Joel Fleming v. Massachusetts Port Authority (SPR 20190745)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords April 24, 2019 SPR19/0745 Margarita Bardales Massachusetts Port Authority One Harborside Drive, Suite 200S Boston, MA 02128 Dear Ms. Bardales: I have received the petition of Joel Fleming appealing the nonresponse of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Authority) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Fleming requested "all emails sent to or sent by EdwardFreni from January 1, 2019 to the present, containing any of the following keywords (non-case-sensitive): uber, lyft, tnc." As of the date of this letter, it is my understanding that the Authority has not provided Mr. Fleming a response to his request for records. Public Records Law Under the Public Records Law and the Access Regulations (Regulations) all requests for public records must be met with a response within 10 business days ofreceipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)-(b). The response may contain, among other things, an offer to provide records, a fee estimate for provision of the records, or a denial. G. L. c. 66, § 1O (b ). All records custodians must comply with both the Public Records Law and the Regulations with respect to the timeliness of response. An agency 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, § 10(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, § lO(d)(i). Agencies may not assess a fee for the first four ( 4) hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(ii). Where appropriate, agencies 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 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

Margarita Bardales SPR19/0745 Page 2 April 25, 2019 search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id. 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 a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(ii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Order Accordingly, the Authority is ordered to provide Mr. Fleming with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law, and it's Regulations without delay. 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: Joel Fleming