Johnsen, Neil v. North Reading, Town of - Town Clerk (SPR 20261448)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records April 29, 2026 SPR26/1448 Susan Duplin Records Access Officer Town of North Reading 235 North Street North Reading, MA 01864 Dear Ms. Duplin: I have received the petition of Neil Johnsen appealing the response of the Town of North Reading (Town) to two requests for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On March 10, 2026, Mr. Johnsen requested the following: Request 1: Copy of Contract with NEIWPCC for providing testing services for North Reading Board of Health including all notice of advertisement for bids and copies of all the bids received for the services. Request 2: Copy of Bills from KP Law and other Legal services for North Reading Board of Health related to [an identified individual] and his requests for information including costs for letters to [the identified individual], Letters to the BOH and letters to the State regarding the information requests submitted. The Town responded on March 23, 2026, providing a fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the Town’s response, and objecting to the fees, Mr. Johnsen petitioned this office, and this appeal, SPR26/1448, 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 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

Susan Duplin SPR26/1448 Page 2 April 29, 2026 ($.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). Current Appeal In his appeal petition, Mr. Johnsen contends: The response I received from the town indicated I had to pay a fee of $87.50 to get the records. They fail to indicate the number of pages that need to be gone through or any other estimate so I would know what the fee is for. . . . They should have offered to work with me to modify the scope of the request . . . . The fee is not broken down per request as required . . . . I would like for you to order the town to provide the records at no cost. The Town’s March 23rd Fee Estimate In its March 23, 2026 response, the Town provided the following information in support of its $87.50 fee estimate: As you know, you have not provided specificity regarding Item 2 of the request, including a time frame, which includes legal invoices “related to [an identified individual],” for example. As such, in order to comply with this request, the Town would be required to review all of its legal invoices for potentially responsive information for a period of time, based on vague criteria, which has not been specified in your Request 2, detailed above. After an initial diligent search of its records, and without waiving the foregoing, the Town anticipates that it has certain records responsive to your request, including Health Department records and legal invoices. . . . While one anticipated exemption is cited below, be advised that nothing herein shall limit the

Susan Duplin SPR26/1448 Page 3 April 29, 2026 Town’s ability to assert any applicable exemptions under state or federal law, as become apparent and appropriate, following the search for all responsive records for the requests pursuant to G. L. c. 66, § 10(b)(iv). Should the Town proceed to locate responsive records after payment of the estimate below for the time to search for and locate responsive records, below, we will provide additional specificity as to the applicability of a particular exemption, as appropriate. As permitted by law, given [the] nature of the requests and unspecified time period, you will be charged for 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). The fee estimate is broken down as follows: Fee Estimate: Title Hours Cost Per Hour Total Town 2 hours (to search for and locate $25/hour $50 Administrator responsive legal invoices for the topics requested for Item 2)[.] Health 1.5 hours (to search for relevant $25/hour $37.50 Director records responsive to Request 1, including e-mails related to services provided by NEIWPCC)[.] Total 3.5 hours $87.50 Note that the actual cost of responding to your requests may change once the Town begins to undertake the work necessary to comply, at which time, the Town will provide you with an updated response and revised fee estimate. Upon receipt of your payment in the amount detailed above the Town will begin the requested work necessary to comply with your request. . . . The Town anticipates providing the records within fifteen business days of receipt of payment. Please note that because the Town has less than 20,000 residents, pursuant to the last Decennial U.S. Census, you will be charged for all hours of work associated with this request. Fee Waivers G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(v) provides the following with respect to waiving a fee for the production of responsive records:

Susan Duplin SPR26/1448 Page 4 April 29, 2026 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 Town has estimated that the process of compiling, reviewing, and preparing responsive documents for production will take 3.5 hours of employee time, the Town has not provided sufficient explanation of why 3.5 hours of employee time is necessary. Specifically, where the Town states that 3.5 hours are necessary “to search for” the responsive records, the Town must explain the tasks involved in the search process and how G. L. c. 66, § 10(d) permits the assessment of a fee for the performance of those tasks. It is also unclear how much time the Town allocated for segregation and/or redaction of the records. Additionally, it is not clear from the Town’s estimate the number of pages that the Town intends to segregate or redact and the number of minutes that the Town must spend per page for review. For the reasons discussed above, I find the Town must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the total fee of $87.50 assessed in its March 23rd estimate is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). This office encourages Mr. Johnsen and the Town to communicate further in order to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. 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. Johnsen 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. Johnsen may further appeal the substantive nature of the Town’s response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1).

Susan Duplin SPR26/1448 Page 5 April 29, 2026 Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Neil Johnsen