Richard Karp v. Canton, Town of - Town Clerk (SPR 20190400)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords February 27, 2019 SPR19/400 Tracy K. Kenney Town Clerk and Records Access Officer Memorial Hall 801 Washington Street Canton, MA 02021 Dear Ms. Kenney: I have received the petition of Richard Karp appealing the response of the Town of Canton (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on December 13, 2018, Mr. Karp requested: "Inventory of [T]own owned street signage used for construction or detours on January 2018, July 2018, August 2018 and December 2018." In a December 31, 2018 response, the Town indicates that it has no records responsive to Mr. Karp's request for an inventory of Town-owned signage for construction and/or detours. Under the Public Records Law, the Town is not required to create a list ofrecords or any record in response to a public records request. The duty to comply with requests for information extends only to those records that exist and are in the custody of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 4, § 7(26). The parties are encouraged to continue to communicate to determine whether there are public records in the possession of the Town relating to this request that Mr. Karp may be interested in receiving. Accordingly, where the Town has no records responsive to the request for an inventory, I consider this administrative appeal closed. Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Richard Karp 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