Appeals of Fines and Parking Tickets

Mr. Rafkind.

Unfortunately, no table currently exists for what you have requested. As a result, the City is not required to create a record in response to your request. While no tables exist, to the extent that you are seeking documentation reflecting this information, the City is happy to produce documentation reflecting this information, in accordance with applicable public records law, but it will not include all of the fields you have requested. The cost estimate for search and segregation of the majority of fields is approximately $226.5, which represents 5 hours at $60/hr x 3hrs + $15.50/hr x 3hrs per hour.

Please send check payable to the City of Somerville in the amount of $226.50. Upon receipt, the City will promptly provide the documents to you.

Again, this report will not contain every field which you requested below.

Matt Dias

Sure. See below for answers to your request.

Thank you,

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Requests Muckrock [mailto:requests@muckrock.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 2:27 PM
To: Matthew Dias
Cc: David Shapiro; Frank Wright; Susan Tkaczuk
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Request: Appeals of Fines and Parking Tickets
Thanks Matt.

Can you please clarify which fields the City can produce, and why the

others cannot be produced?

The Following can be produced:

Type of violation on the ticket or fine

> - Amount being fined

> - Date when the appeal was requested by the recipient

> - Date of the appeal hearing

> - Name of the hearing officer

> - Indicator showing whether the appeal was successful or not

> - Reason why appeal was successful or not

Are the others recorded in a separate database or not at all?

The following cannot because these fields are not recorded:

> - an indicator showing whether the recipient took the matter to a court

> - the outcome of the court case

And what format would these be provided (electronic, as an excel? As a

database file? Printed out?)

A JPEG or PDF print out.

Thanks again.

I believe we can do that as a separate field. If, for some reason, we cannot, I'll let you know prior to accepting payment and acting upon your request.

Thanks,

Matt

Hi Barry. We were unable to include that specific info in the report you requested due to the number of fields you requested. If you wanted that field included over another field per say, I could ask for another report to be generated. However, the more times I go back to them and require analytical assistance above and beyond what they already offer, the more we get billed for their services. Naturally, the less specific the report, the easier it is to generate. So many reports I can generate on my own, but this one I was unable due to all of the fields requested.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Hi Barry.

My vendor thinks it may be possible, but it will require approximately 2 additional hours of programming, above and beyond what we have already put together for you.

Would you like me to price out that additional 2 hours of their time? Similar to before, since no table currently exists, the City is not required to create a record. However, I can ask them to produce the information, in accordance with applicable public records law, but it will cost additional money and time.

Let me know. Thanks,
Matt

Hi Barry.

I seem to have overlooked my Nov. 23rd email. Apologies. Therefore, I will return your check based on that omission.

Going forward, I am happy to generate a revised cost estimate if you seek another report. Let me know.

Thanks,
Matt Dias

Hi Barry.

I am willing to incur the costs because of my oversight, not because the costs are unjustified in any way. Please remember that, because no table currently exists in our software system, by law, we are not required to create a record in response to your request. However, as a courtesy, I am attempting to accommodate your request to the best of our ability.

Based on the last two sentences highlighted below, I take it you would like me to generate a new cost estimate? Please confirm.

Thanks,
Matt Dias

I will not charge you for generating and creating the report you have already received from me. If you are requesting another report with those additional fields, I will generate another cost estimate for you.

Thanks,
Matt Dias

Hi Barry.

Initial feedback on your request is that they are still unsure if this information is captured in a manner that they can actually generate a report on. They are looking into it…but the individual responsible for writing the report manual (the point person for special requests) is on leave. They hope to have an answer for us by the end of the week or early next week.

Best,
Matt

Hi Barry.

Your request can be partially fulfilled. That is, we can only create a that depicts whether a hearing was adjudicated online or not (meaning the appeal was either held online or held in person/written correspondence). The latter two fields (in person and written correspondence are combined as one).

In accordance with applicable public records law, the City is happy to produce documentation reflecting the information you request to the extent that it is available. However, no table currently exists for what you have requested. The City is not required to create a document to respond to a request where such a document does not already exist. The cost estimate for search and segregation of records is approximately $196.5, which represents 5.5 hours ($60/hr x 2.5hrs + $15.50/hr x 3hrs per hour).

As previously discussed, I will return your previous payment and await new payment prior to moving forward with fulfilling the request.

Thank you,
Matt

Sorry Barry. I hit send without proofreading. See red text for a complete sentence.

Your request can be partially fulfilled. That is, we can only create a report that depicts whether a hearing was adjudicated online or not (meaning the appeal was either held online or held in person/written correspondence). The latter two fields (in person and written correspondence) will be combined as one field.

Really it’s just replacing the ticket # field with a field that indicates whether or not the hearing was conducted online or in person/us mail. The ticket # field will be eliminated.