how, given the nature of the responsive records, the request could not prudently be completed without redaction, segregation or by assessing a fee in excess of $25. 00 per hour. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). I limited this approval to the rate of $30.00 per hour and only for segregation and redaction costs. However, I also found the School had not met its burden to charge for 22 hours of time at the rate of $30.00 an hour and that it needed to clarify in its subsequent fee estimate how much time will be spent on searching, segregating, and redacting. G. L. c. 66, § I 0( d)(iii). Therefore, my determination for the instant appeal is that the School must provide a revised response as described in my May 25th determination related to SPR18/733. Conclusion Accordingly, the School is ordered to provide Mr. Alexander a revised fee estimate provided 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: Ronald Alexander