D W v. Greenfield, City of - City Clerk (SPR 20191255)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords June 27, 2019 SPR19/1255 Kathryn J. Scott Greenfield City Clerk City of Greenfield Greenfield, MA 01301 Dear Kathryn J. Scott: I have received your petition dated June 20, 2019 on behalf of the City of Greenfield (City) seeking an extension of time to produce responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). As required by law, it is my understanding that the City furnished a copy of the petition to the requestor. Id. Petitions for an Extension of Time 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; (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, § lO(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 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

Kathryn J. Scott SPR19/1255 Page 2 June 27, 2019 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). Current Petition In its June 20th petition the City states "I am requesting an extension for a Public Record requests received by the City of Greenfield." The City further writes, "[r]equest number 19-180 requires additional time to complete due to the large volume of time this request will take to fulfill." June 11th Letter It its letter to the requestor dated June 11, 2019 the City writes, "[i]f you would like to proceed with this request as written, please respond as soon as possible. Due to the cost of fulfillment, payment of the estimate must be received before documents are compiled. Due to the scope of your request and the anticipated time of 541 hours (72 days) to search for, compile, segregate, redact and reproduce these records, a response time beyond 25 days is anticipated." Subsequent to the intervention by a staff member of the Public Records Division I learned that the City reached out the requestor on June 18th and suggested a modification of the original request. June 18th Response In response the requestor states, "I have begun my appeal of the Cities' functional denial of my open records request by its demand of such an excessive fee for producing records." Conclusion Please be advised, it is unclear how many additional business days the City is seeking to produce responsive records. In addition, it is unclear if the requestor has submitted an appeal. Therefore, I decline to opine on the City's petition at this time. The City may re-submit its petition within twenty business days after initial receipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). This office encourages the requestor and the City to continue to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(b )(vii) (a municipality shall suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requestor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Any updated fee estimate by the City must be in compliance with this determination, the Public Records Law, and its Access Regulations.

Kathryn J. Scott SPR19/1255 Page 3 June 27, 2019 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: DW