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Committee ends contract with Azovar after billing discrepancies, approves vendor switch to Granicus for short-term rental tax work
Summary
The Muskegon County Community Development and Strategic Planning Committee on Feb. 13 voted to terminate its accommodations-tax vendor Azovar (Audit Solutions Inc.) after staff discovered approximately $40,436 in credit-card processing fees the county had been absorbing, and to engage Granicus for short-term rental identification and collections at up to $46,000 annually.
The Muskegon County Community Development and Strategic Planning Committee on Feb. 13 voted to end its relationship with Azovar (Audit Solutions Inc.), citing persistent billing problems and a discovered $40,436 in credit-card processing fees the county had been absorbing over roughly 3½ years. The committee also voted to waive procurement rules and engage Granicus to provide short-term rental identification, compliance and accommodations-tax collection at a cost not to exceed $46,000 annually.
“We started noticing a problem with Azovar’s billing in spring of 2024…through that meeting, we came to the discovery that inadvertently the Muskegon County had been paying the processing fees for credit card, online credit card transaction actions made by taxpayers. Our contract clearly states that the taxpayer was to absorb that fee,” Amber Mae Peterson said during the meeting, describing the discovery and subsequent communications with the vendor.
Peterson said Azovar’s self-audit revealed about $40,000 that the vendor identified as amounts the county had paid inadvertently; county staff said Azovar had acknowledged the issue but later stopped responding to follow-up communications. Community Development staff and corporate counsel had been engaged prior to committee action.
Community Development Director Bob Lukens said Granicus was proposed to replace Azovar and that Granicus’s platform offers clearer dashboards, automated triggers for delinquencies, and broader experience in identifying short-term rentals. Lukens also told commissioners Granicus recently acquired Simpleview, the vendor that provides the county’s CVB website and sales software.
Commissioners asked several clarifying questions: staff said they had directly identified about 140 short-term rentals in the county but estimated the true total may be about 400; staff said Granicus uses web scraping and cross-platform analysis to find listings and match booking dates to tax obligations. A commissioner also asked that corporate counsel be given time to review the Granicus contract prior to full-board consideration; staff agreed to provide the contract for counsel review.
The committee moved to terminate Azovar and to engage Granicus with a procurement-policy waiver; both motions were approved by voice vote.
