Public Records v. Sherborn, Town of - Town Administrator (SPR 20202039)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records November 4, 2020 SPR20/2039 David Williams Town Administrator Town of Sherborn 19 Washington Street Sherborn, MA 01770 Dear David Williams: I have received the petition of “publicrecordssherbornma” appealing the nonresponse of the Town of Sherborn (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on October 6, 2020 the requestor sought three categories of records concerning the Sherborn Police Department. Current Appeal In an email dated October 6, 2020 the Town notes, “[t]he Town Clerk’s office has no records responsive to [the] request and the request has been forwarded to the Select Board Office.” In a letter to this office dated October 22, 2020, the reqestor notes, “[a]s of yesterday at 3:00PM, I have not received any response from the Town Administrator specific to my request.” In a follow up email dated October 30, 2020, the Town writes, “please understand we are a small town with a town hall that is still closed to the public and still at half staff at best. At full functioning we would have a difficult time in the short-term responding to these requests in a timely manner without significantly hampering town operations, so as we wrap our minds around the work to be done, and arrive at a cost estimate, please bear with us. We do intend to provide all documents responsive to the request.” As of the date of this letter a response has not been provided. Conclusion Accordingly, the Town is ordered to provide a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations without delay. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. 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

David Williams SPR20/2039 Page 2 November 4, 2020 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: publicrecordssherbornma