Massachusetts transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Massachusetts.
Obey the law. Timely release of police files is not optional
November 12, 2008: Nearly nine months after the Telegram & Gazette requested records regarding citizen complaints against a Worcester police officer, and almost three months after the department accepted payment for the copying, delay that might have been excusable now appears, in fact, to be willful noncompliance with the law. Read the full article here.
‘E-mail messages are public records’
November 10, 2008: Alan N. Cote, supervisor of records for state Secretary William Galvin’s Public Records Division, has advised the Saugus Library Board of Trustees that e-mail messages are public records by statue and cannot be deleted without permission from his office and in accordance with the applicable municipal retention schedule.
“Failure to do so may be a violation of state law and applicable regulations,” said Cote in a Sept. 26, 2008 letter to the Pam Gill of the Library Board of Trustees. Read the full article here.
Police delay goes against purported goal
November 9, 2008: Imagine getting pulled over by a police officer who points out that your inspection sticker has expired and you’re violating the law.
In return, you explain that you’re busy at work and having problems at home. You’ll get to it when you can, you tell the cop. It would be irresponsible to comply with the law when you have other matters to deal with.
In essence, that’s the Worcester Police Department’s justification for failing to obey the public records law and turn over internal affairs records of a single officer requested in April by the Telegram & Gazette. State law requires custodians of public records to release them within 10 days. Read the full column here.
WPD’s documents delay ‘outrageous’
November 9, 2008: More than two months after the Worcester Police Department pocketed $1,500 as payment for copies of citizen complaints against one of its officers, the department has yet to deliver the documents.
In fact, Police Chief Gary J. Gemme told the Telegram & Gazette last week, the department has yet to begin reviewing and copying the officer’s internal affairs documents and likely won’t do so until sometime next month.
State law calls for public records to be provided within 10 days. Read the full article here.
Massachusetts state senator arrested for accepting bribes
Records about chief still sought
October 28, 2008: Three citizens who have complained about the conduct of Police Chief Scott J. Freitas asked selectmen last night what has happened to public records requests they made in connection with their complaints.
Mr. Chauvin, of Northbridge, told selectmen last night that he filed a public records request with the Police Department on Sept. 17, and has received a notice requesting more time, but no records. The state law says that the town has 10 days to respond to a request for public records.
He also asked if the board believed that Chief Freitas had a conflict-of-interest in fulfilling the public records request, since he is the person about whom Mr. Chauvin is complaining. Mr. Chauvin has charged that Chief Freitas improperly complained to state police about his private detective’s license, which led to it being revoked. Read the full article here.
The state's Public Records Law is flouted by officials at all levels of government
October 23, 2008: A law designed to shine a bright light on the inner workings of state and local government in Massachusetts is instead leaving much of the bureaucracy in shadows, if not total darkness.
A seven-month investigation by CommonWealth revealed that public officials at all levels of government frequently game the Massachusetts Public Records Law. Read the full article here.
Daily News to appeal Open Meeting Law decision
October 22, 2008: Writing on behalf of selectmen, Town Attorney Ray Miyares has denied a second public records request pertaining to former Town Manager Anthony Troiano's resignation.
The Daily News had requested a printout of all Internet sites visited at work by Troiano during his final two months. Town officials speaking on condition of anonymity have said Troiano's departure was linked to improper use of the town's Web server. Read the full article here.
Public records should be public
October 22, 2008: Public records should be public, but all too often that's not the case here in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Public Records Law - the state's counterpart to the federal Freedom of Information Act - looks tough on paper, but is actually weak in practice. Read the full editorial here.
Lawrence School Committee member gagged
October 20, 2008: As part of a new policy that appears to violate the state's Public Records Law, Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy said he will no longer answer written requests for information from School Committee member James Vittorioso.
School administrators will also stop giving Vittorioso reports or copies of information that was previously provided or not related to issues on the committee's agenda,
"We have spent considerable time completing reports or writing up responses to questions that could have been addressed through a phone conversation or a brief meeting with me," Laboy wrote Vittorioso in an Oct. 3 memo titled "weekly requests for information." Read the full article here.
Town forced to release Williams’ settlement after state rules in favor of I&M’s FOI request
September 26, 2008: The town was forced to release a confidential settlement Monday it reached with former Zoning Board of Appeals administrator Linda Williams after she was fired from her job last year, an agreement which netted Williams a $37,000 severance package. Read the full article here.
Williams gets $37,000 settlement agreement
September 24, 2008: The Town of Nantucket paid former Zoning Board of Appeals administrator Linda Williams $10,000 as part of a severance package and allowed her to resign from her position, rather than being fired, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Read the full article here.
Secretive parole votes raise furor
September 20, 2008: Highly paid Massachusetts Parole Board members are hiding how they vote on springing potentially dangerous cons, leaving families of crime victims outraged - even as most other states make that information public, a Herald review has found.
