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Charlemont assessors weigh Catalis AP5 upgrade; clerk offers temporary permit-extract workaround
Summary
Charlemont’s Board of Assessors discussed Catalis’ push from AssessPro to AP5 after the vendor declined to modify the town’s existing extract; Assessor’s Clerk Carlene Hayden presented prior upgrade quotes, flagged budget and timing constraints, and said she can implement a temporary extract workaround while the Board meets Catalis on Nov. 4.
Charlemont’s Board of Assessors on Oct. 7 discussed a proposed upgrade by Catalis from the town’s current AssessPro system to the company’s AP5 platform and a clerk-proposed workaround to meet a new building-permit extract specification.
Assessor’s Clerk Carlene Hayden told the Board that the cooperative inspection administrator requested new fields in the annual assessor extract for a new permit system. Catalis initially indicated the modified report would incur a charge, then informed the office it is phasing out classic AssessPro and encouraging customers to upgrade to AP5 rather than accepting one-off changes.
Hayden presented prior quotes for both an on-premise and a hosted (AWS) AP5 installation but said the Fiscal Year 2025 budget includes no funds for the conversion. She told the Board FY2026 is the certification year and that the earliest practicable upgrade would be Fiscal Year 2027 (beginning July 2026). Hayden said she has “not heard great things about AP5 from some other towns, with one reporting a loss of their data,” and that she found a way to modify the existing building-permit extract to meet the inspection program’s new specifications as a temporary workaround.
Board members expressed concern about the cost, the timing of database conversion during certification year work, and the reports they've received about AP5 reliability. The Board agreed to invite Catalis to a discussion of timing and pricing, possibly via Zoom at the next meeting on Monday, Nov. 4 at 6:45 p.m.; Hayden will check with Catalis and notify the Board.
No formal motion to approve an upgrade was taken. The Board acknowledged that Catalis’ longer-term decision to phase out classic AssessPro may eventually compel a change in systems, but for now authorized Hayden’s workaround so the assessment office can meet the inspection administrator’s extract requirements without an immediate conversion.
The Board also reviewed a Catalis email and previously obtained AP5 quotes, which will be part of the record for the scheduled Catalis meeting. The Board did not set a funding source for any future upgrade during the Oct. 7 meeting.
