Collin Dias v. Fall River, City of - Office of the Corporation Counsel (SPR 20180761)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords June 8, 2018 SPR18/761 Joseph I. Macy, Esq. Corporation Counsel City of Fall River One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722 Dear Attorney Macy: I have received the petition of Collin Dias appealing the response of the City of Fall River (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on May 9, 2018 Collin Dias indicated "I wish to inspct the inbox of the Mayor [sic] public email account." The City responded on May 24, 2018 by denying access to records. The Public Records Law The Public Records Law strongly favors disclosure by creating a presumption that all governmental records are public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA(d); 950 C.M.R. 32.03(4). "Public records" is broadly defined to include all documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any town of the Commonwealth, unless falling within a statutory exemption. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26). 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, § lO(b), 950 C.M.R. 32.06(3); see also District Attorney for the Norfolk Dist. v. Flatley, 419 Mass. 507, 511 (1995) (custodian has the burden of establishing the applicability of an exemption). To meet the specificity requirement a custodian must not only cite an exemption, but must also state why the exemption applies to the withheld or redacted portion of the responsive record. The City's May 24th response indicates "[y]our 'wish' does not rise to the level of an appropriate Public Records request. You are not allowed to 'inspect the inbox of the Mayor' under any circumstances." Mr. Dias and the City are encouraged to maintain a professional working relationship to ensure that public records requests are clear and concise, and that records are produced 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

Joseph I. Macy, Esq. SPR18/761 Page2 June 8, 2018 efficiently and affordably. It should be noted that the request must reasonably describe the record being sought by including, for example, applicable time periods or topics. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(i). A municipality may communicate with a requester to arrange to inspect a hard copy of the requested records at a mutually convenient time and location. Further, a municipality shall suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requestor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(b)(vii). Conclusion Accordingly, upon receiving clarification from Mr. Dias about the scope of the request, the City is ordered to provide a response to him 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: Collin Dias