Tyngsboro ruling clear win for open govt.

Although this ruling came down after the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and open government, the decision by the Secretary of State’s office regarding previously withheld records in the matter of the town of Tyngsboro’s animal-control officer stands as an unequivocal victory for the public’s right to know.

Sunshine Week, held this year from March 13-19, was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors — now the News Leaders Association — to shed light on the dealings of municipal government, and the effect it has on its citizens and community as a whole.

In Tyngsboro’s case, the Public Records Division of the Secretary of State’s Office sided with the public’s right to know by ordering the town to release previously withheld records of racially charged Facebook posts made by Animal Control Officer Dave Robson Sr.

The newspaper and former Tyngsboro Selectman Robert Jackson both filed public-records requests late last year for documents related to the selectmen’s 3-1 vote, in an Oct. 29 executive session, to reinstate Robson to his position as animal control officer. David Robson Jr., Robson’s son and a member of the Board of Selectmen, recused himself from the vote involving his father.

Robson was on administrative leave pending an investigation into Facebook posts he’d made, including one that said “Shoot the protesters” in reference to Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody.

The town rejected both Jackson’s and the newspaper’s requests, saying it considered records of the disciplinary proceedings — in which Police Chief Richard Howe recommended that Robson be fired — to be personnel records exempt from public scrutiny, not internal affairs records subject to release under previous Supreme Judicial Court rulings. The town argued that even though the animal control officer reports to the police chief, it’s not a sworn law-enforcement position, and therefore didn’t qualify as an internal-affairs probe.

But on Monday Supervisor of Public Records Rebecca Murray ruled in Jackson’s favor, which settled the issue at hand in both appeals, making the records public and ordering the town to release them within 10 business days. “This exemption requires a balancing test which provides that where the public interest in obtaining the requested information substantially outweighs the seriousness of any invasion of privacy, the private interest in preventing disclosure must yield… The public has a recognized interest in knowing whether public servants are carrying out their duties in a law abiding and efficient manner,” Murray wrote in her decision, citing case law.

Murray did allow the town to make redactions “where appropriate” due to privacy concerns. Tyngsboro Town Administrator Matt Hanson said selectmen will be meeting with the town’s attorneys, after which time he expects the town counsel to release a redacted version of the reports within the timeframe set by the Public Records Division.

We’re not certain how this case would have been resolved prior to the long overdue revisions to the state’s public-records law that took effect in January 2017.

It took Massachusetts 40 years to finally catch up with the rest of the country in acquiring information from municipalities and state agencies.

The atmosphere of awareness that followed — defended by an engaged press – certainly played a part in the changed perception of government’s responsibility to public access. On too many occasions, those seeking information, from individuals to news organizations, had been frustrated by toothless, archaic laws interpreted subjectively, designed to thwart the public’s right to know. From charging outrageous fees to ignoring requests, government oftentimes kept a lid on every citizens’ basic right by discouraging legitimate inquiries.

But as this Tyngsboro situation demonstrates, it can still sometimes take individual persistence – or a media organization acting as the public’s proxy — to extricate information from an unwilling government entity.