Jayne Thompson v. Templeton, Town of - Town Administrator (SPR 20253039)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records October 27, 2025 SPR25/3039 James J. Ryan Town Administrator Town of Templeton 160 Patriots Road Templeton, MA 01438 Dear Mr. Ryan: I have received the petition of Jayne Thompson appealing the response of the Town of Templeton (Town) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On October 10, 2025, Ms. Thompson requested “…all correspondence between the town clerk’s office and the selectboard and the interim TA… regarding citizens’ petitions that were validated to be placed on the warrant for the fall Town Meeting 2025. The date range requested is 5/1/2025 - 10/10/2025.” The Town responded on October 16, 2025, providing a fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the Town’s response, Ms. Thompson petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR25/3039, was opened as a result. Fee Estimates – Municipalities A municipality 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). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first 2 (two) hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities 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. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). 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

James J. Ryan SPR25/3039 Page 2 October 27, 2025 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)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). The Town’s October 16th Response In its October 16, 2025 response, the Town assessed a fee of $50.00 to provide the responsive records. In support of its fee estimate the Town stated: Most of these records exist in electronic format between multiple emails and will require staff to work with the Town’s IT vendor to gather emails by key words. This work will then require a staff person to go through the records and remove any documents that do not pertain to the request and/or confidential attorney- client privilege records. Although the cost to the Town to do this work will be more than $25 per hour, municipalities may charge not more than $25 per hour for the time spent searching for, compiling, segregating, redacting, and reproducing a requested record without permission from the Supervisor of Public Records. Therefore, the fee for time spent searching for, compiling, and segregating the requested records is $50 for approximately 2 hours of work. Once this fee is received, the Town will produce the requested records, subject to the attorney-client privilege and any applicable exemptions to the Public Records Law. Current Appeal In her appeal petition, Ms. Thompson stated, “[t]he citizens would like to know what happened. Did the SB chair receive the citizens petitions in May as the town clerk stated in an email or did he not receive them. TA now sent me the attached letter telling there will be a fee for this.” Fee Waivers G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(v) provides the following with respect to waiving a fee for the production of responsive records: the records access officer may waive or reduce the amount of any fee charged under this subsection upon a showing that disclosure of a requested record is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor, or upon a showing that the requestor lacks the financial ability to pay the full amount of the reasonable fee. Please be advised, although the Supervisor may encourage fees to be waived, the Supervisor may not mandate that a records access officer waive fees assessed for complying with a public records request; rather, as described above, the records access officer may waive or

James J. Ryan SPR25/3039 Page 3 October 27, 2025 reduce the amount of any fee upon a showing of various factors. See G. L. c. 66, § 10 (d)(v); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(k). Reasonableness of the Fee Estimate Although the Town states that it would take 2 hours to produce and redact the responsive records, it is unclear why the Town requires this much time. The Town must advise how much time is needed to search and how much time is needed to segregate and/or redact under the law. Specifically, the Town must clarify how many pages of responsive records it possesses, as well as how many minutes per page the Town requires to segregate or redact the records. Please be advised, segregation and redaction under the attorney-client privilege is interpreted to be “required by law.” Accordingly, the Town must provide further details regarding its fee estimate. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv) (requiring the amount of the fee be reasonable). Further, the Town’s fee estimate lacks confirmation of the Town’s population and whether the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the records has been factored into the fee estimate. Please be advised, municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, 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). For the reasons discussed above, I find the Town must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $50.00 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). This office encourages the parties to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. Ms. Thompson may wish to narrow her request. 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 municipality to produce the records sought more efficiently and affordably). Any revision to the request would result in the requirement to issue a revised fee estimate. Conclusion Accordingly, the Town is ordered to provide Ms. Thompson with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten (10) 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. Ms. Thompson may appeal the substantive nature of the Town’s response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1).

James J. Ryan SPR25/3039 Page 4 October 27, 2025 Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Jayne Thompson