Daniel Kelley v. Greenfield, City of - City Clerk (SPR 20181351)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords September 17, 2018 SPR18/1351 Kathryn J. Scott Greenfield Town Clerk Town of Greenfield 14 Court Square Greenfield, MA 01301 Dear Ms. Scott: I have received your petition on behalf of the Town of Greenfield (Town) seeking an extension of time to furnish copies of a requested record, or any portion thereof. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). As required by law, the Town furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). On August 14, 2018, Dan Kelley requested "[c ]opies of all Town council minutes, agenda, and/or notes concerning Greenfield Community Energy & Technology" and "copies of all tangible and electronic communications by and between the Town Council and the Office Mayor of Greenfield concerning Greenfield Community Energy & Technology" both for the time period of "July 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017." Petitions for an extension of time Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shall not be limited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; 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

Kathryn J. Scott SPR18/1351 Page 2 September 17, 2018 (v ) whether the request, either individually or as part of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). If the Supervisor determines that the request is part of a series of contemporaneous requests that are frivolous or designed to intimidate or harass, and the requests are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity, the Supervisor may grant a longer extension or relieve the agency or municipality of its obligation to provide copies of the records sought. Id. The filing of a petition does not affect the requirement that a Records Access Officer (RAO) shall provide an initial response to a requestor within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 C.M.R. 36.06(4)(b). Current petition In the Town's August 30, 2018, petition the Town requests "an extension for a Public Record requests received by the Town of Greenfield." The Town indicates they "require additional time to complete due to the fact that this request will have hundreds of emails that will have to be read and redacted." The Town provided additional information in support of an extension on September 7, 2018 which indicates "[t]he number of emails this office will need to review and possibly redact will total into the thousands." The Town explains "[o ]ur IT department submitted one of a possible 8 to 13 folders to us last week for preview. In this one folder there is approximately 1000 to 1400 emails to read and possibly redact." i 11 The Town further explains in their September email the "office has been short a staff member since February 2018" and "[b]oth the Town Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk took over duties in the begin of July 2018, these two people were staffing an office which should have a minimum of four people." In addition to being short staffed, the Town "recently completed a State Primary Election on September 4 and are now preparing for a General State election to be held on November 7." The Town explains being short staffed and training new employees has limited "our ability to fulfill extensive request like the one submitted by Mr. Kelly." I find that in light of the scope ofrequests from Mr. Kelley, the efforts and resources available to the Town fulfilling the current request, and the Town's indication of compliance, the Town has established good cause to permit an extension of time of 15 business days beyond the 25 days after receipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c)(i)-(iv). To the extent possible, the Town must provide responsive records on a rolling basis.

Kathryn J. Scott SPR18/1351 Page 3 September 17 , 2018 Conclusion For the reasons discussed above, the Town may produce the requested records on or before October 11, 2018. The records must be provided consistent with the Public Records Law and its Access Regulations. The requestor may appeal the substantive nature of the Town's response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). This office encourages Dan Kelley and the Town to continue to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, §lO(b)(vii) (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). Additionally, the requestor may seek judicial review of this decision by commencing a civil action in the superior court under G. L. c. 66, § 1O A( c) . Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Dan Kelley