Olufunmilola Shelly v. Framingham, City of (SPR 20213218)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records December 16, 2021 SPR21/3218 Todd Palmer SRAO Department City of Framingham 150 Concord Street Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Mr. Palmer: I have received the petition of Olufunmilola Shelly appealing the response of the City of Framingham (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On November 24, 2021, Ms. Shelly requested records involving “all current, pending, and closed lawsuits which included the municipality of Framingham, its school, police, or fire divisions since 1/1/2017.” The City responded on December 9, 2021. Unsatisfied with the City’s response, Ms. Shelly petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR21/3218, was opened as a result. Please be advised, under the Public Records Law a custodian is not required to create a record in response to a public records request. See G. L. c. 66, § 6A(d). In addition, a public employee is not required to answer questions, or do research, or create documents in response to questions. See 32 Op. Att’y Gen. 157, 165 (May 18, 1977). The duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a)(ii). Subsequently, the City provided a supplemental response to Ms. Shelly and this office on December 10, 2021. Given that the basis of this appeal was opened as a result of the City’s December 9, 2021 response, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Ms. Shelly may appeal the substantive nature of the City’s December 10th response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). 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

Todd Palmer, SRAO SPR21/3218 Page 2 December 16, 2021 Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Olufunmilola Shelly Christopher J. Petrini, Esq.