The secret process shields the five powerful members from political fallout after controversial decisions and leaves them unaccountable to victims, taxpayers and even the state officials who appoint them. Read the full article here.
Selectmen violate Open Meeting Law
August 21, 2008: The District Attorney’s Office cited the Wareham Board of Selectmen for violating the state’s Open Meeting Law by failing to release minutes from executive sessions relating to the Swifts Beach eminent domain land taking. Selectmen had until this past Monday to release the minutes. Read the full article here.
Bonuses boost council staff pay
August 19, 2008: The City Council has been awarding large bonuses to members of its staff, quietly boosting the pay of some political appointees to levels that are well beyond the salary ranges authorized for those positions in city statutes, according to a Globe review of public records. Read the full article here.
State OKs charge for e-mail record request
August 19, 2008: The state's public records supervisor has ruled that the town can charge the Daily News roughly $600 for a month's worth of e-mails requested from Town Administrator Anthony Troiano.
After Troiano originally provided a quote of $2,104 for copies of e-mails he sent and received between Feb. 1 and March 4, the Daily News filed an appeal with Supervisor of Records Alan Cote in Secretary of State William Galvin's office. The town agreed to lower its expense estimate after officials spoke with a staff attorney in Cote's Public Records Division. Read the full article here.
Public records not really public, reporters find
August 14, 2008: For more than a year now, the Journal and the city have butted heads about ethics and the definition of public records and public information.
Last year, a reporter for the Somerville Journal asked that the Statements of Financial Interest filed by candidates running for office in 2007 to be released. When the reporter received the copies, the majority of information had been blacked out — the name of the wife of the mayor, for example, had been blacked out, even though the Journal has run her name and photo on a number of occasions. Read the full article here.
Paper seeks garage information
August 13, 2008: The Citizen has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the MBTA to release the details of plans submitted for a parking garage near Beverly Depot.
T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the proposals are not public and are protected by exemptions in the public records laws for deliberative process and real estate transactions. Read the full article here.
Turnpike takes its meetings on the road
August 10, 2008: The first time I attended a Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board meeting, I was amazed by the presence of television klieg lights, radio sound equipment, and real-time updates sent to the news wires.
Yet the high interest is warranted. The Turnpike Authority board controls a complex $15 billion tunnel system and the state's main east-west roadway - both crucial to the Massachusetts economy. It also sets toll rates, which might as well be taxes for drivers who have to travel the route every day for work. Read the full article here.
Police are sued by ACLU. Group seeks records of arrests in schools August 7, 2008: The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit against the Worcester Police Department, claiming city police are on the wrong side of the law when it comes to a public records request.
The Boston-based civil rights group claims the Police Department is violating the state Public Records Law by refusing to turn over data about arrests in city schools — information it says other large police departments in the state have provided without any problems. Read the full article here.
Mayor seeks records on firefighters' physicians
July 22, 2008: Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered the Boston Fire Department yesterday to dig through its records in a hunt for doctors who have diagnosed large numbers of city firefighters with work-related injuries, increasing scrutiny on the role physicians play in awarding questionable disability pensions.
The mayor's office said Menino is seeking to unearth suspicious patterns in which some physicians may have "disproportionately diagnosed disabilities." Read the full article here.
Police public files costly
July 20, 2008: A series of state court rulings in a case that originated in the city firmly established that police internal affairs files are public records in Massachusetts.
The state Appeals Court noted in a key ruling nearly five years ago that public access to police internal affairs documents “promotes the core value of trust between citizens and police.”
Case closed.
Or so it seemed at the time. Read the full article here.
Public has right to know who Brockton employees are calling
July 17, 2008: When they are talking business on city lines, the cell phone records of city employees are public.
That ruling comes from state Supervisor of Public Records Alan N. Cote in response to an appeal filed by The Enterprise after City Solicitor James J. D’Ambrose said the public does not need to know to whom city employees are talking.
In a July 11 letter, Cote ordered D’Ambrose to release copies of the bills, omitting only telephone numbers related to personal calls.
“However, the telephone numbers of calls made or received by the city employees which pertain to their public business are a matter of public record,” Cote wrote. Read the full article here.
Court blasts City Council secrecy
June 27, 2008: A state appeals court has heaped more criticism onto a string of secret Boston City Council meetings—one of them attended by local City Councilor John Tobin—that drew an $11,000 fine in 2006.
The court confirmed that a 2005 meeting Tobin attended violated the state’s Open Meeting Law. The appeals court vacated the lower court’s decision on 10 other meetings held in 2003-2005, saying the city should be allowed to present more evidence that those meetings were legal. But the appeals court also issued withering criticism of the council’s main defense arguments, making it appear unlikely that the final decision will be different. Read the full story here.
