Laura H. Ortiz v. Office of the Attorney General (SPR 20231278)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records June 22, 2023 SPR23/1278 Lorraine A.G. Tarrow, Esq. Assistant Attorney General Records Access Officer Office of the Attorney General One Ashburton Place, 20th Floor Boston, MA 02108 Dear Attorney Tarrow: I have received the petition of Laura Ortiz appealing the response of the Office of the Attorney General (AGO) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On October 21, 2022, Ms. Ortiz requested the following records: [1] Any Emails & Attachments for AGO email server address: @mass.gov from: @doj.ca.gov Timeline for [1]: 2/28/21 [2] Any Emails & Attachments for AGO email server address: @mass.gov from: @ag.state.mn.us Timeline for [2]: 2/28/21. Previous appeals This request was the subject of previous appeals. See SPR22/2691 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (December 7, 2022), SPR23/0022 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 20, 2023) and SPR23/0860 Determinations of the Supervisor of Records (May 15, 2023 and June 5, 2023). In My January 20th determination, I stated, that the AGO is advised that it may not assess a fee for search time already expended on prior requests. The AGO responded on February 3, 2023. Unsatisfied with the response, Ms. Ortiz petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR23/1278, was opened as a result. Current Appeal In her appeal, Ms. Ortiz states that the AGO is charging excessive fees and “that the AGO continued to charge as it failed to follow the SPR determination and specifically the fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request.” Ms. Ortiz also asserts, AGO has yet to provide an actual Fee Estimate solely for the 39 CA AGO public records, which is 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

Lorraine A.G. Tarrow, Esq. SPR23/1278 Page 2 June 22, 2023 well below any 4 hours necessary to redact and segregate per its own formula needed, which results in no fees at all being warranted and shows that the AGO is merely using this as an opportunity to charge us because it doesn’t prefer our records requests, and their fee estimate in December 2022 is not even responsive to these records we requested ...” Ms. Ortiz further stated, that the “AGO’s RAO unlawfully withheld responsive documents in their entirety and failed to comply with G. L. c. 66, § 10(a) and (b), G. L. c. 66, § 10(d) and subsequent G. L. c. 66, § 10(e) without merit or cause as well as illegally charged us excessive fees for records related to prior records requests.” It is my understanding that the AGO intends on providing a further response to Ms. Ortiz to address her records request. Accordingly, the AGO is to provide Ms. Ortiz with said response in a manner consistent with 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. Ms. Ortiz may appeal the substantive nature of the AGO’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Laura Ortiz