been historically maintained in binders stored in the Assessing Office. She was required to print and
place in a binder all assesshelp emails and the department responses.
In the March 31, 2021 you responded to my request with the following:
Overall, this request for governmental records is unclear, overbroad, and not reasonably described. For
example: Does your request intend to subsume all emails received by the assesshelp emails address,
regardless of the intent or purpose of the sender (e.g. junk mail, incorrectly addressed correspondence,
personal correspondence, unrequested commercial solicitations, etc)? Is you request only for those
emails which are readily available (e.g: not subject to initial and legal deletion, file corruption, etc,) or is
the request made with the presumption that it can and should be satisfied verbatim?
Frankly, I was dumbfounded by this response. I was so confused that I contacted a member of the NH RTK
coalition and they suggested I schedule a phone call. I contacted another attorney involved with RTK (not Rick
Lehmann) and he did not agree with that response. I do not understand the response you provided to me and
therefore I cannot reduce the burden given the explanation above.
You are forcing me to go back and forth with pages and pages of explanation that would slow the process down
on obtaining the records. You are claiming that you are unable to speak with me on the phone unless prior
arrangements are made through your legal counsel. Attorney Lehmann sent you a letter, dated, I believe,
February 19, 2021, granting that permission. I don't know how to communicate effectively with you so you are
just going to have to produce the records with the broadest interpretation that RSA 91-A affords its citizens.
In a nutshell, I was at one point simply able to review the assesshelp binder without redaction several years ago,
then I submitted a RTK( in similar language to the request above except I was able to specify the binder,) for
the assesshelp binder and received about 450, appropriately redacted pages, and now I wrote the request as a
straightforwared assesshelp email request because at the time with COVID I was unsure if the Binder was being
maintained. Mr. Vincent has identified that it was not and will no longer be. Now you are asking complex,
indiscernible questions about the emails I want. I am now thinking we should bring back the binder or be certain
the responses are sent back into the assesshelp website.
The City is making public access to public records far too complex, costly and difficult.
Very disappointing,
Laurie Ortolano
