Clay council approves contracts for digital permitting and tax administration

The City of Clay council approved two resolutions to modernize municipal administrative systems, voting to contract with Online Solutions/CitizenServe for permitting and code-enforcement services and with Numo Group for tax administration, audit and business-license administration.

Council members said digitizing permitting would reduce paper-based audit gaps and streamline inspections, with staff estimating a $31,000 startup fee and $13,000 annually for the permitting platform. For tax and business-license administration, staff said Numo’s service (at a lower annual cost than current in-house expenses) would improve compliance, cross-check sales-tax filings against business-license registrations and reduce staff workload.

A city technology representative explained that some platforms handle different functions (sales-tax collection vs. permitting) and the council discussed whether a single vendor could centralize services; staff said consolidating reporting into a single system would reduce confusion for taxpayers. The council approved both resolutions by roll-call votes.

Staff said the changes should increase collections and compliance while reducing staff time spent chasing renewals; the council directed staff to coordinate vendor integration and report back on implementation milestones.