Eric Brown v. Saugus, Town of - Police Department (SPR 20181857)

The Common,vealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords November 30, 2018 SPRlS/1857 Chief Ronald Giorgetti Interim Police Chief Saugus Police Department 27 Hamilton Street Saugus, MA O1 906 Dear Chief Giorgetti: I have received your petition on behalf of the Saugus Police Depaiiment (Depaiiment) seeking an extension of time to furnish copies of a requested record, or any p01iion thereof, as well as to charge $25 in responding to a request made by Attorney Eric R. Brown of the Law Offices ofE ric R. Brown. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). As required by law, a municipality must furnish a copy of their petition to the requestor. Id. In this matter, Attorney Brown requested, "[a]ll motor vehicle accident repo1is for [Saugus] from November 12, 2018 to November 18, 2018." Petitions to assess fees The Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may approve a petition from a municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting or to charge in excess of $25 per hour, if the Supervisor determines that 1) the request is for a commercial purpose or 2) the fee represents an actual and good faith representation by the municipality to comply with the request. G. L. c. 66, § 10( d)(iv). In rendering such a decision, the Supervisor is required to consider the following: a) the public interest served by limiting the cost of public access to the records; b) the financial ability of the requestor to pay the additional or increased fees; and c) any other relevant extenuating circumstances. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iv). The statute sets out a two-prong test for determining whether the Supervisor may approve a municipality's petition to allow the municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting records or to charge in excess of $25 an hour for the provision of public records. The first prong is whether the request for records was made for a commercial purpose. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). The second prong of the test is whether the fee represents an actual and good faith representation by the municipality to comply with the request. One Ashbmion Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Chief Giorgetti SPR18/1716 Page2 November 30, 2018 The Supervisor must consider 1) if the fee is necessary such that the request could not have been prndently completed without the redaction or segregation or fee in excess of $25 per hour; 2) the amount of the fee is reasonable; and 3) the fee is not designed to limit, deter or prevent access to requested public records. Id. Current Petition In your November 29, 2018 petition to this office you expressed that, "[t]he Saugus Police Department is requesting a time extension and an assessment of fees for the attached records request from the Law Offices of Eric Brown. You also state, "[t]he law office confirmed it was for commercial purposes when contacted and claimed the weekly request is for 'marketing purposes'. Included in our petition, is a copy of the form letter that the law office mailed to the involved party to adve1iise legal services." Your petition further expressed, "[i]t is estimated that the entire process will take approximately tlu·ee hours to complete for the attached request with a cost of $25 per hour for the one employee involved in the assignment." The term "commercial purpose'' as used in this section shall mean: the sale or resale of any p01iion of the public record or the use of information from the public record to advance the requester's strategic business interests in a manner that the requester can reasonably expect to make a profit, and shall not include gathering or i·eporting news or gathering information to promote citizen oversight or fmiher the understanding of the operation or activities of government or for academic, scientific, journalistic or public research or education. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(ix). Based on the Department's November 29, 2018 petition and the correspondence provided, it is my understanding that the requests made by the Lm1• Offices ofE ric R. Brown meet the statut01y definition of"commercial purpose" within the Public Records Law. See G. L. c. 66, § 10( d)(ix); see also SPRl 8/1318 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (September 5, 2018). Concl11sio11 Based on the Department's petition and my finding that the requests are for a commercial purpose, I approve the Department's petition to charge $25 an hour to produce the responsive documents. Please be advised, municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii). Fmiher, in light of the Department's November 29th petition for a time extension, I decline to opine on the Department's petition as the requestor has not agreed to pay the estimated fee for the provision of responsive records. If after hearing from Attorney Brown regarding an acceptance of the estimate the Depmiment still requires an extension of time to comply with the

Chief Giorgetti SPRIS/1716 Page 3 November 30, 2018 request or a waiver of the statutory limits on fees, the Department may file a subsequent petition. See G. L. c. 66, § I 0( c ); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4 )(g). Please note, the requestor has the right to seek judicial review of this decision by commencing a civil action in the appropriate superior court. See G. L. c. 66, § IOA(c). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Eric R. Brown, Esq. Christine Finocchiaro