MMA testimony to State Administration Committee calls for special commission to update public records law

The Honorable Peter Kocot, House Chair
The Honorable Joan Lovely, Senate Chair
Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
State House, Boston
 
Dear Representative Kocot, Senator Lovely and Members of the Committee,
 
On behalf of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association offers testimony on the several bills before the Committee for public hearing today related to public records.
 
We appreciate that it is important to update the public records law on a periodic basis to reflect changes in the nature of public records, privacy concerns and laws, advances in technology, the evolution of government and business practices, and the need of citizens for good timely information. However, we cannot support the bills that are before the Committee because we do not believe they achieve these goals in a balanced way. Generally, these measures would impose burdensome requirements on cities, towns and local taxpayers that cannot reasonably be met except for the most simple requests for records, would severely limit the ability of local government to pay for the real and unavoidable cost of providing records, and would impose unwarranted penalties on local officials. We ask you not to advance the bills for these reasons.
 
The MMA respectfully and strongly requests that the Committee report out a bill that would establish a special commission charged with reviewing the public records law and how the law is administered at the state and local level. We suggest that the commission include all parties of interest, including the MMA, and that it be given a broad scope of authority to consider all matters related to public records including related to the protection of privacy and how the evolution of technology is likely to change the nature of records.
 
We appreciate your consideration of the municipal position on this important matter. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or MMA Legislative Director John Robertson at (617) 426-7272 or jrobertson@mma.org at any time.
 
Thank you very much.
 
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
Executive Director, MMA