030715 umass concert blarney blowout.jpg
03./07.2015 | AMHERST -- The line at the Mullins Center ahead of the concert with Ludacris.
(BRIAN SCHNEE / CBS 3 SPRINGFIELD)
AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts responded Friday to a public records request from The Republican regarding details of a university-funded concert by proposing to bill the newspaper nearly $11,000 to compile emails and other documents.
A university spokesman said the estimated cost was due to "broad-based wording" in the request, and said the university would offer suggestions for how to "narrow" the request.
The Republican initially filed a records request in early March seeking copies of contract and rider documents, including negotiated fees, for artists Kesha, Juicy J and Ludacris. The artists performed at a March 7 Mullins Center concert offered as a free alternative to the Blarney Blowout.
The university paid $305,000 for the concert, and officials said over 5,000 students attended.
That initial request was denied in a response that read, in part: "UMass Legal Counsel reports that based on a review, the University does not have any records responsive to the request as the entertainment was procured by a third party and all contracts and supporting documentation resides with Global Spectrum."
Global Spectrum, a subsidiary of Comcast-Spectator, is a private company that manages the Mullins Center.
The Republican followed up with a new request on March 16 for:
- Emails and other documents produced in the process of scheduling of the March 7 concert at Mullins, e.g., all written communications between UMass personnel and personnel at Global Spectrum.
- Any internal emails / memos / other documents among UMass employees regarding the booking of, budget for, or discussion of any other details pertaining to the concert.
In a response to the request emailed to The Republican Friday, April 3 -- via an attached letter dated April 1 -- university officials said the cost to the newspaper for fulfilling the request would be $10,980.90.
University spokesman Edward Blaguszewski wrote in an email that "[the] reason for the cost of the estimate, based on state statute, is the broad-based wording of the inquiry, which covers many months of correspondence involving a great number of people."
Blaguszewski continued: "The university will gladly work with the newspaper, as it has done with for other requests, to narrow its request to identify the best, most relevant information. Planning for the concert on March 7 was one aspect of widespread planning and in many cases is not isolated in correspondence."
The formal response (see below) was signed by Enku Gelaye, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life.
"I will need to review a large number of communications records for internal security measures and information relating to the security of persons or facilities, the disclosure of which could implicate the health and safety of our students," Gelaye wrote.
According to the response, fulfilling the request would require 225 hours of work, broken down as follows:
- 160 "senior staff" hours to read and review documents at $37 an hour, for a total of $5,920;
- 40 associate vice chancellor or executive director hours for a total of $2,580 (no hourly rate was provided);
- 20 vice chancellor hours at $112.98 per hour, for $2,259.60;
- and five General Counsel Office hours at $44.26 per hour, for $221.30.
A guide to the Massachusetts public records law [pdf] notes that, "in the interest of open government," records custodians are "strongly urged" to waive fees associated with fulfilling records requests.
Custodians are not bound by law to waive fees, though, and the guide notes that under state law a records custodian "[...] may charge and recover a fee for the time he or she spends searching, redacting, photocopying and refiling a record. The hourly rate may not be greater than the prorated hourly wage of the lowest paid employee who is capable of performing the task."
According to state employee salary information provided earlier this year to The Republican / MassLive, associate vice chancellors in the University of Massachusetts system were paid between $177,692 and $191,491 in 2014.
The estimate provided in the response to The Republican's request was based on an annual salary of $134,160.
Vice chancellors in the University of Massachusetts system earned between $156,292 and $307,772 in 2014, according to state records.
The estimate provided by the university was based on an annual salary of $234,998. Gelaye, the vice chancellor who signed the response to the records request, earned $227,341.00 in 2014 and $163,496.00 in 2013, state records show.
Wayne Phaneuf, executive editor of The Republican, said the newspaper would appeal the proposed fees to the state Supervisor or Records if the cost could not be reduced.
"The total costs of nearly $11,000 borders on the obscene, especially from a state institution which taught its journalism students the importance of demanding transparency from government entities," Phaneuf said. "Making the cost of documents and evidence prohibitive does not lead to transparency."
UMass Response to Public Records Request