New Public Record Request Procedures in MA

BOSTON – July 30, 2015 – Governor Charlie Baker announced for the first time administration-wide measures to improve transparency and public access to government records and information, including a reduced and streamlined fee structure and more efficient communications and responses to requesters. The new procedures announced today and outlined in a memo to Cabinet Secretaries will be implemented over the coming weeks.

“We are proud to undertake this important step towards increasing the public’s access to information and shedding further light on the government that their tax dollars fund,” said Governor Baker. “These new measures reduce costs and make the public records request process more uniform and timely, increasing government’s public accountability, openness, and transparency.”

The procedures being implemented by the Baker-Polito Administration, by best practices from around the nation, seek to comply with and exceed the requirements under the existing public records law to more diligently respond to the number of public records requests while reducing delays and costs to requesters and continuing to protect the personal information of taxpayers and service users.

MassIT is additionally in the process of implementing e-mail search capabilities for executive branch agencies over the next year to ease the fulfillment of broad-based email searches.

Improving Government Transparency:

• Secretariats and agencies will designate a Records Access Officer (RAO) to receive and coordinate requests and establish an internal tracking system to ensure compliance with the administration’s public records policy and existing law. RAO’s contact information will be posted on an agency’s website along with helpful instructions for submitting public records requests.
• To improve communications with the public, secretariats and agencies, through their RAO, will notify a requester within five days if the records they seek may take more than ten days and/or $10 to produce. Requests should be fulfilled in no more than eight weeks, with any extension explained to a requester in writing.
• Secretariats and agencies will regularly make frequently requested information and/or records available on their websites and provide information in electronic, searchable formats as soon as possible.
• The administration will waive search and retrieval fees for standard public records requests, provide the first 4 hours of work required for more complex requests at no cost, charge no more than $25 per hour for the additional time required, and notify the requester of those costs in advance.
• The administration will implement standardized production costs in response to public records requests and, for cost savings and environmental purposes, fulfill requests electronically as possible.
  • Electronic Copies: No charge for duplication*
  • 1-4 precisely defined documents: No charge**
  • Black and White Hard Copies: 10 cents per page for single- and double-sided copies.
  • Color Hard Copies: 50 cents per page

  *Costs for discs, thumb drives, or other storage devices necessary to transmit requested documents still apply

  **To be provided within 3-9 days of receipt of the request.