HRC and HHS Email Records for 2018 and 2019

Laura Kiesel filed this request with the Health And Human Services, Town Of Arlington of Massachusetts.
Submitted June 28, 2019
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Laura Kiesel

Subject: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: HRC and HHS Email Records for 2018 and 2019

Mail


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:

I am looking to access any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present between Christine Bongiorno, the Director of Health and Human Services of the Town of Arlington and Pamela (Pam) Hallett of the Housing Corporation of Arlington; any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present between Christine Bongiorno and Nick Minton of the Arlington Human Rights Commission; any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present Christine Bongiorno and Noami Campbell of the Arlington Human Rights Commission; any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present David Swanson of the Arlington Human Rights Commission and Christine Bongiorno; any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present between Sheri Baron of the Human Rights Commission and Christine Bongiorno; any and all email correspondences dated from September 2018 to the present Christine Bongiorno and Chris Huvos (formerly of the Human Rights Commission). Additionally, I am looking for any and all emails outgoing or incoming to Christine Bongiorno's municipal email address dated any time from September 2018 to the present that contain the following words and phrases: "Laura Kiesel," "Laura Keisel," "Laura Kissel," "Laurie Kiesel," "Laurel Kiesel," "Housing Corporation of Arlington," "HCA," "Housing Corp of Arlington," "Fair Housing Act,""disabled," "disability," "discrimination," and "Pam Hallett."

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 there are fees, 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,

Laura Kiesel

From: Health And Human Services, Town Of Arlington

Subject: Public Record Request (HCA, HRC)

Email

Good evening Laura,

Attached hereto please find a single .pdf file containing 132 pages of
correspondence related directly to you or matters pertaining to you. This
included not only the spelling permutations that you listed, but also any
messages determined to pertain to you upon review based on the use of the
initials "LK" or the subject matter contained therein.

Personal information was redacted pursuant to exemption (c). Seventeen pages
of correspondence by and between Town Counsel and Christine Bongiorno with
respect to your human rights complaint were withheld under attorney-client
privilege, as were 4 pages of correspondence between Town Counsel and
recipients Darcy Devney, Jack Jones, Christine Bongiorno and Cynthia
Deangelis. Please note the page counts above include lengthy chains of email
correspondence forwarded to Town Counsel.

As I noted in a previous message, the results generated by the searches
performed by IT results in nearly 2000 pieces of mail, meaning many
thousands of pages of correspondence. Of note, we deduced that you sought
messages from Naomi Greenfield, as opposed to Naomi Campbell, so we adjusted
the search accordingly. This larger set of results was searched, sorted,
reviewed and redacted to yield the results described above. Although a very
time consuming and costly endeavor to produce, I am happy to provide these
records at no cost.

For additional context on the search results, the term "HCA" got myriad hits
regarding marijuana Host Community Agreements, and "disability" got a
significant number of Commission on Disability meeting materials. Further,
much of the correspondence amongst Pam Hallett and Arlington officials
pertained directly to persons/clients being considered or enrolled in
transitional housing programs.

It is my hope this set of records will satisfy your record request given the
subject matter of interest. It would be a significant cost to collate,
review and redact as necessary all of the unrelated search results in order
to prevent any unlawful release. As I mentioned in response to a prior
request, it is the broad, blanket-type requests unconfined to specific
subject matter or topics and requiring a complete duplication of a category
of records (all to/from correspondence) for review that present the greatest
strain on public resources. In light of this, while the Town almost always
satisfies records request free of charge in the interest of transparency and
public access, should you wish to access the remained of the records it will
result in a cost being passed on to you as the requestor.

If there is other subject or well-defined records regarding a matter of
public interest that you seek in addition to those provided herewith, please
do not hesitate to let me know. I am certainly happy to discuss further as
well.

Sincerely,

Jim

James Feeney

Assistant Town Manager

Town of Arlington

730 Massachusetts Avenue

Arlington, MA 02476

(781) 316-3010
@Arlingtonmagov

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