Joseph Viglione v. Medford, City of - Law Department (SPR 20180813)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records June 20,20 18 SPRlS/S13 Mr. Mark Rumley, Esq. City of Medford- Law Department City Hall, Room 206 85 George P. Hassett Drive Medford, MA 02 15 5 Dear Attorney Rumley: I have received the petition from Joseph Viglione appealing the response from the City of Medford's Law Department (Department) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, 5 10A; see 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Mr. Viglione made a public records request on April 13,2018 to the Department requesting documents which Mr. Viglione had delivered to the Department in 201 3. In the Department's response on May 17,2018 , they refused to provide Mr. Viglione with those documents due to the images the documents contained "could possibly be of under aged persons." Mr. Viglione appealed to this office via email on June 6,2018 asserting the Department's response failed to properly respond to the documents requested. 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 1O (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 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 10(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 to withhold, and provide the specific reasons for such withholding, including the specific - One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 , Boston, Massachusetts 02 108 (6 17) 727-2832. Fax: (617 ) 727-59 14 sec.state.ma.us/pre pre@sec.state.ma.us

Mr. Mark Rumley, Esq. Pg. 2 June 20,2018 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). I learned that the Department provided Mr. Viglione with a supplemental response that included Exemptions (a), (c), and (f) on June 20,201 8. Accordingly, as the basis of this appeal was the Department's failure to provide an exemption for the withholding of requested records, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Mr. Viglione may appeal the substantive nature of the revised response within ninety days. 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, W Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Joseph Viglione