William A. Hahn v. Stoughton, Town of - Town Manager (SPR 20181332)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records September 18,2018 SPR1811332 Thomas McGrath Building Commissioner & Zoning Officer Town of Stoughton 10 Pearl Street, Third Floor Stoughton, MA 02072 Dear Thomas McGrath: I have received the petition of William A. Hahn appealing the response of the Town of Stoughton (Town) to a request for public records. G. L, c. 66, 5 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Hahn requested "copies of correspondence and any related documents referred to in the first paragraph of the enclosed March 13 thm emorandum from Thomas McGrath to Noreen 0' Toole." Current Appeal In an email dated August 17, 201 8, Marc Tisdelle, the Stoughton Interim Town Manager, expressed to Mr. Hahn that they have not had success finding the documents responsive to his request. Unsatisfied with this response, Mr. Hahn petitioned this office and as a result SPR1811332 was opened. In an email dated September 14,2018, you expressed to this office that '"tlhere is an email message from me in our records that refers to email correspondence that was intended to be sent later. This department has no record of that intended message and I believe that no such message was ever sent." You further write, "[olur IT department has also scoured out our archive of email messages and found no evidence of such a message." This response was provided to Mr. Hahn. In a response to Mr. McGrath3sS eptember 14" email, Mr. Hahn writes to this office, "[wlhen the building inspector said he could not find the correspondence, I asked the Town Manager to contact the town counsel as I know the town attorney has to keep paper and electronic files for at least seven years." Mr. Hahn further writes, "[tlhere is no indication in the Building Inspector's email to you whether he contacted the Town Attorney at all, or asked them for the relevant documents." One Ashburton Place, Room 17 19, Boston, Massachusetts 02 108 (61 7) 727-2832. Fax: (6 17) 727-59 14 sec.state.ma.us/pre pre@sec.state.ma.us

Thomas McGrath Page 2 September 18,2018 Please be advised, 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). Although the Town states there are no emails responsive to Mr. Hahn's request for records, it is unclear if the Town possesses any other records responsive to his request. Conclusion Accordingly, the Town is hereby ordered to provide a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations without delay. 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: William A. Hahn Marc Tisdelle