Executive Session Minutes (Plymouth County) (Norwell Town Clerk)

To Whom It May Concern:

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

All executive session minutes generated, by the Norwell Board of Selectmen for the years 2010 through the of end 2015.

Massachusetts law requires that executive session minutes be reviewed and released regularly, and that once the stated purpose for a particular executive session has ended, the minutes of the executive sessions are to be made public. Once released, I plan to make the information available to the public online, free of charge.

Please be advised that denial of this request, or redactions made to released materials must be accompanied by citations of the exemptions you believe allow you to withhold the information requested.

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 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Caitlin Russell

Hello Mr. Morin,
I appreciate your willingness to waive the cost of your consultations with Town Counsel, however I'd like to appeal your decision not to waive the remainder of the fees.
A number of towns have been able to provide me with five years worth of executive session minutes at no charge, presumably because they've been reviewing and releasing the minutes at "reasonable intervals", as required under Massachusetts law. For example, the Town of Concord was able to provide files from 2010-2015 one week after my initial request, free of charge: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/concord-259/executive-session-minutes-middlesex-county-concord-town-clerk-29106/

For further reference, here is a link to the website of the Town of Halifax, which posts executive session minutes from as recently as 2015 alongside regular session minutes: http://www.town.halifax.ma.us/Pages/HalifaxMA_SelectmenMin/T-2015Min/

While the term "reasonable interval" is open to interpretation, I respectfully suggest that five years is not a reasonable amount of time to allow the review of executive session minutes to fall by the wayside. As it is the Board's duty to regularly review and release executive session minutes, I'm appealing your denial of my request to waive fees on the grounds that "retrieval, review, and redaction," of these materials ought to have been done in the course of "normal routine administrative functions," over the years.
Best,
Caitlin Russell

I do want to go forward with the request. Thank you!

I need to know what the full cost will be, including the cost of town counsel reviewing the material. Depending on the total cost, I'll either pay the fee, or appeal it.