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The guidelines and information below are intended as an overview to assist members of the public seeking access to public records in the custody of the Town of Barnstable.  Effective January 1, 2017, the public records law, section 10 of Chapter 66 of the Mass General Laws, states the following:

"A records access officer appointed pursuant to Section 6A, or a designee, shall at reasonable times and without unreasonable delay permit inspection or furnish a copy of any public record as defined in clause twenty-sixth of section 7 of chapter 4, or any segregable portion of a public record, not later than 10 business days following the receipt of the request."

Before Making a Request

Check that the documents you seek are likely held by the Town.  There is a different County of Barnstable government.  Naturally the Town will not have State of Massachusetts or US Government documents.

Make your request as specific as you can.  The more specific the better the ability to respond; the less specific, the greater the potential time and expense to respond (see Responding to a Request below). 

Two ways to make a Request

Online:

1. Fill out the Public Records Request form HERE; including your name, phone number and e-mail address
2. Please be as specific as possible as to what information you wish to obtain. If your request is general in nature the RAO may contact you and ask for more specific information to help fulfill your request in a timely manner.

3. Please specify which method of communication you prefer; i.e. you'd like to be contacted by the RAO via e-mail, phone call or through the mail. (As directed in the Public Records Laws, the preferred method of communication is e-mail.)

1. Once your request has been received by the RAO it will be date stamped. You should expect confirmation that your request has been received from the RAO, within 24 hours or less.

Direct submission:

A request can be made to the Records Access Officers (RAO) orally but making it in writing is far more preferable (remember be specific) so that misunderstanding is minimized or eliminated and providing what you are looking for is faster and less costly. 

The following RAOs have been designated by the Town Manager.  Records Access Officers are available to answer questions concerning and to help facilitate the response to public records requests for their individual departments. The Town Clerk is available to assist you in identifying the appropriate department with custody of the records you are requesting.  

Town Clerk	Ann Quirk	508-862-4044	Email
Town Manager	Mark S. Ells	508-862-4610	Email
Assessors	John Curran	508-862-4022	Email
Community Services	Chris Gonnella	508-790-6345 x132	Email
DPW	Daniel Santos	508-790-6400	Email
Finance	Mark Milne	508-862-4654	Email
Human Resources	William Cole	508-862-4694	Email
Information Technology	Jim Benoit	508-862-4624	Email
Legal	Karen Nober	508-862-4620	Email
Police Department	Danielle Paradis	508-778-3879	Email
Purchasing	Amber Patterson	508-862-4742	Email
Tax Collector	Sean O’Brien	508-862-4054	Email
Town Council	Cynthia Lovell	508-862-4733	Email

 

Responding to a Request

The response can be made in one of two ways, via email or paper copy sent out through US first class mail.

If the extent of the request is great enough that responding within 10 Business Days would be unduly burdensome, instead of the actual documents the Town can supply a written statement identifying what documents can be produced (or not and why), an estimate of the time and expense to comply with the request and when to comply up to 25 business days or longer if the Town applies for and is granted an extension by the State Supervisor of Public Records.

Some documents or portions of documents are privileged and not public, for example documents providing legal advice or some personnel matters.  If the request covers such documents the response will state the reason(s).

The Town can recover its expense for searching and providing the requested documents.  Copies cost 5 cents per page.  If it will require between 2 and 4 hours to search, review and prepare the response, the Town can recover for the time between 2 and 4 hours; if it will take longer than 4 hours the Town can recover for the time after 4 hours.  The rate for the process is the lowest hourly employee wage rate up to $25.00 per hour not including time for segregating or redacting unless required by law or approved by the supervisor.

 

Fees and charges are payable in advance. 

 

The hyperlinks below are the official documents from the Commonwealth:

 

Guide to Public Records Law
Public Records Law Regulations