Commonwealth Transparency v. Nashoba Regional School District (SPR 20212893)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records November 16, 2021 SPR21/2893 Patricia Marone Director of Business Operations Nashoba Regional School District 50 Mechanic Street Bolton, MA 01740 Dear Patricia Marone: I have received the petition of Commonwealth Transparency appealing the response of the Nashoba Regional School District (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On October 12, 2021, Commonwealth Transparency requested the following: [1] Any and all public records requests seeking public records of your school(s), and/or district(s)[;] [2] All metadata from the requests in #1 above including all contact information of the requestor, including but not limited to emails and text messages[;] [3] All electronic communications regarding #1 above including but not limited to emails and text messages[;] [4] All responses, appeals, fee requests and responsive records resulting from the requests in #1 above. Previous petition This request was the subject of a previous fee and time petition. See SPR21/2828 Supervisor of Records Determination (October 29, 2021). The School was granted permission to charge for segregation and redaction when responding to this request. On October 26, 2021, the School responded to Commonwealth Transparency’s request, including a fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the School’s response, Commonwealth Transparency petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR21/2893, was opened as a result. 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

Patricia Marone SPR21/2893 Page 2 November 16, 2021 Fee Estimates A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for a black and white single or double-sided photocopy of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(i). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities may include as part of the fee an hourly rate equal to or less than the hourly rate attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). A fee shall not be assessed for time spent segregating or redacting records unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Petitions relating to fees must be submitted to the Supervisor within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4)(g). The School’s October 26th Response In its October 26, 2021 response, the School stated that: The [School] is in possession of approximately 600 pages of public records requests responsive to your Request #1. With respect to your Requests # 2 & 3, the [School] searched its email system for the words “public records” and/or “FOIA.” The [School]’s search generated 24,254 emails which may be responsive to your request and will need to review each email to ensure responsiveness. The [School] is not aware of any text messages responsive to your request. Lastly, the [School] is in possession of approximately 600 pages of “responses, appeals, fee requests and responsive records resulting from the requests.” The [School] has no other responsive documents…In this case, the [School] estimates that it will take approximately thirty (30) seconds per email to read the email and determine whether it is responsive to the request. Furthermore, the [School] has already spent 4 hours of time searching for the records. As a result, the [School] estimates a total of 206 hours for search of the records.

Patricia Marone SPR21/2893 Page 3 November 16, 2021 Current Appeal In its November 1st appeal, Commonwealth Transparency states the following: The RAO has stated “As a result, the District estimates a total of 206 hours for search of the records.” for an improper use of the term “search”, this is an incredulous number and is wholly unsupported by both the request itself and the response.…Wherefore [Commonwealth Transparency] respectfully requests that the [Supervisor of Records] find and Order RAO of the [School] to provide all responsive documents identified as responsive and…to re-search and produce all records responsive and that they be released without charge and without delay as none of the identified documents require further search and a charge cannot be levied against the requestor because no statutory exemption to the general rule of public disclosure is valid in the RAO’s response. The School must clarify the tasks involved in its search for responsive records. Conclusion Accordingly, the School is ordered to provide Commonwealth Transparency with a response to the request, 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: Commonwealth Transparency