“I’ve gotten nothing [that would] enable the transparency that is the point of the public records law,” McCarter said. “They don’t even pretend to comply, never mind do anything that would allow public oversight.”
McCarter is hardly alone in his frustrations.
For nearly two centuries, Massachusetts law has guaranteed government records are open and accessible. But a Globe review has found the state’s public records law has often proved to be a promise written in sand.
“Massachusetts is one of the more secretive states. The governments have learned to game the system, and the law has little enforcement,” said David Cuillier, the director of the Freedom of Information Project at the Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment at the University of Florida.
In Massachusetts, the state law’s deadlines for fulfilling records requests can be ignored, workers can conspire to overestimate costs, elected officials can spend years fighting requests in court, or not bother releasing records at all. No one tracks whether local governments like cities and school districts follow the law; state agencies self-report requests, but not the reasons why they refuse them.