Andrea Estes v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (SPR 20180745)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records June 6,20 18 SPR1.81745 Julie A. Ciollo, Esq. Assistant General Counsel MBTA Law Department 10 Park Plaza, Suite 7760 Boston, MA 021 16 Dear Attorney Ciollo: I have received the petition from Andrea Estes appealing the response from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, 5 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Ms. Estes made apublic records request on May 14,2018 to the MBTA requesting documents pertaining to emails between identified parties from January 20 16 to December 3 1,201 7. The MBTA provided Ms. Estes with a response on May 2 1,201 8 explaining the search resulted in the production of 2,257 emails. The MBTA requested that Ms. Estes provide a modification of the scope of the request in order to facilitate a more efficient response. Ms. Estes appealed to this office asserting that it is impossible to narrow down the scope of the request. Appeal Under the Public Records Law and the Access Regulations (Regulations) all requests for public records must be met with a response within ten business days of receipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, 5 10(a)-(b). The response may contain, among other things, an offer to provide records, a fee estimate for provision of the records, or a denial. G. L. c. 66, 5 10(b). All records custodians must comply with both the Public Records Law and the Regulations with respect to the timeliness of response. 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 10(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 ltnown. See G. L. c. 66, 5 lO(b)(iii). It is the burden of the records custodian to demonstrate the application of an exemption in order to withhold a requested record. G. L. c. 66, 5 10(b)(iv) (written response must "identify any records, categories of records or portions of records that the agency or municipality intends One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 , Boston, Massachusetts 02108 (61 7) 727-2832. Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre pre@sec.state.ma.us

Julie A. Ciollo, Esq. Pg. 2 June 6,2018 to withhold, and provide the specific reasons for such withholding, including the specific see exemption or exemptions upon which the withholding is based.. ." ); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(3); also Dist. Attorney for the Norfolk Dist. v. Flatley, 419 Mass. 507, 51 1 (1995) (custodian has the burden of establishing the applicability of an exemption). Ms. Estes states that she previously narrowed the scope of her request, which originally produced 8,000 emails. She explains in her May 22nda ppeal that she is unable to further narrow the scope of the request without knowledge of the content of the emails. To encourage additional modification, the MBTA is encouraged to provide Ms. Estes with a general description of the categories of records found within the emails. Based on that description, Ms. Estes may be able to provide the MBTA with a modification to better facilitate the response to her public records request. This office encourages both parties to communicate further to enable the MBTA to provide the requested records. Conclusion Accordingly, the MBTA is ordered to review the requests made by Ms. Estes and provide a response in accordance with the Public Records Law, its Access Regulations and this order 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, w Rebecca S. ~ u r r a ~ Supervisor of Records cc: Ms. Andrea Estes