Sam Feigenbaum v. Boston, City of - Police Department (SPR 20181729)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords December 4, 2018 SPRlS/1729 Shawn A. Williams, Esq. Director of Public Records City of Boston 1 City Hall Plaza, Room 615 Boston, MA 02201 Dear Attorney Williams: I have received the petition of Sam Feigenbaum appealing the response of the City of Boston (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1 ). Specifically, Mr. Feigenbaum requested records on October 19, 2018 and October 26, 2018 related to a Diesel Emissions Reduction Ordinance. Mr. Feigenbaum appealed to this office, indicating he seeks written responses to the requests. 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, § lO(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. I understand that in an email dated November 2, 2018 you responded to Mr. Feigenbaum's October 16th request by asserting "[i]t is my understanding that the City may have records that include the information you seek; is it possible you could request a specific contract?" In a subsequent email you noted "[a]s I stated it is not possible for the City to respond to your request without reviewing each and every contract. The City does not sort the contracts in a manner that would permit a search for the information you seek." Mr. Feigenbaum responded on November 6, 2018 by indicating "[g]iven that the city does not sort contracts in a manner that would permit a search, please provide an estimate as to what it would cost to perform a manual review so as to find all those contracts and supporting documents that I requested. Note that the effective date of DERO section ( e) only stretches back to July 1, 2015 so that will serve as a limit to the size of the review thatmust be undertaken." 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

Shawn A. Williams, Esq. SPR17/1605 Page2 November 14, 2018 Subsequent to the filing of this appeal, in an email dated November 19, 2018, you informed this office that "[t]he position of the City of Boston is that it is not required to conduct research in response to a request, but it will gladly work with Samuel to assist in providing records." This office encourages the City and Mr. Feigenbaum to continue to communicate to enable the City to provide public records. 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). Please note that the request must reasonably describe the public record sought. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(i). Further, 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. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(ii). If issues remain unresolved, Mr. Feigenbaum may appeal the substantive nature of the City's response within 90 days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Sam Feigenbaum