Ronald Alexander v. Framingham, Town of - City Solicitor (SPR 20190449)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records March 7, 2019 SPR19/449 Christopher L. Brown, Esq. Petrini & Associates, P.C. Counselors at Public Law 372 Union Avenue Framingham, MA O1 702 Dear Attorney Brown: I have received the petition of Ronald Alexander appealing the response of the City of Framingham School Committee (Committee) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Alexander requested to inspect: "all minutes and notes created for and during the Executive [S]ession meetings of the [School Committee] on June 6, 2018. Now that all matters discussed during the June 6 meeting have been resolved and concluded ('Unit A Contract Topics' and 'Saviatto vs. Framingham Public Schools'), these executive session minutes should be releasable in their entirety and completely unredacted." As a result of the redaction of the executive session minutes, Mr. Alexander petitioned the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor), and this appeal was opened. Open Meeting Law The School Committee provided Mr. Alexander with a copy of the Executive Session meeting minutes; however, the minutes were redacted with the School Committee claiming an exemption to withhold certain of the content. In your January 28, 2019 email response, on behalf of the School Committee as its Legal Counsel, you informed Mr. Alexander that a section of the executive session minutes were withheld under G. L. c. 30A, § 22(g)(2). Please be advised that the interpretation of the Open Meeting Law falls within the authority of the Office of the Attorney General and not this office. Therefore, I decline to provide a determination as to the status of the redacted portion of the executive session minutes and on any other existing records responsive to Mr. Alexander's request. See G. L. c. 30A, § 23. It is recommended that Mr. Alexander contact the Division of Open Government within the Office of the Attorney General should he seek a determination on this issue. 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

Christopher Brown, Esq. SPR19/449 Page2 March 7, 2019 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Ronald Alexander