Dept Heads union petition

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

To James Purcell, interim Town Administrator,

In order to verify that Town of Carver has disputed the potential unionization of the town of Carver Department Heads, I request all documents related to the Department Heads union petition issue. This should include any related documents and emails that were sent to the previous Town Administrator (Richard Lafond), and all of his responses. Since the Department Heads participate (to a substantial degree) in the formulation of policy, I am sure that the Town of Carver should be opposing this union petition. Based on the fact that the previous Town Administrator (Richard Lafond) was responsible for hiring most (if not all) of these department heads, he may not have taken necessary steps to properly protect the taxpayers of Carver from the potential formation of this union. If you yourself have been involved in any documentation for this topic, please include this as well. I've already searched for these documents on the town website, but wasn't able to find any related information. Please help me bring some much needed transparency to this important issue.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Phil Shannon

Good morning-

I have received the Aug 20, 2013 response from David C. Jenkins of Kopelman and Paige, to the "Document Request August 8, 2013". Based on the following excerpt from his response:

"The town has custody of documents related to this issue. In this regard, the Town produces a petition filed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 93, that may be responsive to your request."

I would like to have an electronic copy of this petition, if possible. A less preferred option would be a hard copy via snail mail.

Thank you,
Philip Shannon

Dear Mr. Shannon,

This firm serves as Town Counsel for the Town of Carver. In response to your public records request for "all documents related to the Department Heads union petition issue," attached please find a Representation Petition, in PDF, which was filed by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93 at the Department of Labor Relations.

Regards,

Timothy D. Zessin, Esq.
Kopelman and Paige, P.C.
101 Arch Street
12th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Phone: 617 654-1730
Fax: 617 654-1735
E-mail: tzessin@k-plaw.com

This message and the documents attached to it, if any, are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL and/or may contain ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete all electronic copies of this message and its attachments, if any, and destroy any hard copies you may have created and notify me immediately.

Town Administrator-

I have received the petition, but the attached list is missing. Could you send the Supervisory employees list, from section 7 "Unit involved"? As this document has been determined to be responsive to my request, I believe that the attached list should be included.

thank you,
Phil Shannon

Dear Mr. Shannon,

This firm serves as Town Counsel for the Town of Carver. In response to your September 3, 2013 follow-up public records request for the employee list attached to AFSCME Representation Petition, please see attached document.

Very truly yours,

Timothy D. Zessin, Esq.
Kopelman and Paige, P.C.
101 Arch Street
12th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Phone: 617 654-1730
Fax: 617 654-1735
E-mail: tzessin@k-plaw.com

This message and the documents attached to it, if any, are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL and/or may contain ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete all electronic copies of this message and its attachments, if any, and destroy any hard copies you may have created and notify me immediately.