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Re: BPL, FOI and Saklad



Mr. Saklad,

Your links to various websites are interesting but they fail to answer the
question that I posed earlier. I  read the Massachusetts Public Records Law
and I still do not see how the BPL employee association's newsletter is
subject to the law. Granted the law does state that

""Public Records"" shall mean all books, papers, maps,..., made or received
by any officer or employee of any agency,..., or of any political subdivision
thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a
public purpose, ..."

So I think I can see how you could construe that the law covers the
newsletter since the employees are receiving something that is made by
another state employee.

But the law further states that

"...unless such materials or data fall within the following exceptions in
that they are:

(e) notebooks and other materials prepared by an employee of the commonwealth
which are personal to him and not maintained as part of the files of the
government unit;"

I would then consider that the newsletter is exempt from the law since it is
personal to the employee and is probably not maintained as part of the files
of the government unit (Boston Public Library).  Cataloging of the newsletter
does not per se make it part of the government unit's files.  Since the
newsletter is cataloged I assume that you (and others) then have access to
it. If not why not? Please explain.

Is the employee association a voluntarily established organization that is
separate from the BPL? or is it a requirement of employment by the BPL that
all employees must join the association?

Are my assumptions correct? If they are not could you please present your
argument  (minus the websites) as to why they are to be considered a public
record?  Thank you.  It will not be necessary to cc me separately since I
receive the listserv postings on a regular basis.

Peter Kurilecz
pakurilecz@aol.com

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