2-16-2023 Public Records Access Policy

Revised February 16, 2023

Public Records Access Officers

The Public Records Access Officers for the Town of Franklin are the Town Administrator and/or the Operations Assistant to the Town Administrator.  The Public Records Access Officers for the Town of Franklin School Department are the Superintendent of Schools and/or the Assistant Superintendent of Schools.

The contact information is as follows for the Town of Franklin:

Jamie Hellen                                                          Julie McCann

Town Administrator                                               Operations Assistant to the Town Administrator

355 East Central Street                                        355 East Central Street

Franklin, MA 02038-1352                                     Franklin, MA 02038-1352

Phone: 508-520-4949                                          Phone: 508-520-4949 

Email Jamie Hellen                             Email Julie McCann

The contact information is as follows for the Town of Franklin Public School District:

Lucas Giguere                                                        Paula Marano

Superintendent                                                       Assistant Superintendent

355 East Central Street                                          355 East Central Street

Franklin, MA 02038-1352                                       Franklin, MA 02038-1352

Phone: 508-553-4819                                            Phone: 508-553-4819

Email: giguerel@franklinps.net                              Email: maranop@franklinps.net

Procedure

Requests for public records may be made orally in person or in writing via letter or email to any one of the Public Records Access Officers.  Public records requests will not be accepted by telephone.  Town related inquiries should be directed to the Town’s Records Access Officers.  School related inquiries should be directed to the Public School District Access Officers.

Good Faith Customer Service

In an effort to provide expeditious customer service, simple and reasonable records requests may be accessible at the department level upon request.  If a Town Department receives a records request, the respective department shall make an effort to fulfill the request if it’s simple, reasonable and can be easily produced by the department as part of regular business workflow.  If the request requires more than one-half hour of staff time to collect requested records the department shall notify the Records Access Officers of such request for direction.

Policies

The Public Records Access Officers shall determine if there are any fees associated with a request.

The Town Attorney will track and record all public record requests for any mandatory reporting purposes for town department requests.  The Superintendent’s Office will track and record all public record requests for any mandatory reporting purposes for school department requests.

All town and school staff should be familiar with the exemptions to the definition of “public records” contained in the Public Records Law. 

Records Retention

The Town of Franklin and the School Department shall follow the Secretary of State’s Municipal Records Retention Manual for guidelines to minimize records storage costs to the Town.

Helpful Resources

Massachusetts Public Records Law - https://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prenotice.htm

Public Records Law exemptions - http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf

Code of Massachusetts Regulation (CMR) 950 CMR 32 Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth

http://www.mass.gov/courts/case-legal-res/law-lib/laws-by-source/cmr/900-999cmr/950cmr.html

Municipal Records Retention Manual - https://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcpdf/Municipal_Retention_Schedule_20161109.pdf

Superintendent

Lucas Giguere

Superintendent of School