Amy Friedman v. Malden City Clerk's Office (SPR 20200701)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords May 5, 2020 SPR20/0701 Felicia Vasudevan, Esq. Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP City Clerk City of Malden 110 Pleasant Street Malden, MA 02148 Dear Attorney Vasudevan: I have received your petition on behalf of the City of Malden (City) seeking relief from its obligation to produce responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). As required by law, the City furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). Bruce Friedman made four separate requests in April including GPS data for special needs transp01iation, video monitoring data, and "[v]ideo monitoring data retention policies and/or schedules for any and all Special Needs transportation ... " 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) eff01is 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 requester, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious 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

Felicia Vasudevan, Esq. SPR20/0701 Page2 May 5, 2020 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). Current Petition In its April 29th petition, the City requests "relief from its obligation to respond to the requestor on the basis that the petitioner's serial requests are intended to harass Malden due to pending litigation." The City states "[t]he first request is very similar to Mr. Friedman's December 12, 2019 request ... except now he has expanded his request ... Malden responded providing detailed reasons on why such video footage is not subject to disclosure. The same reasoning applies to this request. .. " Regarding Mr. Friedman's fourth request, the City states it was similar to a previous request where the City "provided the municipal retention policies." The City indicates "Mr. Friedman has filed forty-two appeals of public records requests, which is an average of seven appeals per month ... [h]e has filed duplicative requests for GPS records that are a part of discovery dispute in existing litigation." Based on the information provided in the April 29th petition, I find that the City has not demonstrated the requests are frivolous and not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity, as required by G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). Conclusion The City must provide a response to Mr. Friedman in accordance with the Public Records Law as soon as practicable. This response may identify any records, categories of records or portions of records that the City intends to withhold, and provide the specific reasons for such withholding, including the specific exemption or exemptions upon which the withholding is based. See G. L. c. 66, § IO(b)(iv). Please note, this office may deny an appeal if, in the opinion of the Supervisor of Records, the request is designed or intended to harass, intimidate, or assist in the commission of a crime. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2)(b)(2).

Felicia Vasudevan, Esq. SPR20/0701 Page 3 May 5, 2020 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Bruce Friedman