Dish Wireless Jurisdiction Records (New Bedford City Clerk)

Dear Mr. Pasteris,

I am writing on behalf of the City of New Bedford (hereinafter referred to as "the City") in response to your recent request for public records made pursuant to the provisions of G.L. c. 66, § 10 (hereinafter referred to as "the Massachusetts Public Records Law"). Your request, received by the City on March 29, 2023, was as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

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

Documents, filings, spreadsheets, emails, communications, or any other form of medium with references to "Dish Wireless" (a US carrier founded in 2020), their owned and operated cell sites, and their operations in your jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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,

Joseph Pasteris

After conducting a search of its departmental databases, the City has identified 58,977 potentially responsive emails matching the specifications given in your March 29th request using the keywords/phrases of "Dish" and "Dish Wireless".

Before providing you with the emails, the City will need to review the 58,977 emails for responsiveness and make any redactions/withholdings required by law. The City anticipates that it will need to redact/withhold emails pursuant to G.L. c. 4, § 7(26)(a), known as the Statutory Exemption. Under Exemption (a), it is anticipated that redactions/withholdings might have to be made according, but not limited, to the following active statutes-

* Personal information, including, but not limited to social security and driver's license numbers pursuant to G.L. c. 93H, § 1.
* Registry of Motor Vehicle Information pursuant to the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2721.

The City anticipates that it will take 1 minute to review each email, verify its responsiveness, and then redact/withhold in conformance to any active statutes if need be. This time estimate is based off the City's past experience dealing with similar records requests. The following equations summarize the calculated time, in hours, needed to complete your request:

(Average of one minute to review each email based on past experience responding to similar requests for emails) * (58,977 potentially responsive emails) = 58,977 minutes

(58,977 minutes) * (1 hour/ 60 minutes) = 982.95 hours

As outlined by the Massachusetts Public Records Law, municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of personnel time taken to search for, compile, redact, or reproduce the record(s) requested unless said municipality is comprised of 20,000 people or less. The City of New Bedford has a population of more than 20,000 individuals.

Therefore, the City is seeking payment for 980.95 hours [(982.95 hours) - (2 hours at no charge)].

The lowest paid employee capable of searching for, segregating, redacting, and producing the responsive records has an hourly rate that exceeds $25.00 per hour. Under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, the maximum hourly rate that can be charged for a fee estimate is $25.00 per hour. The City is, therefore, seeking payment of (980.95 hours) * ($25.00/hour) = $24,523.75.

As soon as payment is received, the City will begin to process your request. Please make payment in the form of a check or money order made payable to the City of New Bedford. The payment should be sent to the attention of the Solicitor's Office at 133 William Street, New Bedford, MA 02740.

You have the right to appeal this response to the Supervisor of Records under 950 CMR 32.08(1) within 90 calendar days of receipt of this response. Any appeal shall be in writing and include a copy of your original request as well as this correspondence. By law, the Supervisor is required to respond within 10 business days of receipt of your appeal.

Sincerely,

Nicholas DeMarco

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Nicholas DeMarco
Associate City Solicitor
City of New Bedford | Solicitors Office
133 William Street, New Bedford, MA 02740