Mr. Dracut v. Dracut, Town of (SPR 20253842)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records January 9, 2026 SPR25/3842 Jared LaLiberte Town Clerk Town of Dracut 62 Arlington Street Dracut, MA 01826 Dear Mr. LaLiberte: I have received the petition of Mr. Dracut (requestor) appealing the response of the Town of Dracut (Town) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On December 10, 2025, the requestor sought the following: [1] A list of all consultants, contractors, or temporary employees hired by the Town Manager or under the Town Manager’s office from January 1, 2023 to the present, including: Name of the consultant or contracting entity[;] Start and end dates of engagement[;] Scope of work or position title[.] [2] For each consultant identified: All invoices, payments, or other documentation of compensation paid by the Town[;] Any contract, agreement, or memorandum authorizing their hire[.] [3] For any consultant or contractor who replaced or supplemented an existing Town employee (full-time or part-time), provide: Name, title, and total compensation (salary plus benefits) of the employee replaced or supplemented[;] Any internal memo, email, or document explaining why a consultant was hired instead of using Town staff. [4] A list of all contracts executed by the Town of Dracut between July 1, 2023 and the present that have a term extending beyond a single fiscal year. If no such list exists, please provide the first page and signature page of each multi-year contract showing the contract term dates. 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

Jared LaLiberte SPR25/3842 Page 2 January 9, 2026 [5] For each multi-year contract identified: The invoice(s) submitted for the current fiscal year; and the payment record(s) showing the warrant number, amount paid, and payment date. [6] Any written policy, memorandum, guidance, or directive issued by the Finance Department, Town Manager, or Select Board regarding the payment of multi-year contracts, or the use of current fiscal year funds to pay for future-year services. The requestor subsequently modified the request on December 18, 2025 as follows: [1] Mandatory Scope Limitation For both requests, the scope is narrowed as follows:  Timeframe: The four most recent months for which responsive records exist as of the date of this letter.  Departments: Town Manager’s Office, Finance Department, and Procurement Office only.  The School Department is expressly excluded… [2] Records Requested (As Narrowed) [A] Multi-Year Contracts For the four-month period:  Existing multi-year contracts in effect during this period;  First page and signature page showing contract term;  Invoices and payment/warrant records issued during this period. [B] Consultants Under the Town Manager For the four-month period:  List of consultants/contractors engaged by or under the Town Manager;  Authorizing contract or agreement;  Invoices and payment records issued during this period. Previous Petitions This request was the subject of previous petitions from the Town. See SPR25/3726 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (December 24, 2025) and SPR25/3852 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 7, 2026). In my January 7th determination, I found the Town could assess a fee for the segregation and redaction of exempt material under Exemption (c) of the Public Records Law. In addition to its petition, the Town concurrently responded to the requestor on December 29, 2025, providing a fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the Town’s response, the requestor petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR25/3842, was opened as a result.

Jared LaLiberte SPR25/3842 Page 3 January 9, 2026 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). 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 December 29th Response In its December 29, 2025 response, the Town provided a fee estimate of $175.00 to provide the responsive records. In support of its fee estimate, the Town provided the following information: As permitted by law, you will be charged for all employee search time to locate and identify responsive records, at the hourly rate of the lowest paid person capable of compiling, segregating, redacting where required by law, and reproducing responsive records, in accordance with 950 CMR 32.07(2)(i). While the Town is permitted to ask the Secretary for the ability to charge the employee’s actual rate when requests warrant such, the Town is not exercising that option at this time. Therefore, the Town will charge the statutorily permissible rate of $25.00 per hour. Please be advised that the fee estimate is broken down as follows: Title Hours Per Hour Cost Total Town Procurement 2 hours (to search, compile $58.17/hr. 2 hours: FREE Officer and scan as necessary, multi reduced to year contracts) $25.00. Finance Department 3 hours (search and locate $44.90- 3 hours: $75 warrants, scan for electronic 87.18/hr. production and redact any reduced to CORI, banking, PII or other $25.00

Jared LaLiberte SPR25/3842 Page 4 January 9, 2026 trade secrets from same.) Town Manager’s 4 hours (search and locate $123.90/hr. 4 hours: $100 Office/Town all contracts, redact personal reduced to $25 Manager information, banking information, PII and/or information related to ongoing litigation and legal matters) TOTAL 9hrs. – 2 free hrs. = 7 hrs. $175 DUE The Town of Dracut has greater than 20,000 residents as of the last U.S. decennial census, and therefore, this estimate does not include the first two hours of employee time necessary to respond to this request… Please note even with the shorten time frame there are nearly 27 contracts and extensions and more than 430 digital files and over 300 paper documents which town staff must review, aggregate and scan in order to determine which may be responsive to your request. In addition, there are at least 70 vouchers that correspond to this time period which are outside of the actual contracts. All of these will need to be found in the Town’s system, exported, compiled, scanned, and redacted, as necessary, per the details criteria outlined herein. Dracut has lost five administrative workers in the Finance Department due to retirements. The Town has not filled four of those vacant positions due to budget constraints… In a subsequent email to this office on January 6, 2026, the Town confirmed it “will not seek to charge for a USB because of the decrease in volume of the request.” Current Appeal In the appeal petition, the requestor argued: The records requested… are records the Town is legally required to retain under Massachusetts records retention schedules and maintain in the ordinary course of business. Accordingly, the existence or age of these records cannot be used to justify excessive search time, refusal of electronic production, or fees unsupported by specific statutory findings. 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

Jared LaLiberte SPR25/3842 Page 5 January 9, 2026 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 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 Where the Town has explained the amount of time it requires to locate, segregate, and redact the requested records as required by law, and has confirmed that the lowest paid individual with the skill necessary to perform those tasks is paid more than $25.00 per hour, I find that the Town has met its burden to establish that it would take this amount of time to produce the responsive records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d) (a records access officer may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record). Further, where the Town has confirmed that it is not assessing a fee for the first two (2) hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the records requested, and where permission to assess a fee to segregate and redact exempt information under Exemption (c) of the Public Records Law has been approved by the Supervisor of Records in SPR25/3852, I find the Town has met its burden to assess a fee under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). This office encourages the parties to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. The requestor may wish to narrow the 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, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. If the requestor is not satisfied with the resolution of this administrative appeal, please be advised that this office shares jurisdiction with the Superior Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A(c) (pursuing administrative appeal does not limit availability of applicable judicial remedies).

Jared LaLiberte SPR25/3842 Page 6 January 9, 2026 Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Mr. Dracut