Douglas Snook v. Rockland, Town of - Police Department (SPR 20221782)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records August 4, 2022 SPR22/1782 Lt. Nicholas P. Zeoli Lieutenant of Operations Rockland Police Department 490 Market Street Rockland, MA 02370 Dear Lieutenant Zeoli: On August 2, 2022, I received your petition on behalf of the Rockland Police Department (Department) seeking permission to charge for time spent segregating or redacting responsive records and a waiver of statutory limits on fees that may be assessed in responding to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). As required by law, a municipality must furnish a copy of its petition to the requestor. Id. In a letter dated August 2, 2022, Attorney Douglas K. Snook of Snook Law Office requested “…copies of all Motor Vehicle Crash Police Reports concerning any motor vehicle accidents which occurred in your jurisdiction from July 3, 2022 to July 9, 2022.” Petitions to assess fees The Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may approve a petition from a municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting or to charge in excess of $25 per hour, if the Supervisor determines that 1) the request is for a commercial purpose or 2) the fee represents an actual and good faith representation by the municipality to comply with the request. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). In rendering such a decision, the Supervisor is required to consider the following: a) the public interest served by limiting the cost of public access to the records; b) the financial ability of the requestor to pay the additional or increased fees; and c) any other relevant extenuating circumstances. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). The statute sets out a two-prong test for determining whether the Supervisor may approve a municipality’s petition to allow the municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting records or to charge in excess of $25 an hour for the provision of public records. The first prong is whether the request for records was made for a commercial purpose. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). The second prong of the test is whether the fee represents an actual and good faith 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

Lt. Nicholas P. Zeoli SPR22/1782 Page 2 August 4, 2022 representation by the municipality to comply with the request. The Supervisor must consider 1) if the fee is necessary such that the request could not have been prudently completed without the redaction or segregation or fee in excess of $25 per hour; 2) the amount of the fee is reasonable; and 3) the fee is not designed to limit, deter or prevent access to requested public records. Id. Current Petition In its August 2, 2022 petition to this office, the Department states, “[o]ur department is of the opinion that the request is being made for ‘a commercial purpose’. We are basing that opinion on the fact that the Snook Law Office specializes in Motor vehicle accidents and injury claims, as evidenced by their web site…For this reason I am petitioning to seek permission to assess fees for time spent segregating and/or redacting public records, and a petition to charge more than $25 per hour for preparing these requests.” With respect to fees, the Department states, “…the rate for the lowest paid employee capable of doing this work is $28.64 per hour.” In a letter to this office dated August 4, 2022, the Department indicates that “[t]he Administrative Assistant and the Executive Assistant are both the lowest paid hourly employees capable of doing the work due to the fact that they are the lowest paid employees of our department who have full unabated access to our records system.” The Department further notes it seeks to “…redact license numbers and dates of births as well as injured parties’ dates of births under the privacy exemption C.” The term “commercial purpose” as used in this section shall mean: the sale or resale of any portion of the public record or the use of information from the public record to advance the requester’s strategic business interests in a manner that the requester can reasonably expect to make a profit, and shall not include gathering or reporting news or gathering information to promote citizen oversight or further the understanding of the operation or activities of government or for academic, scientific, journalistic or public research or education. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(ix). Based on the Department’s August 2nd petition and the correspondence provided, it is my understanding that the request made by Attorney Snook meets the statutory definition of “commercial purpose” within the Public Records Law. See G. L. c. 66, § l0(d)(ix); see also ----- SPR20/2599 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 5, 2021). Conclusion In light of the Department’s petition and my finding that the request is for a commercial purpose, I approve the Department’s petition to assess a fee in excess of $25.00 per hour for time spent segregating or redacting responsive records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). Please note, municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for,

Lt. Nicholas P. Zeoli SPR22/1782 Page 3 August 4, 2022 compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii). Please note, the requestor 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, § 10A(c). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Douglas K. Snook, Esq.