Court rules public has right to know who has Somerville parking passes

Cities can’t withhold the identities of people who receive public parking permits, an appellate court ruled Wednesday in a case that’s dragged on for more than a decade and cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The three-judge panel ruled the public interest in how a city doles out permits outweighs any privacy interests, especially since the names of residents are already public in other government documents, such as voter records.

“Spaces are limited,” Associate Justice Christopher Hodgens wrote for the court in a unanimous decision. “If darkness prevails about who ultimately obtains these valuable permits, the public will be unable to determine whether administration of the parking permit program comports with the governing municipal rules.”

The case began in 2014 when this reporter worked at The Boston Globe and requested Somerville’s list of parking permits. The city issues permits to allow residents to park vehicles on city streets for an annual $40 fee. Drivers can face a fine for parking in residential areas without a permit.

The Globe used similar data from Boston to find more than 300 households held at least five residential parking permits, including a couple with 11 in the South End and a city employee with five in the North End.

But Somerville denied the request for data, citing a federal law that restricts access to personal information in state motor vehicle records. Somerville also stated it wanted to protect the privacy interests of car owners who live in the city.

The Secretary of State’s office, which oversees public records disputes in Massachusetts, determined the information should be released. Somerville sued the agency to challenge the decision in Middlesex Superior Court.

A judge ruled the names and addresses of parking permit holders should be released.

Somerville appealed.

Normally, lawyers in the attorney general’s office defend state agencies when they're sued. But in this case, it declined, requiring the Secretary of State’s office to hire private attorneys. Sofya Gray, a records officer for the Secretary of State’s office, said it's accrued more than $365,000 in legal fees to fight Somerville’s lawsuit over the past decade.

Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, decried the amount of money taxpayers spent to fight Somerville’s refusal to release the information.

"This is a waste of time, a waste of money, and yet another example of how weak our public records law is," Silverman said.

Somerville’s city attorney handled the case as part of the job duties and is covered by his annual salary, outside of small filing fees.

For the appellate court ruling Hodgens concluded “that the minimal privacy interest here is outweighed by ‘the paramount right of the public to know’ the names and addresses of the permit holders.”

The court also ruled that the federal law protecting driver’s license information doesn’t bar the city from releasing information it collected for parking permits.

Officials from the Secretary of State’s office and Somerville declined interview requests.

In a statement, city spokeswoman Grace Munns, said “Any next steps related to the case will be shared in the coming weeks.”