Disclosure Period

From time to time, the City allow residents to complete a disclosure form to communicate a request to reassess their property.

Overview

In November every 5 or so years the City invites property owners to review their property's assessed value, and to make an application to have the valuation reviewed by Assessing Dept staff.

There is an on-line form to allow this process in cityofboston.gov.

During a disclosure period, there are several additional messages displayed on the Assessing Online pages. These messages:

• communicate the duration of the Disclosure period,

• display the assessed properties provisional valuation for the next assessment year, and

• provide a link to a form to submit a revaluation request.

Checklist

Step by Step Preparation.

• Make a test page: Copy the /assessing/search/default.asp and rename it appropriate for the disclosure period - e.g. default_FY2025_disclosure.asp

• Make a new database: Request a new copy of the database from the SQLDBA's. You should copy the current live database on VSQL01 (typically a Q1 database).

• Create a connection string: In global.asa add a new entry which provides a connection string to the database created in the step above.

• Update test page: Edit the new cloned file/script and change the following variables:

  • PublicDisclosureStartAnnouncing = Date when an advisory notice appears on the search page.

  • PublicDisclosureStartOfficial = Date when the first submission can be made

  • PublicDisclosureStartOnWeb = Date when assessed value is shown on details page

  • PublicDisclosureEnd = The last day that disclosures can be made Assessing will confirm actual dates, but you might expect the last date to be the first Friday in November, and the first date to be the Monday before. Note: If you have only been given one start date, then make the first 3 variables that date.

  • AssessingSearchDB = The connection string in global.asa as created in step above.

• Enable submission form: Ensure that the page /assessing/revaluation/default.asp is available, and check it over to see that dates and instructions are current.

  • In /assessing/search/exchange ensure the archive and output folders are empty, and delete /assessing/search/exchange/insert.sql (if it exists).

• Request the latest data (currently an MS Access Database) from Assessing. This DB should have updates for valuation, property attributes and property owners. Other information (Tax etc) is unchanged from before the disclosure period (i.e. from Q1 update).

  • Follow the instuctions here to import the data. You should find a smaller set of tables tables in the access database than for Q1 & Q3 imports. Typically you can expect - [ADDITIONAL_DATA] - [CONDO PROPERY ATTRIBUTES] - [CURRENT OWNERS] - [FY20XX Disclosure Values] - [RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY ATTRIBUTES] - [Tyler Real Estate Export File]

  • Note: Clone the stored procedure dbo.sq_20xxQ1_update. Ensure that the conditions for the disclosure period (added Nov 2024) will be met. We need to be sure that no tax, valuation or bid information overwrites data in the main tables (particularly taxbill). The [FY20XX Disclosure values] table will be created. Execute the sp to migrate data from the import tables into the main tables.

• Set Disclosure field: Edit the test file default_FY2025_disclosure so that the disclosure valuation is read from the [FY20XX Disclosure Values] table.

• Test: Using the test file default_FY2025_disclosure.asp?date=20xx-11-xx (use a date inside the disclosure period) verify that data and messaging is correct.

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Deploy

1. Advise SQL DBA's to schedule their Job to start on the first day of the disclosure period. They should set the Job to end on the day after the last day of the disclosure period.

2. At any time prior to the earliest of any of the disclosure period start dates (after testing is completed) the existing default.asp file should be renamed (e.g. default.asp.20xxQx) and the testing file renamed as default.asp. - Obviously this need to be done quickly as the default.asp page serves AOL, and if its not there AOL is "down".

3. Rename the submission form from its random name to default.asp.

4. Check the page immediately after the commencement of the disclosure period.

5. Check that the data exchange is working by opening the output.txt files on the server.

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End of Disclosure Activity

At the end of the disclosure period, the main AOL page should automatically revert to is normal non-disclosure format without intervention.

• At some point shortly after the end time of the disclosure period (agree this time with Assessing) the submission form should be renamed. This will stop people from making additional submissions after the end of the period (e.g. if they bookmarked or otherwise remembered the form). Assessing may allow a grace period of a few minutes to allow for time-keeping differences for people have the form open but have not submitted at the period end.

• Check the /assessing/search/exchange folders on the server to see that:

  • the insert.sql file is empty

  • All errors reported in the ./output/xxx_output.txt files have been processed into VSQL61 one way or another.

• Check with the DBA's that the Job is suspended.

Submissions

Revaluation Submission Form

The form is located at /assessing/revalution/

The form is unlikely to need altering, except to update some dates which are not coded.

The form is renamed to some unlikely-to-guess name between disclosure peiods so people cannot access it via bookmarks or random guessing. During the disclosure period, the form should be renamed to default.asp, and after the period be renamed back to some random name.

When the user submits the form, a TSQL INSERT statement is appended to the insert.sql file.

Data Exchange with VSQL61

In the /assessing/search folders there is a folder exchange which is used to stage data to be inserted into the assessment_review table in the Correspondence database on VSQL61. Assessing staff have access to VSQL61, but there is no access from the IIS service on VSQL01.

The exchange folder has subfolders which are used to stage and provide an audit trail of data exchange between this app and VSQL61.

There is a Job on VSQL61 which reads the insert.asp file and batch loads the records in that file into the assessment_review table in the Correspondence database. The CoB DBA team maintain this Job and need to turn it on and off.

The Job runs 3 times per day.

The Job does the following:

1. Renames the input/insert.sql file to archive/yyyymmddhhhhss_insert.sql.

2. Imports the newly renamed file into VSQL61,

3. Saves the process output to output/yyyymmddhhhhss_Output.txt.

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WARNING: No alerts are raised if there are errors in the import process. The output/xxx.txt files need to be scanned to check for import errors.

TIP: When errors are found, they are usually data related. The original INSERT can be copied from the archive/xxx.sql table, corrected and added to the current insert.sql table. The modified INSERT will then be processed in the next Job run, and if successful VSQL61 will be updated.

TIP: Can request the SQLDBA's copy the assessment_review table from VSQL61 to the current assessing_updates database on VSQL01. Then the INSERT statement for any failed imports can be tested on VSQL01 before appending back into insert.sql