Public Records request to the Town of Templeton
December 29, 2014, I made a public records request to the Town for a copy of the feasibility study for a new elementary school. I also requested a detailed accounting of the expenditure of the original $550,000.00 to include amounts spent, what they were spent on and any amount left over from that original amount. Today, January 12, 2015, 10 business days later I received a letter which is dated January 7, 2014, yes 2014???? The envelope has a post mark of January 9, 2015.
Letter states the town does not have custody of the feasibility study because it has not been completed. It states further that the town does have custody of the responsive records of the second part of my request. However, to the extent the records may be withheld under any exemptions to the public records law, they will be withheld. so much for a new open approach.
The estimated time to comply with my request is 3 hours and 30 pages of documents. The lowest paid employee capable of doing this work is listed at $26.34 per hour. and .50 cents per page, which the law says the town may charge. The total estimate is $94.02 which I will pay so we can all see how your money has been spent.
I will post the information here once I have it for all to read, so you will have it on paper.
I appreciate the town responding to my request 11 months before I made it.
Jeffrey Bennett
I would be more than happy to go to any office building, and copy the information you want. I'll bet they would be happy to let me do it, just to save you a small fortune. If I do that, they will not have to free up a person. Just give me a call. Bev..
ReplyDeleteBev, the question should be, how can we move to schematic design, module 4 prior to completing the feasibility study, module 3? Perhaps we just blow through another 500K? Ashburnham feasibility study for the new Briggs elementary school compared remodeling the existing school, remodel and add on to existing school or build a new school. There is a time frame along with comparative costs for each. As in which was more feasible, hence the name, feasibility study.
ReplyDeleteFrom where I sit, it does seem a last ditch move to push for Templeton Center simply because they have no other place to go, and I am willing to bet the MSBA is about ready to tell the town to forget it. The cost of all these moves to no where, are probably way up there. It will come out in the wash and the water will be as green as the money we have wasted. Bev.
DeleteAs with any request for public information the requirements are the law for the people in charge to follow and comply with. A fair cost to provide the documents should be without gouging. 3 hours to provide a document that should be in a file easy to copy in 15 minutes is hard to believe. Do they need to go and get a key made to get into the file cabinet? Other things in town are also less than transparent. I would wonder if now after the new solar farm is up and running do our select board or town administrator have a copy of the contract with the purchase power agreement?
ReplyDeleteChapter 164 MGL requires all contracts over 5,000.00 be there for the public to stop in and read at will anytime during normal business hours. Can WE?
When i asked at the light dept to see the contracts with MMWEC they have i was told we don't have copies here they have all the copies at MMWEC. MILLIONS of dollars worth of contracts unavailable to view by the public.
KIND OF MAKES YOU WONDER "WHY" !
The key to the law is it states the town MAY charge, the town is free to waive the charges. With regards to public records, the law also says that during normal business hours, we the people, are suppose to be able to view all public records. I will soon see (hopefully) how the taxpayers money was spent on this issue. Of course the letter, signed by secretary to the BOS Holly Young, also contains the phrase "to the extent of the law, any material that falls under the public records exemptions or the attorney client privilege, such information WILL be withheld and or redacted (blocked out). Hopefully, there will be none of this as this involves the spending of public monies and it should all be in the open.
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