Paul Sullivan v. Braintree, Town of (SPR 20181499)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords October 24, 2018 SPRlS/1499 Nicole Taub, Esq. Town Solicitor Town of Braintree One JFK Memorial Drive Braintree, MA 02184 Dear Attorney Taub: I have received the petition of Paul Sullivan appealing the response of the Town of Braintree Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1O A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Sullivan requested: "emails of the Athletic [D]irector Michael Denise over the last 7 years .. .I would like emails containing the following words, Spouse [N]ight, Admin Night, Delfrisco's, Marina Bay, Admin Gift(s)." On October 11, 2018, the School provided Mr. Sullivan with a response which included a fee estimate for 6 hours at $25.00 per hour for a total cost of $150.00. Contending the response was not provided within 10 business days, Mr. Sullivan petitioned the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) and this appeal was opened. Response Time Under the Public Records Law and the Access Regulations (Regulations) all requests for public records must be met with a response within ten (10) business days ofreceipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, § 10(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, § lO(b). All records custodians must comply with both the Public Records Law and the Regulations with respect to the timeliness of response. In a discussion with a Public Records Division staff attorney on October 11th' you explained that the Town uses a web-based portal called, "FOIA Direct" to receive and manage all public records requests. Once a request is received through FOIA Direct, the request is processed by the particular Town department that is the custodian of the requested records. You provided this office with a "screenshot" of the FOIA Direct page showing Mr. Sullivan's request to the School on Saturday, September 22, 2018. As mentioned above, the School responded on October 11th. 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

Nicole Taub, Esq. SPRlS/1499 Page 2 October 24, 2018 The School must respond to all public records requests within 10 business days. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)-(b). G. L. c. 66, § lO(e) provides that "[a] records access officer shall not charge a fee for a public record unless the records access officer responded to the requestor within 10 business days under subsection (b)." It is unclear whether the School complied with G. L. c. 66, § lO(e) and 950 C.M.R 32.06(2)(c). Therefore, I find the School must demonstrate whether it responded to the request in compliance with G. L. c. 66, § lO(e) and 950 C.M.R 32.06(2)(c). Conclusion Accordingly, the School is ordered to provide a response to Mr. Sullivan in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within 10 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, ~ r a ~ Supervisor of Records cc: Paul Sullivan James Lee, Assistant Superintendent of Schools