Rick Paris v. Mount Greylock Regional School District (SPR 20190656)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts · William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords April 10, 2019 SPR 19/0656 Johnathan Nopper Mount Greylock Regional School District 1781 Cold Spring Road, Suite 1 Williamstown, MA 01267 Dear Mr. Nopper: I have received the petition of Mr. Rick Paris appealing the response of the Mount Greylock Regional School District (District) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § IOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Paris requested "all phone conversations, emails, and text messages between Superintendent Kim Grady and School Committee members Regina DiLego and Joe Bergeron regarding [Mr. Paris] and [his] job duties between the dates of November 2017 and March 4, 2019." The District responded on March 13th, providing a fee estimate. They estimated that the "search, collection, and reproduction" of the requested records would require fourteen (14) hours. Mr. Paris provided a revised request on March 18th for "all phone conversations, emails, and text messages between Superintendent Kim Grady and School Committee member Regina DiLego regarding [Mr. Paris] and/or Lanesborough Elementary School between the date of December 2017 and March 13, 2019." The District provided a revised fee estimate. Fee estimates A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § IO(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for a black and white single or double-sided photocopy of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(i). 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. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities may include as part of the fee an hourly rate equal to or less than the hourly rate attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id. 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

Johnathan Nopper SPR19/0656 Page2 April 10, 2019 However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iv). A fee shall not be assessed for time spent segregating or redacting records unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). The District's March 25th Response The District provided a revised fee estimate on March 25th for the "search, collection, and reproduction" ofresponsive records, estimating that fourteen (14) hours would be needed to comply with the request. Mr. Sullivan appealed this estimate on these basis that he doesn't "think that is a true estimate," because despite reducing the time period by a month and the number of people from three to one, the amount of time required to compile the records remained the same. Mr. Paris asserted that he "believe[s] it's overly exaggerated ... How can it take 14 [hours] for 1 person as in the previous request for 3 people? So only 1 person which was on the first request for 1 month shorter and it is still 14 [hours] ... " Based on the District's responses, it is unclear why fourteen hours will be needed to produce the responsive records. It is uncertain how many records are responsive, where they are kept, and what format they are in that would require fourteen hours to compile them. 1 Furthermore, it is unclear why the revised request will take the same amount of time as the original request. I find the District must clarify why fourteen hours will be required to comply with the revised request. Order Accordingly, the District is ordered to provide Mr. Paris with a response in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law, its Regulations, and this order within 10 business days. 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, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Mr. Rick Paris