A FOIA request came in on March 26, 2024:
| From: Commonwealth Transparency<info@opencommonwealth.org> Date: Tue, Mar 26, 2024 at 5:01?PM Subject: Public records request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law M.G.L. c66, § 10 To: Commonwealth Transparency <info@opencommonwealth.org> Greetings: This is a formal public records request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law M.G.L. c66, § 10: Please provide the following documents/records for your District for the time period February 1, 2024 through March 26, 2024: Any and all email communications which contains “1367661” (without quotes) and/or “1367661.v1” (also without quotes) including any attachments. This requests includes but is not limited to email, email-attachments, text messages, calendar entries, voice mail messages and/or physical documents. This request seeks responsive documents be delivered in electronic format and in the format in which they are regularly maintained, and specifically includes all electronic mail attachments and metadata. This request and all responsive documents are for express purposes of gathering information to promote citizen oversight and further the public understanding of the operation and activities of our government. If any fees are requested, they should be hereby waived, as OpenCommonwealth.org is a free, open and public journalistic community organization designed specifically to provide and empower citizen oversight of governmental operations and activities, help citizens understand how, why and where taxpayer dollars are expended, and to investigate, gather and report the facts in the online publications found on the webpages and social media accounts of OpenCommonwealth.org. OpenCommonwealth.org is a free service, is staffed only by volunteers, and all costs and expenses are borne by its creators. No person has ever paid OpenCommonwealth.org any monies, or any in-kind contributions for its reporting, or access to any of its files. It is the structural intent of OpenCommonwealth.org to maintain and persist as an absolutely free service to the entire public. Please provide all responsive documents electronically to the email address info@opencommonwealth.org. Kindest Regards, OpenCommonwealth.org OpenCommonwealth.org is a free and open public media organization. We serve the greater Massachusetts community with the goal to provide and empower citizen oversight of governmental operations and activities, help citizens understand how, why and where taxpayer dollars are expended, and to investigate, gather and report the facts in the online publications found on the webpages and social media accounts of OpenCommonwealth.org. OpenCommonwealth.org is a free service, is staffed only by volunteers, and all costs and expenses are borne by its creators. No person has ever paid OpenCommonwealth.org any monies, or any in-kind contributions for its reporting, or access to any of its files. It is the structural intent of OpenCommonwealth.org to maintain and persist as an absolutely free service to the entire public. Since its inception, OpenCommonwealth.org has been viewed by over 130,000 visitors between the website and social media, and has had over 20,000 external visitors view and/or download records from our free and publicly available records repository. Currently OpenCommonwealth.org has over a 1.5 Terabytes of publicly available content published. This communication, along with any attachments, is covered by federal and state law governing electronic communications and may contain confidential and legally privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, use or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this in error, please reply immediately to the sender and delete this message. Thank you. Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any matters addressed herein. |
Instead of responding to this request, Superintendent of Schools Bob Tremblay used a group listserv of school administrators to discuss the strange request instead. Because the text sought in the request was discussed in the listserv, the listserv discussion itself became part of the public record and therefore a responsive document.
It wasn’t just Tremblay trying to weasel out of responding to a legitimate FOIA request, but other municipalities, such as Amy of Lenox MA.
