Full Disclosure

It's a simple equation: Transparency is only as good as the access available to public documents. With this in mind, CommonWealth has set up an information page to help residents wade through the state’s public records request system. Here you’ll find detailed information on making public records requests, links to records available online at state websites, as well as links to CommonWealth’s own growing public records database.

Something’s new this year at UMass Boston

40% of freshman class will be living in dorms

By Marty Meehan and Katherine Newman Higher Education and Adult Learning, UMass, UMass Boston 0 Comments Aug 28, 2018

NEXT WEEK, as students return to University of Massachusetts Boston, a number of them will do something no one has done in the school’s history: Live on campus. For the first 53 years of its history, UMass Boston students commuted to campus by bus, T, or car. This year that will change. Approximately 1,000 students(...)

Summer 2017

Public records harassment tough sell

Enforcement rare on statute aimed to give communities relief

By Colman M. Herman Municipal Government, public records law, Secretary of State William Galvin 1 Comment Jul 11, 2017

WELLESLEY RESIDENT RONALD ALEXANDER seems to be exactly the sort of guy lawmakers had in mind when they included a harassment provision in the new Public Records Law. Alexander has filed more than 200 public records requests with Wellesley since 2013. He has filed 162 requests with the school department and school committee, 40 with(...)

Spring 2017

Nickeled and dimed

Dartmouth officials give little in public records requests

By Colman M. Herman Public Records, transparency 0 Comments Apr 10, 2017

THE TOWN OF Dartmouth is certainly a stickler for the rules, unwilling to forego a nickel copying fee for a document disclosing a legal settlement involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. CommonWealth sent a public records request to Town Administrator David Cressman for a copy of a settlement agreement between Dart-mouth and its former police(...)

Galvin upholds Jones decision on privacy grounds

Turns down appeals for police video of Patriots player

By Colman M. Herman Massachusetts politics, Media and Journalism 0 Comments Feb 23, 2016

SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM GALVIN’S OFFICE has ruled that the Foxborough Police Department acted properly in denying on privacy grounds a public records request for a surveillance video of New England Patriots defensive end Chandler Jones. The 6-foot-5-inch, 265-pound lineman showed up shirtless in the parking lot of the Foxborough police station on the morning(...)

Senate unanimous in support of Public Records Law update

The bill must be meshed with less-stringent House version

By Colin A. Young and Katie Lannan Massachusetts Legislature, Media and Journalism, Municipal Government, Stan Rosenberg, State Government, Technology 0 Comments Feb 4, 2016

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT ADVANCES in current technology has rendered the decades-old law ineffective, the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a public records reform bill updating the statute governing access to public documents for the first time roughly 40 years. By a unanimous vote, the bill that supporters said would strengthen access to(...)

Baker administration making public records progress

Appeals plummet; still, compliance not perfect

By Colman M. Herman Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Legislature, Massachusetts politics, public records law, Taxes and Budget Issues, Technology 2 Comments Feb 3, 2016

A clarification has been added to this story. THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION is making significant progress in fulfilling the governor’s pledge to make it easier and cheaper for the public to access records from his administration. Baker’s new procedures require every agency to designate a “records access officer” to receive and track public records requests, to(...)

Senate puts teeth into public records reform

Bill differs vastly with House measure but still leaves governor and Legislature exempt

By Jack Sullivan Ethics and Open Government, Massachusetts Legislature, Municipal Government, public records law, Stan Rosenberg, State Government, Technology 1 Comment Jan 28, 2016

THE STATE SENATE unveiled its version of Public Records reform, potentially the first major overhaul since the law was enacted in 1973, placing a hard time limit on responses, requiring courts to award attorneys’ fees if a requester is wrongly denied, mandating electronic records be provided, and restricting fees for compliance and copies. The bill, which(...)

House okays panel to review public records exemptions

With Senate in recess, reform bill unlikely to pass until next year

By Jack Sullivan Massachusetts Legislature, Municipal Government, State Government 0 Comments Nov 18, 2015

THE HOUSE ON Wednesday unanimously approved a watered-down Public Records reform bill but beat back an attempt to lift the exemption covering the Legislature, instead agreeing to form a commission to study whether lawmakers, the governor, and the courts should be subject to the law. The measure — which allows requesters to seek attorney fees(...)

Public records bill does little to open access

Measure calls for attorney fees and fines for noncompliance but could create more potential delays by agencies

By Jack Sullivan Massachusetts Legislature, Municipal Government 0 Comments Nov 17, 2015

THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS Committee is set to unveil a bill that would allow those who are thwarted in seeking public records to collect attorney fees, a stick designed to put some force behind compliance, but the measure does nothing to strengthen what is largely viewed as one of the nation’s weakest public records(...)

Statements of Financial Interest

By Jack Sullivan 0 Comments Sep 1, 2014

The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission requires that public officials and candidates to file a Statement of Financial Interest. We have obtained these records for several years. You can explore this document collection by selecting the appropriate year below. 2012 SFI Filings 2011 SFI Filings 2010 SFI Filings 2009 SFI Filings 2008 SFI Filings