Kelleher, Christopher v. Brookfield, Town of - Town Clerk (SPR 20260028)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records January 20, 2026 SPR26/0028 Michael P. Seery Town Clerk Town of Brookfield 6 Central Street Brookfield, MA 01506 Dear Mr. Seery: I have received the petition of Christopher Kelleher appealing the response of the Town of Brookfield (Town) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On December 12, 2025, Mr. Kelleher requested “[a] search of the Town Administrator’s official email account(s) for emails sent or received during [an identified individual’s] tenure as Town Administrator that contain the keyword ‘crazy’ (not case- insensitive).” The Town responded on December 29, 2025 and January 6, 2026, providing a fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the Town’s responses, Mr. Kelleher petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR26/0028, 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

Michael P. Seery SPR26/0028 Page 2 January 20, 2026 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 and January 6th Responses In its first December 29, 2025 response, the Town sought clarification of the request, which Mr. Kelleher subsequently provided. In a second December 29, 2025 response, an IT vendor for the Town detailed its search process as follows: For both security and audit-tracking reasons, ANEVRY generally doesn’t maintain direct login-level access to the email accounts under our management or the passwords of individual users. To access emails directly, we would need to either remotely access specific devices, or temporarily reset passwords. We’d also need to take great pains to ensure we captured and searched everywhere. Resetting the password has its own separate issues, in that it would log out anyone who is using the account and accessing directly would conceal who actually accessed the emails and when… Running a specific, coded query against the full email database in any given moment always returns the exact same results for that moment… It ensures we capture all possible records across all inboxes, folders, and locations throughout the town’s digital archives, including folders which were hidden or moved… With a specific search query coded at the database level, we can guarantee we get exactly the keywords we’re looking for because we ignore these user-specific search algorithms and force the database to return exactly what matches. In addition, the vendor stated, “I will work on getting the number of search results for this request now that I have this updated clarity, so we can best estimate the time for processing and redactions.” In its January 6, 2026 response, the Town provided a fee estimate of $300.00 to produce the responsive records. In support of its fee estimate, the Town provided the following information: After corresponding with [an identified individual], he determined that to comply with your request it would require: Approximately 4 hours to collect the records Time to redact records: 8 hours Total Time =12 hours Fee Estimate: The Town is allowed to charge for employee search time necessary to respond to your request, together with any redactions required by law. That time is charged at the hourly rate of the lowest paid person capable of compiling and reproducing responsive records, in accordance with 950 CMR 32.07(2)(i).

Michael P. Seery SPR26/0028 Page 3 January 20, 2026 Such hourly rate shall not exceed $25/hour unless otherwise authorized by the Supervisor of Records. Please note that because the Town has less than 20,000 residents, pursuant to the last Decennial U.S. Census (approximately 3,439), you will be charged for all hours of work associated with this request. The lowest paid employees capable of performing the necessary search is paid more than $25/hour, so you will be charged the maximum rate. The total fee estimate is $300.00… Until such time as the fees estimated above are paid and the Town has conducted additional work in response to this request, it cannot state conclusively whether records will be withheld or redacted. If records are withheld or redacted, it is anticipated that the following will be the basis(es) for such redactions or withholding. The citing of such exemptions is not meant to be exhaustive, however, and the Town expressly reserves the right to assert application of additional exemptions, as appropriate. Nothing herein shall limit the Town’s ability to redact or withhold information in accordance with state or federal law and/or the attorney-client privilege. In a follow-up email to this office and Mr. Kelleher on January 8, 2026, the Town further explained, “[t]here were 56 email chains comprising 245 individual pages which match the search term. There was only one duplicate chain. This brings the redaction time for 2 minutes per page times 245 pages to 8 hours.” Current Appeal In his appeal petition, Mr. Kelleher argued that “the fee estimate is mathematically and logically unsupported.” 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

Michael P. Seery SPR26/0028 Page 4 January 20, 2026 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 12 hours to produce and redact the responsive records, it is unclear why the Town requires this much time. In this case, the Town has explained its search process and has clarified it possesses 245 pages of responsive records that will take two minutes per page to redact. However, where the Town states that it “cannot state conclusively whether records will be withheld or redacted,” I find that if redactions are required, the Town must provide information about whether the responsive records contain information that is required by law to be segregated or redacted, as well as the applicable statutes, if any. Please be advised, segregation and redaction under the attorney-client privilege is interpreted to be “required by law.” Further, it is unclear how the Town requires 2 minutes to redact each page of the responsive email records. 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). 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); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Consequently, the Town must also clarify whether its fee estimate includes time for segregation or redaction not required by law. For the reasons discussed above, I find the Town must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $300.00 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). This office encourages Mr. Kelleher and the Town to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. Mr. Kelleher may wish to narrow his 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 Mr. Kelleher 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. Mr. Kelleher may appeal the substantive nature of the Town’s response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1).

Michael P. Seery SPR26/0028 Page 5 January 20, 2026 Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Christopher Kelleher