Catherine Benjamin v. Charlton, Town of - Planning Board (SPR 20191212)

The Commonwealtb of Massacbusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Sripen•isor of Records July 1, 2019 SPR19/1212 Patricia Rydlak Charlton Planning Board 37 Main St #12 Charlton, MA 01507 Dear Patricia Rydlak: I have received the petition of Catherine Benjamin appealing the response of the Charlton Planning Board (Board) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Benjamin requested, "all new email and/or other electronic or written communications related to VGG, Charlton Orchards, 44 Old Worcester Road and 7 L Turner Drive and correspondence to, from and about Attny Pill since my request of January 3, 2019 to the current date which were not included in the initial PB response." Current Appeal In a letter dated June 16, 2019, Ms. Benjamin informed this office that records responsive to her request have not been provided. In her letter to the Board dated March 5, 2019, Ms. Benjamin notes, "[m]y reasons to believe the Planning Board Chairperson and the Board members have not been compliant with turning over records are numerous and to this point I offer the following questions for your consideration. 1. Where are attachments to all emails? 2. Where are all other board members emails? 3. Many of the e-mails the Chairperson produced were e-mails to her. What did she do with them? Why didn't The Chairperson send every email to Bill Scanlon and/or Jayne Garney and ask to have the emails added to the record? If the Chairperson did, why didn't she include the emails to Bill Scanlon and/or Jayne Garney and why weren't the materials added to the record? Did the Chairperson or any Board members respond to any citizen emails? More than 40 such emails were referenced in correspondence but were not provided. 4. No e-mails regarding the Chairperson's apology were included. Where are these emails? This pertained to the 'collateral damage' comment reported at the 10/24 Planning Board Meeting during the V GO Site Plan Hearing. Where are emails to/from Mr, Lemansky and Jessica Lewerenz on this issue? Why did Mr. Lemansky not provide these 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

Patricia Rydlack SPRl 9/1212 Page2 July 1, 2019 emails? Everything related to VGG was requested and this clearly was associated with voo. 5. I requested emails dated back to April 2018, however the Chairperson has only produced email dated from September 2018 forward. The rest of the Planning Board members produced nothing. 6. There is evidence of the Chairperson having strategy meetings with the project opposition, Preserve Charlton's Character leaders in email and/or Facebook Messenger, however none of these electronic messages were provided." Please ·be advised, the duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § 1O (a)(ii). Futiher, under the Public Records Law, the Board is not required to create a record in response to a public records request. In addition, a public employee is not required to answer questions, or do research, or create documents in response to questions. See G. L. c. 66, §lO(a); 32 Op. Atty Gen. 157, 165 (May 18, 1977). Although the Board provided Ms. Benjamin records responsive to her request, it is unclear if the Board possesses any other responsive records. Conclusion Accordingly, the Board is ordered to provide a supplemental response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations without delay. 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: Catherine Benjamin Randy Benson