Meghan Perry v. Nantucket, Town of (SPR 20181781)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords December 6, 2018 SPRlS/1781 Florencia Rullo Town of Nantucket 16 Broad Street Nantucket, MA 02554 Dear Florencia Rullo: I have received the petition of Meghan Perry appealing the response of the Town of Nantucket (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Perry requested the water withdrawal permit from Department of Environmental Protection as well as documents and consent orders regarding an identified treatment plant. Previous Appeal This appeal is the subject of a previous case. See SPR18/1568 (November 7, 2018). I closed SPR18/1568 by ordering the Town to provide Ms. Perry with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with the order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten (10) business days. Current Appeal On behalf of the Town, Attorney Janelle M. Austin of KP Law, PC, provided this office a response dated November 13, 2018 and copied Ms. Perry. In the November 13th letter, Attorney Austin writes, "the Town timely provided Ms. Perry with all responsive records to this request pursuant to the Public Records Law." Attorney Austin further explained, "[t]he Town had already responded to this request prior to receiving the November 7, 2018 determination. Specifically, on October 18, 2018, the Town responded to Ms. Perry and 111 provided, electronically, the following records." In the November 13 letter, Attorney Austin also informed Ms. Perry "that the DEP discharge permit for Surfside is a 'draft' since the Town has not been issued a 'final permit' from the DEP." Unsatisfied with this response, Ms. Perry petitioned this office, and as a result SPRl 8/1781 was opened. 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

Florencia Rullo SPR18/l 781 Page2 December 6, 2018 In her petition dated November 20, 2018, Ms. Perry writes, "I asked for the current water withdrawal permits and was not given it. The permit supplied says on its face that it expired February 28, 2013. There are no signatures on the documents provided." Ms. Perry further states that, "[o]n October 30, 2018 Town Council (Mr. Pucci) stated at a public meeting on the record that a permit extension was granted in 2016." 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 ofrecords at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, 5 IO(a)(ii). Although the Town states the "DEP discharge permit for Surfside is a 'draft' since the Town has not been issued a 'final permit", it is unclear if the Town possesses any other records responsive to Ms. Perry's request. Order Accordingly, the Town is ordered to provide Ms. Perry with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations without delay. 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, ~~ Supervisor of Records cc: Meghan Perry Janelle M. Austin, Esq.