Collin Dias v. Fall River, City of - Office of the Corporation Counsel (SPR 20180764)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords June 8, 2018 SPRlS/764 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, § 1O A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1 ). Specifically, on May 9, 2018 Collin Dias requested "[a]ll city related text messages and emails sent from the Mayors iPhone, iphoneX, and iPad Pro." The City responded with a fee estimate on May 24, 2018. Please note this request is similar to the records sought in SPR18/603. Fee estimates A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for black and white copies for both single and double-sided copies of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(i). 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, § 10(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. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). 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 under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). 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. SPR18/764 Page2 June 8, 2018 In its May 24th response the City asserts the request "is extremely broad in nature to the point where a search of said materials would take an estimated 32 hours to search, segregate, redact, review and claim proper exemptions depending upon what information is discovered." You further note that "[a ]s Fall River is a municipality with a population greater than 20,000, the first 2 hours will not be charged. Therefore an estimated fee for just the search, segregation, redaction, and review would cost $750. Upon receipt of $750, a search will begin. Once information is discovered an updated estimate and response with any applicable statutory exemptions will be provided." Mr. Dias informed the City in a May 24th email that "I wish to make a compromise and I will remove 'emails' from this records request." 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 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). 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, § 1O (b )(vii). Conclusion Accordingly, upon receiving clarification from Mr. Dias about the scope of the remaining records sought, 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, fw.UA~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Collin Dias