FOIA Coordinator by Edward Vielmetti

City of Boston: Email Archives of Michael Kineavy

Well, I had no idea - the City of Boston published the email archives of Michael Kineavy, which had been requested by FOIA and which came to 5000+ pages.

In response to a public records request for emails of Michael Kineavy and in response to a request made by the Supervisor of Public Records in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the City of Boston is taking the unprecedented step of posting the requested emails on the City's website.

The City of Boston has carefully reviewed all e-mails which have been posted on-line to ensure that exempted or privileged information is not disclosed. Such information includes messages dealing with medical, CORI, attorney-client and personnel issues. These are important exemptions to the public records law and the City takes its responsibilities seriously to avoid such disclosures as they might improperly cause harm and embarrassment to individuals.

The letter from counsel is dated Oct. 15, 2009:

Chapter 66 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth governs the process whereby a member of the public may request public records from a governmental entity. Chapter 4, §7 para. 26th defines what a public record is and what exemptions apply. In response to a public records request for emails of Michael Kineavy and in response to a request made by the Supervisor of Records in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the City of Boston is taking the unprecedented step of posting the requested emails which are public records under the laws of Massachusetts on the City's website. The period of the request was from September 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009.

To date the City has produced over 11,000 emails. Less than 250 of the emails have been withheld due to privilege or statutory exemption, as indicated on the indexes that the City has made available for public viewing.

In this file are all the public records sent to the Supervisor of Records. In addition, indexes of all messages exempt because of personnel, medical, personal reasons, or attorney - client privilege, have been submitted to the Supervisor of Records in the Office of the Secretary of State.

The reason for this posting is the fact that emails which may contain public records should have been readily available and were not.

In July, the City instituted a journaling feature in its MIS system to ensure that all emails are retained for a three year period of time. It is our belief that this step will ensure the operation of an even more open City government.

More on this as I figure out more.

Boston, Massachusetts mayor's office and deletion of official email

A familiar story of deleted municipal email in Massachusetts, from the Jamaica Plain Gazette

Why Deleted E-Mails Matter in JP

By John Ruch November 6, 2009

Mayor’s Office, BRA late on records requests

A scandal broke in September over Mayor Thomas Menino’s top aide—and apparently other city and Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) officials—deleting thousands of official e-mails that should have been saved as public records. While the situation did some political damage to Menino, the criticism has focused mostly on technical bits of public records law.

But the e-mail deletions may have directly affected the public’s right to know about powerful government activities right here in Jamaica Plain, including the possibly corrupt dealings of a state senator and the BRA’s oversight of a $200 million development project.

The Boston.com story with 5000+ emails at stake

E-mails show politics up close, warts and all

Mayor Thomas M. Menino had just exploded at one of his staunch supporters, an environmental activist from Fort Point Channel. His environmental chief didn’t know how he was going to mend the rift.

“TMM blew up Valerie Burns today,’’ James W. Hunt III wrote in an e-mail, referring to the mayor by his initials. “She can be tough, but she can be a stalwart for TMM. I will work to restore the relationship, but this one will take some time.’’

The e-mail message was among thousands that surfaced yesterday when the Menino administration turned over 5,018 documents in an effort to satisfy a public records request by the Globe. The city did not provide many messages sent directly to or from Michael J. Kineavy, the mayor’s chief of policy and planning, who had routinely been deleting his e-mail. But it turned over other employees’ e-mails that were exchanged with Kineavy and saved on the city server.

the back story from July 2009, again from the Jamaica Plain Gazette Online

No Rules, Few Records for CACs

By JOHN RUCH July 10, 2009

BRA/mayor’s groups form, run with little info

The city-appointed citizens advisory committees (CAC) that review major Boston real estate developments—and that are notorious citywide for secrecy—are formed by the Mayor’s Office and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) with no standard rules, structures or operating procedures, a Gazette investigation has found.