Laura Kiesel v. Boston Housing Authority (SPR 20213064)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records November 29, 2021 SPR21/3064 Caesar P. Cardozo, Esq. General Counsel Boston Housing Authority 52 Chauncy Street, 10th Floor Boston, MA 02111 Dear Attorney Cardozo: I have received your petition on behalf of the Boston Housing Authority (Authority) requesting an extension of time to produce records. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c). As required by law, the Authority furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c). On October 21, 2021, Laura Kiesel requested various records concerning the use of Second Generation Coagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) at the Authority’s properties. Previous Appeal This request was the subject of a previous appeal. See SPR21/2948 Supervisor of Records Determination (November 19, 2021). In my November 19th determination, I found that the Authority may assess a fee to produce responsive records, and I encouraged the Authority and Ms. Kiesel to continue communicating in order to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordable. Petitions for an extension of time Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shall not be limited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; 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

Caesar P. Cardozo, Esq. SPR21/3064 Page 2 November 29, 2021 (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; (v) whether the request, either individually or as part of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c). The filing of a petition does not affect the requirement that a Records Access Officer (RAO) shall provide an initial response to a requestor within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 C.M.R. 36.06(4)(b). Extension of time to produce responsive records In its November 19, 2021 petition, the Authority “requests a thirty (30) business day extension and requests that the extension period commence the business day after BHA and Laura Kiesel . . . reach an agreement regarding the scope and production cost of her request.” The Authority goes on to explain the following: The production of . . . records in response to the PRR will be a substantial undertaking for the BHA because the PRR is a multi-year records request that will involve the search and compilation of hundreds of pages of hard-copy records located at 31 different residential housing sites. In some cases the records will need to be retrieved from BHA file archives. The record production process may include segregation and redaction time because some of the records may contain BHA resident personal data. BHA personnel assigned to compile the records will by necessity be on-site property management employees working at the 31 BHA residential developments. Consequently, the BHA employees who will conduct the record production will be required to complete the production process while also performing their daily residential property management services and functions. Therefore, at each of the 31 BHA sites, the work on the records production will without doubt be interrupted on an as-needed basis in order to respond to residents’ requests for services that may involve state sanitary code related issues. The Authority notes that “the date of this petition (November 19, 2021) is within twenty (20) business days of October 21, 2021.” I find in light of the need to collect and segregate the requested records, as well as the the capacity of the Authority to produce the request without an extension, the Authority has established good cause to permit an extension of time. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c)(i)-(ii). The Authority is granted an extension of 30 business days. Please note the time may begin to run once the Authority receives payment. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c).

Caesar P. Cardozo, Esq. SPR21/3064 Page 3 November 29, 2021 Conclusion Accordingly, I find the Authority has established good cause for a time extension of 30 business days as described above. This office encourages Ms. Kiesel the Authority 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 agency to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Any further fee estimate from the Authority must be made in compliance with G. L. c. 66, § 10(b)(viii) and G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii). Please note, Ms. Kiesel has the right to seek judicial review of this decision by commencing a civil action in the appropriate superior court. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv)(4), 10A(c). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Laura Kiesel