Selectmen Unanimously Approve Petropoulos' Access To Town Counsel For PIR Demand For Advice on PIR Demand by Cunningham [with video]
By unanimous vote, Selectmen agreed to approve Selectman Jack Petropoulos' continued communication with Town Counsel to discuss the appeal by Peter Cunningham to the Supervisor of Records in the Secretary of State's office regarding Cunningham's Public Information Request (PIR) and the charges associated with responding to this request.
The motion was made by Chairman Josh Degen and seconded by Selectman Stuart Schulman who added the proviso that the money was already in the Town Counsel legal retainer. Costs to speak to Town Counsel were already in the retainer with the law firm Kopelman and Paige who represents the town.
The sense from the Board was that as long as the town already pays this retainer, whether it was used or not, there would be no additional charges to the town.
CUNNINGHAM PERSISTS IN PIR DEMAND
On January 16, 2015, Groton resident Peter Cunningham appealed Selectman Petropulous' 'essential refusal' to provide email communications sought because Petropoulos insists on being paid $3,201 to satisfy the request. Cunningham complains that Petrooulos insists on printing all emails due to a claimed need to redact certain information. Cunningham further says Petropoulos has failed to provide "any citation under which statutory exemption these redactions apply."
The cost for Cunningham's Public Information Request (PIR) was estimated by Petropoulos to be in the neighborhood of $3000 to comply with Cunningham's request. This estimate was given to Cunningham through the Town Clerk's Office and includes the costs of 3,689 pages of computer generated emails, fifty cents per page as allowed by the State, and the close to 40 hours that it would take to put together the materials that were requested. Petropoulos calculated the hourly cost at $38 per hour, which is at the high end of the charge used by the Town Clerk's office.
Cunningham received a reply from Shawn Williams, Supervisor of Records, that he had received Cunningham's letter and that he has directed a member of his office to review the matter.
"Once the review has been completed," Cunningham said he would then speak to the issues of the PIR.
