Gabriel O'Hara Salini v. Attorney General's Office (SPR 20252513)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records September 9, 2025 PR25/2513 Hanne Rush, Esq. Assistant Attorney General Records Access Officer Office of the Attorney General One Ashburton Place, 20th Floor Boston, MA 02108 Dear Attorney Rush: I have received the petition of Gabriel O’Hara Salini 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 May 22, 2025, Mr. Salini requested the following records for the time period January 1, 2014, to present: [1] Access to all non-tort settlement and judgment authorization forms submitted to the Comptroller’s office for approval by your office. I have provided a link to a blank form to make clear what we seek under the law ... [2] All Settlement and Judgment Multiple Claimant Spreadsheet requests submitted by your office. [3] All records related to claims made by individuals or entities which resulted in the [AGO] making a payment from the state Settlement and Judgment Fund, pursuant to M.G.L. c.30A and M.G.L. c258 sec 1-5. On June 4, 2025, Mr. Salini modified the request and stated, “[w]e would be interested in the settlement cases that ended in a payment being made.” Prior appeal This request was the subject of a prior appeal. See SPR25/1887 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (July 14, 2025). In my July 14th determination, I encouraged Mr. Salini and the AGO to communicate in order to facilitate producing records efficiently and affordably. 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

Hanne Rush, Esq. SPR25/2513 Page 2 September 9, 2025 The AGO responded and provided a fee estimate on August 18, 2025. Unsatisfied with the response, Mr. Salini petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR25/2513, was opened as a result. Fee estimate - agencies An agency 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). Agencies may not assess a fee for the first 4 hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested. G. L. c. 66; § 10(d)(ii). Where appropriate, agencies 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. 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)(ii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Current appeal In his August 25, 2025 appeal, Mr. Salini stated, “[f]ollowing the [Supervisor’s July 14th] determination, I emailed the AGO on Aug. 4, suggesting the documentation be provided to me in a rolling fashion, providing them with samples of the authorization form which may help them locate the type of documents I was looking for and suggesting to further discuss the topic if necessary to ensure the delivery of the documents. . . . On August 7, I sent 84 documents . . . related to the responsive records I was looking for. On August 18, Press Secretary . . . replied with an official communication in which their office stated my request did not meet the reasonableness standard and that I had made no attempt to narrow my request to allow the AGO to identify the universe of records. . . . To this day I have received no responsive records . . .” The AGO’s August 18th response In its August 18, 2025 response, the AGO provided a fee estimate of $450.00. In support of the fee estimate, the AGO stated the following: . . . the labor required to search for and provide any Complaints and/or settlement agreements connected to the approximately 18 litigation matters handled by the AGO, the 6 separation agreements entered with former AGO employees, as well as approximately 50 invoices for outside legal services the AGO indemnified for representation of its former employees in a legal proceeding, and then review the records for information protected by law, amounts to twenty-two (22.0) hours

Hanne Rush, Esq. SPR25/2513 Page 3 September 9, 2025 This estimate accounts for: four (4.0) hours . . . to search . . . and review the forms provided from the Comptroller’s Office; nine (9.0) hours for staff to search for and compile the Complaints and settlement agreements for the approximately 18 litigation matters and, as necessary, segregate and redact the settlement agreements for certain information exempted from disclosure by law; nine (9.0) hours to search for and compile the approximately 6 separation agreements and 50 legal services invoices and, as necessary, segregate and redact the records for certain information exempted from disclosure by law, all at the rate of $25.00 per hour. However, G.L. c. 66 § 10(d)(ii)(B) provides that no fees shall be charged for the first four (4.0) hours of labor required to respond to a public records request. Therefore, the total amount of chargeable labor to respond to such a request, as proposed above, is eighteen (18.0) hours at the rate of $25.00 per hour, which amounts to $450.00. The AGO further stated, “. . . an agency may charge 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, however, not to exceed $25.00 per hour. We do not anticipate that any AGO staff with a salary of less than $25.00 per hour can perform the abovementioned search, review, and segregation.” The AGO further asserted, “[t]he AGO maintains its position that your request does not meet the reasonableness standard for the reasons stated in its June 11, 2025 response and reiterated above. You have not attempted to narrow your request to allow the AGO to identify the universe of records.” The AGO outlined the tasks involved to comply with Mr. Salini’s request as follows: We interpret your request to mean that you seek every record “related to” an entire case file for each of the cases/matters for which the AGO has submitted a non-tort settlement and judgment form to the Comptroller’s Office since 2014, which may include a search of paper case files, electronic files as well as email communications. Although the AGO has estimated that the process of compiling, reviewing, and preparing responsive documents for production will take 22 hours of employee time, it is unclear how the AGO requires this many hours to produce responsive records. The AGO must provide details on how much time it has allocated to search, segregate and/or redact the requested records. Also, the AGO must explain how many minutes per page it requires to redact the responsive records. Further, the AGO must clarify whether the redactions are required by law, and state the applicable statutes, if any. Pursuant to the Public Records Law, a fee may 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)(ii). As such, the AGO must provide additional information regarding its fee estimate. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv) (requiring the amount of the fee be reasonable).

Hanne Rush, Esq. SPR25/2513 Page 4 September 9, 2025 This office encourages Mr. Salini and the AGO to continue to communicate directly in order to facilitate producing records efficiently and affordably. Mr. Salini may wish to narrow the parameters or include applicable time periods or factors to enable the search to be processed. G. L. c. 66, § l0(a)(i). The AGO must use its knowledge of the records to facilitate providing any responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § l0(a)(vii) (an agency or 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 or municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Conclusion Accordingly, the AGO is to provide Mr. Salini with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of the response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Mr. Salini 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: Gabriel O’Hara Salini