James Herms v. Lexington, Town of (SPR 20202453)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records December 22, 2020 SPR20/2453 Kelley E. Axtell, MBA Deputy Town Manager Town of Lexington 1625 Massachusetts Avenue Lexington, MA 02420 Dear Ms. Axtell: I have received the petition of James Herms appealing the response of the Town of Lexington (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on December 9, 2020, Mr. Herms requested the following records, “COVID-19 case numbers and descriptions for employees at MIT’s Lexington campus. 1. Case numbers: Staff, MIT Lincoln Laboratory. 2. Case descriptions, by testing date. Time periods of interest: March 5–July 22; July 23–present.” Unsatisfied with the response, Mr. Herms appealed and SPR20/2543 was opened as a result. Subsequent to the intervention by a staff attorney of the Public Records Division, I learned that the Town responded to Mr. Herms’ request with a subsequent response sent on December 14, 2020. Whereas the basis of this appeal was opened as a result of the Town’s December 10th response, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Mr. Herms may appeal the substantive nature of the Town’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely. Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: James Herms 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