Jasmine E. Parthasarathy v. Woburn, City of - City Clerk (SPR 20202556)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records January 7, 2020 SPR20/2556 William Campbell City Clerk City of Woburn 10 Common Street Woburn, MA 01801 Dear Mr. Campbell: I have received the petition of Jasmine Eleftherakis Parthasarathy appealing the response of the City of Woburn City Clerk (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on July 30, 2020 and July 31, 2020, Ms. Parthasarathy requested text messages involving a number of identified people; emails and attachments to and from several identified people; emails messages and submitted through “ask the librarian;” private messages and responses submitted through the Woburn Public Library Facebook page from January 1, 2020 to the present. The City provided Ms. Parthasarathy with responsive records to her requests with the exception of the responsive text messages. In an August 6, 2020 email, the City Solicitor, Ellen Callahan Doucette, informed Ms. Parthasarathy that the City’s IT Department was asked to contact Verizon to obtain any text messages. In an email to Ms. Parthasarathy on October 16, 2020, City Solicitor Ellen Callahan Doucette asserted, “I have been informed by Ms. Roalsen that she does not communicate with Mr. Walsh or Ms. Meehan via text message, nor does she have any text messages from them.” In addition, on October 16th, Attorney Doucette informed Ms. Parthasarathy, “…Ms. Roalsen informed me that there are none, and any that would be in existence would require a court order.” As a result of the City’s responses pertaining to the text messages, Ms. Parthasarathy petitioned the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor), and this appeal was opened. In her petition for this appeal, Ms. Parthasarathy asks the Supervisor to assess whether the text messages exist. Based on the City’s response, I find it is unclear whether the text messages existed and were destroyed or whether the text messages did not ever exist. The City must clarify this. 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

William C. Campbell SPR20/2556 Page 2 January 7, 2020 Conclusion Accordingly, the City is ordered to provide Ms. Parthasarathy with a response to her request for the text messages, 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: Jasmine Eleftherakis Parthasarathy Ellen Callahan Doucette, Esq., City Solicitor