The Dos and Don’ts of Public Records Requests

January 5, 2026
• After a Select Board discussion about sharing public records, the Needham town clerk explained how her office handles those requests.

The Needham town clerk’s office fielded about 1,100 to 1,200 public records requests last year. That’s about three requests per day. Town Clerk Louise Miller said they received at least 1,000 requests in 2024 as well.

The town service — a local extension of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — allows people to request public documents that are otherwise inaccessible, such as email correspondence, specific data, files and more.

How the town responds to such requests became a topic of discussion at the Select Board’s Dec. 16 meeting. A copy of Town Manager Katie King’s emailed memo about the Envision Needham Center grant and its changes had been disseminated to an outside party, at their request, by a member of the board. Board members considered whether sharing the letter in its entirety failed to follow proper procedure and whether the letter would be considered a work in progress.

Miller, who said she was not familiar with the discussion at the Select Board, said town departments each have record access officers who typically facilitate requests. During the meeting, King said requests about the board and town manager’s office usually go through her. Miller said she directs requests to the appropriate party.

Requests can be made in one of four ways: the town’s digital portal, via email and in writing or orally to the town clerk’s office. Requests can also be anonymous. Under state law, a records access officer has 10 business days to respond to a request, within reason.

Speaking generally, Miller said drafts of documents are public records, except for drafts of policy-making documents.

“Unless it’s policy-setting, until the policy is set, the document itself may be withheld,” she said, “but once the policy is set, those documents are all public records.” She added that drafts are often saved over, meaning there sometimes aren’t multiple versions of the same document.

King’s memo to board members concerned changes to the requirements of the $320,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration. King said the board needed to decide whether to use or decline the grant by the end of the year, and members voted to reject the grant.

Redactions are at the discretion of the individual department from which the records are produced, Miller said. The town clerk’s office doesn’t share Social Security numbers or personal emails or phone numbers that can be found on lists of voters and businesses.

“If, for some reason, there are attorney correspondence or attorney communications, then we would consult with our town counsel to determine whether those are subject to redaction or not,” Miller said.

Needham Director of Communications and Community Engagement Amy Haelsen wrote via email that the town’s “staff and/or Town Counsel review records for exemptions to the public records law.”

If the town receives a request for email communications, the I.T. department will search through the archives for keywords or specific people mentioned in the request, Miller said.

Miller said she has not yet conducted any trainings on public records with town employees. Haelsen wrote that they’ve held “periodic trainings for elected and appointed Town officials and Town staff on topics that include the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, ethics, and public records.”

In light of last year’s sizable number of requests, Miller said the office is considering new FOIA software to more efficiently respond when they come in. However, she said not all the requests being made are necessary.

“I think people are generally using public records requests excessively,” she said. “There are a lot of folks who are just doing their ordinary business, and instead of just going to the department directly and saying, ‘I’m looking for this file,’ they’re filing public records requests.”

Miller advised that a formalized request should be made “when the documents are not otherwise readily available.” Items such as censuses, building permits and files from town boards don’t warrant such a request, she said, as they are already accessible.