Alyssa Anderson v. Boston, City of - Public Records (SPR 20201082)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records July 16, 2020 SPR20/1082 Shawn A. Williams, Esq. City of Boston 1 City Hall Plaza Room 615 Boston, MA 02201 Dear Attorney Williams: I have received the petition of Alyssa Anderson appealing the response of the City of Boston (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Anderson requested different categories of records “related to 4 Pinckney Street, Boston, MA…” The City responded to Ms. Anderson including a fee estimate. Previous Appeal This request is the subject of a previous appeal. See SPR20/0957 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (June 30, 2020). In my June 30th Determination, I found the City provided Ms. Anderson with a supplemental response on June 29, 2020. Whereas the City had sent Ms. Anderson a supplemental response addressing her appeal, I considered the appeal closed. Unsatisfied with the June 29th response provided by the City, Ms. Anderson petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR20/1082, was opened as a result. Current Appeal In its June 29th response, the City states to Ms. Anderson “you provided search terms to me and I used those search terms to formulate the first fee estimate. I then told you I would happily work with you to help you clarify or narrow your request. You send revised search terms and I used those revised search terms to conduct a second search. I then provided a revised fee estimate that was lower than the first… I did not provide any costs for search time in my fee estimates for you; I have spent far more than two hours searching thus far. Further, my fee estimate is only for 1 minute of time per email. My latest estimate is less than $400 even though I will be reviewing over 30,000 pages of records.” 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

Shawn A. Williams, Esq. SPR20/1082 Page 2 July 16, 2020 In her appeal, Ms. Anderson states “I appeal because his statement regarding the number of records cannot be accurate for the reason I stated below…[a]gain, I request a sample set of the responsive public records along with the exact searches entered, entered, the order in which the search terms are entered, whether parentheses and the terms/functions ‘and’, ‘or’ or ‘and not’ or their equivalents are entered and, if so, the order in which they are entered.” This office encourages Ms. Anderson and the City to continue to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, §10(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). If unresolved issues remain, Ms. Anderson may file an appeal asserting a violation of G. L. c. 66, § 10. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Alyssa Anderson