During the Jan. 6 Town Council meeting, the issue of 91A requests was brought up by a member of the Town Council along with members of the community, during the public input portion of the meeting.
Town Councilor John Farrell said he asked the IT Department and the Town Manager to pull the 91A requests for the month of September, which he reviewed.
“After going through them and reviewing all of them a number of them come from out of state and that requires… a lot of information and a lot of work,” Farrell said.
Farrell added that recently I’ve heard we’re classifying things as 91As that we used to just be able to provide the information,” asking if they had made any policy change, regarding the requests for information.
It was explained by Farrell that he thinks they need to give clear guidance to staff about how requests for information should be handled, saying that 95% or more of the information in Town Hall “is public information.”
“If someone asks for it, let’s try to find a way to streamline it and just give it to them,” Farrell said.
It was agreed to have staff look at a process to get information to people easier.
Resident Richard Bielinski said he agreed with Farrell’s assessment.
“I don’t often agree with him but I will agree with him on that because I called up to get some information,” he said, explaining that he didn’t do it as a 91A request, but was told that all of the requests for information would be answered through a 91A request.
“I said that’s foolishness,” Bielinski said.
Planning Board Chair Jake Butler also spoke during public input, about his recent experience regarding getting information from the Town.
“I do have to say, I was relatively surprised, I had asked for some information and then a few weeks later I got a very formal email about a 91A request when I never really requested anything, I just emailed and asked for information,” Butler said.
Butler said it doesn’t bother him either way, but said “I think if it’s easier for the Town to throw stuff through a process that everything goes through a 91A whether its somebody asking for a simple email or a million pieces of documentation if thats whats going to be easiest for the Town staff with the resources that they have in order to organize it and be able to get back to it totally fine.”
Butler added, he was surprised with the fact that he was told he may be charged for the information, saying he was requesting it as the Planning Board Chair.
“This was in conversation,” he said, explaining that he had spoken to Assistant Town Manager Kellie Caron, who told him he may be charged for it.
Farrell said it was one of the things that was brought to his attention regarding the topic.