Rick Paris v. Mount Greylock Regional School District (SPR 20191791)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords September 17 , 2019 SPR19/1791 Stacie A. Vigiard Records Access Officer Mount Greylock Regional School District 1781 Cold Spring Rd. Williamstown, MA 01267 Dear Ms. Vigiard: I have received the petition of Rick Paris appealing the response of the Mount Greylock Regional School District (District) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Paris initially requested "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 dates of December 2017 and March 13, 2019." Prior appeals The requested records were the subject of prior appeals. See SPR19/833 Detennination of the Supervisor of Records (May 7, 2019); SPR19/1038 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (June 4, 2019); SPRl 9/13 56 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (July 22, 2019). In my July 2211 d determination I ordered the District to provide Mr. Paris with a response to the request, in a manner consistent with the order, the Public· Records Law and its Regulations. Mr. Paris subsequently modified his request to include the following dates: November 2018 through March 2019. The District responded on August 30, 2019 by providing a fee estimate. Mr. Paris objects to this fee and SPR19/1791 was opened as a result. 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, § 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, § 10(d )(i). 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

Stacie A. Vigiard SPR19/1791 Page 2 September 17, 2019 Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first 2 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. 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, § lO(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 a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Current appeal The District previously provided fee estimates that explained it intended to assess a fee to produce records. In my July 22nd determination I found it remained unclear why the District required 8 hours to produce responsive records; specifically, the District had not established how much time per email is needed for review, nor had it explained how it may charge for the time spent preparing the records" ... for reproduction into a singular PDF in order to be sent to the requestor electronically ...." Therefore, I found the District must clarify these matters; I also encouraged the parties to communicate further to detennine whether any responsive records may be provided more efficiently and affordably. The District's August 30th response addresses Mr. Paris's modified request described above. This response indicates "[a] preliminary search resulted in 516 emails that need to be examined. This estimate takes into account the time it will take the Superintendent to search for and collect emails relevant to this request as well as to prepare them for reproduction into a singular PDF in order to be sent to the requestor electronically via the email address provided (parisrmd@verizon.net). It is not anticipated that any records subject to this request would need to be segregated or redacted, therefore, no time has been included within this estimate for that purpose. You also note that " ... the District is providing an estimate that assumes it will take approximately 1 minute per email to complete the work associated with this request for information." In his appeal petition Mr. Paris contends that in a previous response dated August 2, 2019, the District stated it would take 30 seconds to review each email. He notes that in the August 30th response described above the District estimates it will require 1 minute per email. Mr. Paris asserts that the District should only require 30 seconds to review the emails responsive to his narrowed request. It appears the District does not intend to assess a fee for time spent segregating and/or redacting records. However, it remains unclear why the District requires 1 minute per email, particularly in light of Mr. Paris's assertion that the District previously estimated 30 seconds per

Stacie A. Vigiard SPR19/1791 Page 3 September 17, 2019 email. The District also has not explained how it may charge for the time spent preparing the records" ... for reproduction into a singular PDF in order to be sent to the requestor electronically ...." Therefore, I find that the District must clarify these matters. Conclusion Accordingly, the District is ordered to provide Mr. Paris with a response to the request, in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations 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: Rick Paris