Robin C. Wagner v. South Hadley, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20190274)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords February 19, 2019 SPR19/0274 Nicholas D. Young Superintendent of Schools Town of South Hadley 116 Main Street South Hadley, MA 01075 Dear Dr. Young: I have received your petition on behalf of the Town of South Hadley (Town) seeking an extension of time to furnish copies of a requested record, or any portion thereof. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). As required by law, the Town furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. Id. In a request, Robin Wagner sought records concerning emails made between named school committee members and the Superintendent "between the dates of April 10, 2018, and January 8, 2019," as well as between "March 2, 2018 through Tuesday, March 6, 2018." The request also included "[a] copy of Dr. Young's annual performance evaluation ... including supporting material ... submitted by the school committee at their March 5, 2018 meeting." Petitions/or 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; (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 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

Nicholas D. Young SPR19/0274 Page 2 February 19, 2019 (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 The Town petitioned this office on February 11, 2018, requesting "an additional 15 business days to complete this request upon receipt of payment in order to allow adequate time to schedule aforementioned review with counsel." The Town explains "[t]he request was for emails to be provided in electronic form; however, as some include sensitive information regarding on going legal matters, all need to be printed and reviewed as appropriate with legal counsel. The information will then be scanned at the conclusion of this process." The Town also indicates "the cost will be $675 to complete this task (24 hours to find, print and review emails to determine the ones with information requiring legal review followed by an additional 3 hours with legal counsel to make a determination on said emails x $25 per hour)." The Public Records Law provides that a municipality may provide a time frame not to exceed 25 business days to produce responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § lO(b)(vi). As mentioned above, the Town's time extension request indicated it would need "15 additional business days." Under the Public Records Law and Access Regulations (Regulations), a municipality must provide a written response to the requestor that may "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 agency or municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably." G. L. c. 66, § lO(b)(vii). This office encourages the Town and Ms. Wagner to communicate further to enable the Town to provide the requested public records.

Nicholas D. Young SPR19/0274 Page 3 February 19, 2019 Conclusion Accordingly, given that the Town has indicated it would produce records within 25 business days ofreceipt of the request, I find it unnecessary to opine on the Town's petition for an extension of time to produce records at this time. The Town must produce any responsive records to Ms. Wagner in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Access Regulations by February 13, 2019. Ms. Wagner may appeal the substantive nature of the Town's response within 90 days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Robin Wagner