Executive Session Minutes (Middlesex County) (Shirley Town Clerk (MA))
| Submitted | Oct. 25, 2016 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Caitlin Russell
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:
Pursuant to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 66, Section 10, I'm requesting all executive session minutes generated, by the 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.
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
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: McDougall, Amy
Good Evening Caitlin,
This is to confirm receipt of your request below. I will work with our Selectmen’s Office to obtain the documents you seek.
Kindly let me know e-mail address or mailing address did you send the original request to, as I do not have a record of receiving it previously.
Thank you,
Amy McDougall, Shirley Town Clerk
From: Caitlin Russell
Hi,
The original email was sent to amcdougall@shirley-ma.gov.
From: McDougall, Amy
Thank you. I do not have a record of receiving this request, but will have our Board of Selectmen’s office work on the request.
Sincerely,
Amy McDougall
Town Clerk
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Nate Boudreau
Ms. Russell,
The Shirley Board of Selectmen's Office is in receipt of your request. All of the minutes you are seeking for the years 2010 - 2015 are available on our website www.shirley-ma.gov<http://www.shirley-ma.gov> for easily accessible viewing. If you would like a hard copy of these minutes provided, we can do that but it will take some time and an estimated cost would be over five hundred dollars.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.
Thank you,
Nathan R Boudreau
Executive Assistant - Benefits Coordinator
Town of Shirley, Ma
7 Keady Way, Shirley Massachusetts
978-425-2600 x200
nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov
From: McDougall, Amy
Good Evening Caitlin,
I have forwarded your follow up to our Board of Selectmen’s office. Their Executive Assistant, Nate Boudreau, would be happy to assist you. He can be reached at nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov<mailto:nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov>.
Sincerely,
Amy McDougall
Shirley Town Clerk
From: Caitlin Russell
Hello,
The minutes on the website only go back to 2012. Can you tell me where I can find minutes from 2010 and 2011? Thank you.
From: McDougall, Amy
Hi Caitlin,
By copy of this e-mail, I am forwarding your request to Nat Boudreau, our Executive Assistant to the Board of Selectmen. He is handling this inquiry. Please send all future correspondence to him.
Thank you,
Amy McDougall
Shirley Town Clerk
From: MuckRock
To Whom It May Concern:
The attached public records request was forwarded to your office for processing. Confirmation of receipt and an estimated date of completion would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
From: Nate Boudreau
Good morning,
Those two years of minutes are available and copies can be made for you. The estimated cost of time and materials is over 450 dollars. Thank you.
Nathan R Boudreau
Executive Assistant – Benefits Coordinator
Town of Shirley, Ma
7 Keady Way, Shirley Massachusetts
978-425-2600 x200
nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov
-
~WRD000
From: Caitlin Russell
That's over $450 for how many hours of work, and at what rate of pay?
From: Nate Boudreau
Good morning,
It is estimated that this would take about 8 hours of work so the price for these minutes at the lowest would be at minimum 166.40 this is using our lowest rated employee at 20.80 per hour. This is simply a quote. Please let me know if you would like to move forward with this request. Could potentially take longer if the minutes need to be approved / created.
Thank you
-
~WRD236
From: Caitlin Russell
Hi,
Can you please tell me why the Board's executive session minutes from 2012 on are available for free on the town's website, but the minutes from the years 2010 and 2011 will be so expensive to release? First I was quoted over $450, and now the price has been reduced to $166.40, but this is still an exorbitant fee, in my opinion, especially when taking into account that more current minutes are freely available. Thank you.
Caitlin Russell
From: Nate Boudreau
Caitlin,
I am in receipt of your request. As we are limited on staff that 8-10 hours quote would be close to the best we can do, it would also take a little to get these things to you as they would have to be located or done up and approved if not available. I was not here in 2010-2011. If you would like us to move forward with your request we can do so. I will need to know as to find the appropriate person to perform this task.
Thank you and Happy New Year!
Nate
Nathan R Boudreau
Executive Assistant – Benefits Coordinator
Town of Shirley, Ma
7 Keady Way, Shirley Massachusetts
978-425-2600 x200
nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov
-
~WRD196
From: Caitlin Russell
Hello,
Seeing as the town has posted the past couple years worth of executive session minutes on its website, I was wondering if it might be possible to lower the fee if you posted the minutes from 2010 and 2011 on the town website. Also, can you tell me how the initial estimate of $450 was calculated?
From: Nate Boudreau
Hello,
The initial amount of the $450 was for your original request of all the minutes for the last 6 years. Once you had looked at our website and changed the request the amount changed. As stated it would take about 8-10 hours to complete so that quote is the best I can do. We are working on posting all of the back logged minutes from years past, but with such limited staffing it has been a difficult task. Please let me know if you would like to move forward with this request at our quoted amount.
Thank you,
Nate
Nathan R Boudreau
Executive Assistant – Benefits Coordinator
Town of Shirley, Ma
7 Keady Way, Shirley Massachusetts
978-425-2600 x200
nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov
From: Caitlin Russell
Hello,
I do want you to move forward with the request, but I believe you’re mistaken about a couple of things.
In a Nov. 21 email you told me that all the minutes I’d requested were available on the town website, and would cost over $500 to produce in hard copy: “All of the minutes you are seeking for the years 2010 - 2015 are available on our website www.shirley-ma.gov<http://www.shirley-ma.gov> for easily accessible viewing.”
I then checked the Town of Shirley website and found that the executive session emails are only posted from 2012 onward. I emailed you to ask where I could find the years 2010 and 2011 and on Nov. 30 you wrote in an email to me: “Those two years of minutes are available and copies can be made for you. The estimated cost of time and materials is over 450 dollars. Thank you.”
You never gave me an estimate for 2010-2015 prior to Nov. 30, only for 2010 and 2011. I’m wondering now if it’s possible to avoid the cost of producing hard copies by posting the minutes on the town’s website, and also, can you please tell me how you arrived at the original $450 estimate for the 2010 and 2011 minutes? Thank you for all your help.
Best,
Caitlin Russell
From: Nate Boudreau
Good Morning,
The original request was based on an estimate that the request would take between 20 – 25 hours which is what I was told by the Town Administrator. After looking into it further I came to a different conclusion. I can get them online within the next month if you wish as our Senior Work Off Program will soon return and I can task one with the job of locating and scanning in all available executive session minutes from 2010 – 2011. If you would like your own copies of these sooner than the amount quoted yesterday will be the best I can do.
Thank you,
Nate
From: Caitlin Russell
I can wait until they're posted on the town website. Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 25, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Nate Boudreau
Good morning,
Our Senior Workoff’s have not started back for the year yet. If you would like I can provide this information to you at the price quoted in our previous conversation. I believe the Selectmen’s Senior Work Off position begins on April 1st and this will be one of their priorities.
Please let me know if you have any questions and have a great Wednesday ☺
Nathan R Boudreau
Executive Assistant – Benefits Coordinator
Town of Shirley, Ma
7 Keady Way, Shirley Massachusetts
978-425-2600 x200
nboudreau@shirley-ma.gov