Transparency, Commonwealth v. Malden, City of (SPR 20261188)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records April 13, 2026 SPR26/1188 Joanne Perperian Records Access Officer City of Malden 215 Pleasant Street Malden, MA 02148 Dear Ms. Perperian: I have received the petition of Bruce Friedman, of OpenCommonwealth, appealing the response of the City of Malden (City) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On March 9, 2026, Mr. Friedman requested: …any documents/records in the possession or under the control of your town/city/municipality/school district which contain the following data: • All monies expended on motor vehicle crashes involving Malden vehicles and/or employees in [an identified] spreadsheet. This includes but is not limited to any repairs made to any vehicle(s) or property, settlements, attorneys’ fees, medical payments, or any other monies expended… The City initially responded on March 19, 2026, providing a fee estimate. Subsequently on March 19, 2026, Mr. Friedman modified his request as follows: Per your estimate, please provide only the 30 files you have identified, regardless if they are responsive or not. Please state with specificity regarding the 30 records located the specific exemption that require segregation and potential redaction. Previous Petition and Appeal Mr. Friedman’s initial request was the subject of a previous petition from the City. See SPR26/0993 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (March 20, 2026). In my March 20th determination, I found it unnecessary to opine on the City’s petition for an extension of time and permission to charge for time spent segregating or redacting responsive records in light of Mr. Friedman modifying his request. 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

Joanne Perperian SPR26/1188 Page 2 April 13, 2026 Mr. Friedman’s modified request was the subject of a previous appeal. See SPR26/1106 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (March 30, 2026). In my March 30th determination, I closed the appeal in light of the City providing a further response on March 30, 2026. Unsatisfied with the City’s response, Mr. Friedman petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR26/1188, 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). 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 City’s March 30th Response In its March 30, 2026 response, the City provided a fee estimate of $150.00 to produce the records responsive to Mr. Friedman’s modified request. In support of its fee estimate, the City referenced its March 19, 2026 fee petition, which stated: In this case, the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to segregate and redact the records requested is a salaried employee whose hourly rate exceeds $25 per hour. In accordance with 950 CMR 37.02(2)(m)(1), you will not be charged for the first two (2) hours of those services and will only be charged at a rate of $25 per hour. These records are not available in a single, ready-to-produce format, therefore, the information must be manually compiled and processed to fulfill your request. Below is an outline of the steps required to produce the information being sought: [1] Review of Reports A total of (88) reports must be reviewed to determine whether a claim was submitted to the City in connection with each incident. This process involves

Joanne Perperian SPR26/1188 Page 3 April 13, 2026 examining each report and verifying the parties involved, including reviewing available insurance information. Based on a sample review conducted to estimate the required time, this step takes approximately 4.5 minutes per report resulting in an estimated review time proportional to the total number of reports. [2] Records Search After identifying the relevant parties from the reports, a search must be conducted across electronic records, physical files and archived materials to determine whether any of those parties submitted a claim to the City. If a claimant is identified, an additional search must be conducted within the City’s accounting software system to locate specific claim-related information, including the claimant’s name, the related incident, and any payment made. Through this process, 30 files were identified as potentially responsive. The search and verification process for each file is estimated to take approximately 16 minutes per file. Given the manual nature of the process and the volume of the data involved, fulfilling this request will exceed two hours and require additional staff time and review. Based on this estimate, the total estimated time required is 12.6 hours: 88 reports x 4.5 minutes/report = 396 minutes/60 minutes/hour = 6.6 hours 30 potential responsive files x 16 minutes = 480 minutes/60 minutes/hour = 8.0 hours Less the first two hours = 12.6 billable hours At a rate of $25 per hour, the estimated cost is $315.00… The records sought in the request need to be reviewed, and potentially redacted. The City seeks the ability to charge for redactions under Exemption (c). It is anticipated that these reports may contain personally identifiable information, including names, email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers, and will require redactions in accordance with the exemption set forth at G.L. c. 4, § 7(26)(c)… Records responsive to this request will thus need to be reviewed and redacted to the extent they contain personal identifiable information, which is sensitive to them. In its March 30, 206 response, the City explained further: …the City wishes to clarify that its March 19, 2026 petition already included a time estimate encompassing these 30 files. Based on that breakdown, the adjusted estimated cost to produce the records associated with these 30 files is $150.00, calculated as follows: (8 hours of work less 2 hours provided at no charge = 6 billable hours X $25 per hour).

Joanne Perperian SPR26/1188 Page 4 April 13, 2026 Current Appeal In his appeal petition, Mr. Friedman argued, “[t]he response from Malden… is an inappropriate fee request. It fails the specificity required under law, the fee of 6 hours for 30 records is unreasonable and improper.” 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 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 City states that it would take 8 hours to produce the responsive records, it is unclear why the City requires this much time. In this case, the City stated that is not charging a fee for the first two hours of employee time and has confirmed that an hourly rate of $25.00 per hour is less than the hourly rate of the lowest paid individual with the skill necessary to perform the tasks involved in producing the records. However, the City must provide further explanation of why “the search and verification process for each file is estimated to take approximately 16 minutes,” for each of the 30 responsive files. Further, it is uncertain how many pages of responsive records exist within the files and how many minutes per page the City requires to segregate or redact the records under the law. Accordingly, the City must provide further details regarding its fee estimate. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv) (requiring the amount of the fee be reasonable). Additionally, if redactions are required, I find the City 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. 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 City

Joanne Perperian SPR26/1188 Page 5 April 13, 2026 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 City must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $150.00 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). This office encourages Mr. Friedman and the City to continue to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. Mr. Friedman 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, the City is ordered to provide Mr. Friedman 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. Friedman may appeal the substantive nature of the City’s response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Bruce Friedman