Contractor Evaluations and Complaints about Newport Construction (City of Somerville - Records Access Officer)
| Multi Request | Contractor Evaluations and Complaints about Newport Construction |
| Submitted | Aug. 7, 2019 |
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Communications
From: Chris Dwan
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
All performance evaluations of Newport Construction between 2010 and the present. This includes but is not limited to the "contractor project evaluation forms."
Documentation of any complaints filed against Newport Construction, and records of any disciplinary or corrective actions taken as a result of those complaints.
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,
Chris Dwan
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Massachusetts Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 7, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: City of Somerville - Records Access Officer
Dear Mr. Dwan:
We are in receipt of your public records request in which you requested the following:
All performance evaluations of Newport Construction between 2010 and the present. This includes but is not limited to the "contractor project evaluation forms."
Documentation of any complaints filed against Newport Construction, and records of any disciplinary or corrective actions taken as a result of those complaints.
In accordance with the Massachusetts Public Records Law, this email is intended to suggest a reasonable modification to, or offer assistance in modifying the scope of the request as doing so would enable the City of Somerville to respond and produce any record more efficiently and cost effectively.
As I believe you know, Newport Construction is the contractor for Mass. DOT on the Beacon Street project. Using the words "Newport Construction" as the only key word search would result in voluminous and unresponsive documents to your request. Accordingly, if you are looking for responsive records relating to Newport Construction's work on Beacon Street, it would also be helpful to include "Beacon Street" as search terms. It would also be helpful if you could further limit the scope of your request to a shorter time period.
In addition, when you request "documentation of any complaints filed against Newport..." are you limiting your request to formal complaints or is your request intended to include complaints made by members of the general public?
Once clarification of the above is received, we expect we will be able to further respond and determine if there are any responsive records or provide you with a good faith fee estimate.
Feel free to contact our office if you have any questions about this request. Thank you for your consideration.
Susan Tkaczuk
Paralegal
City Hall, Law Department
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 625-6600 x 4402
www.somervillema.gov<http://www.somervillema.gov>
This message and any attached documents contain information which may be confidential, subject to privilege or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. These materials are intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, you are hereby notified that any distribution, disclosure, printing, copying, storage, modification or the taking of any action in reliance upon this transmission is strictly prohibited. Delivery of this message to any person other than the intended recipient shall not compromise or waive such confidentiality, privilege or exemption from disclosure as to this communication. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete the message from your system. Thank you.
-
~WRD000
From: Chris Dwan
My request is limited to performance evaluations, complaints, and documentation of disciplinary or corrective actions taken by city officials. Complaints by members of the general public are outside of scope.
I would appreciate an estimate of the cost / effort required to provide this information for the entire time period specified, not just Beacon Street.
Thank you for your attention.
-Chris Dwan
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Massachusetts Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 7, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Chris Dwan
Folks,
Could I please have an update on the status of this request? I haven't heard back from you since the initial email exchange.
Thank you.
-Chris Dwan
From: City of Somerville - Records Access Officer
Dear Mr. Dwan:
I am writing on behalf of the Records Access Officer and Records Custodian(s) in response to your follow-up email dated August 26, 2019 in which you requested:
Subject: RE: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: Contractor Evaluations and Complaints about Newport Construction (City of Somerville - Records Access Officer)
My request is limited to performance evaluations, complaints, and documentation of disciplinary or corrective actions taken by city officials. Complaints by members of the general public are outside of scope.
Attached please find documents we have identified as responsive to your request.
Also, as you probably know, Newport Construction is under contract with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Transportation. You may wish to make a request to them for documents responsive to your request.
Please let me know if you have any questions in this regard.
Contact information for the Records Access Officer is: Francis X. Wright, Jr., City Solicitor, City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., Somerville, MA 02143, Phone: (617) 625-6600 x4400. Email: publicrecords@somervillema.gov<mailto:publicrecords@somervillema.gov>. To the extent applicable, yYou have the right to seek an administrative appeal to the Supervisor of Public Records under 950 CMR 32.08(1) and the right to seek judicial review by commencing a civil action in the superior court.
Susan Tkaczuk
Paralegal
City Hall, Law Department
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 625-6600 x 4402
www.somervillema.gov<http://www.somervillema.gov>
This message and any attached documents contain information which may be confidential, subject to privilege or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. These materials are intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, you are hereby notified that any distribution, disclosure, printing, copying, storage, modification or the taking of any action in reliance upon this transmission is strictly prohibited. Delivery of this message to any person other than the intended recipient shall not compromise or waive such confidentiality, privilege or exemption from disclosure as to this communication. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete the message from your system. Thank you.
-
~WRD000
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