Records Access Officers

Name and Contact Info
Elisabeth (Loes) Lem
elem@townofmtwashington.com
413-528-2839

In 2017 the Secretary of State notified municipalities that they “shall designate one or more employees as records access officer. In a municipality, the municipal clerk, or the clerk’s designees, or any designee of a municipality that the chief executive officer of the municipality may appoint, shall serve as the records access officer.” as per MGL c.66 s. 6A and 950 CMR 32.03.

Public Records Requests may be made to the town Primary Records Access Officer (PRAO) during regular business hours (excluding Saturday, Sunday, legal holidays or when the office is closed), by telephone, fax, or email. After receiving a Public Records Request, the Primary Records Access Officer shall inform, by email, all other RAO’s whose records are requested. The requester may be asked for more information to enable the Primary RAO or Specific RAO’S to respond more efficiently. To facilitate timely responses to Public Record Requests, requests should be as specific as possible, detailing, if known, specific RAOs and Departments, date, and subject matter parameters. The more specific the request, the better able the Town will be to respond, as broad requests often require more extensive staff efforts to locate, review and copy.