Paula Touhey v. Framingham, City of - Health Department (SPR 20191229)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records June 25, 2019 SPR19/1229 Director Samuel S. Wong Framingham Health Department 150 Concord St. Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Director Wong: I have received your petition on behalf of the City of Framingham-Department of Public Health (Department) seeking an extension of time to produce records. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). As required by law, the Department furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). Current petition In its petition dated June 17, 2019 the Department states, "[w]e received a records request 2019-0715 on May 9th 2019 from Ms. Touhey. After conducting research we sent out our good faith estimate to her on May 1i h 2019 of $350.00 for what we estimated to be 14 hours of work. On May 28th 2019 pursuant to MGL Chapter 66, Section lO(b)(v) and (vi) we notified Ms. Touhey that we would need an extra 15 days to complete the request which brought it to June 18th 2019. The health department has recently moved its office to a new location. The move has taken precedent over many other responsibilities of the department. We are now in our new location and have been getting the records ready to fulfill this request. However, we will need an additional few days to complete the request. I respectfully request until Friday June 21st to complete the request and get the documents to Ms. Touhey." Pelltwns ]or an extension oj lime Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shall not be limited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; 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

Dir. Wong SPR19/1229 Page 2 June 25, 2019 (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; ( v) whether the request, either individually or as part of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. G. L. c. 66, § IO(c). If the Supervisor determines that the request is part of a series of contemporaneous requests that are frivolous or designed to intimidate or harass, and the requests are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity, the Supervisor may grant a longer extension or relieve the agency or municipality of its obligation to provide copies of the records sought. Id. The filing of a petition does not affect the requirement that a Records Access Officer (RAO) shall provide an initial response to a requestor within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 C.M.R. 36.06(4)(b). Conclusion Subsequent to the intervention by a member of the Public Records Division, I learned that the Department provided Ms. Touhey records responsive to her request on June 19, 2019. In light of the Department's June 19th response, I find it is unnecessary to opine on the i 11 Department's June 1 petition at this time. Sincerely, ~M~ Supervisor of Records cc: Paula Touhey o . a mer Christopher M. Brown, Esq.