Hochatown trustees decline to renew Avenue Insights contract, approve Granicus for short-term rental tax collection

The Hochatown Board of Trustees voted to not extend its contract with Avenue Insights and instead authorized an agreement with Granicus for short-term rental tax compliance and collection.

The board amended agenda item 9 to insert the word "not," then approved the amendment and later carried a motion to enter a contract with Granicus. Trustees recorded the votes by roll call; the board approved the amendment and the Granicus agreement unanimously in the recorded votes.

Avenue representatives told the board they view their work in Hochatown as a partnership and highlighted what they said were measurable results. "We've really done good work in getting us to what is $1,200,000 in tax revenue generated," said Matt Stroud of Avenue Insights, who opened the vendor's presentation and asked the board to extend the relationship.

Another Avenue representative urged the board not to end the partnership, saying the company had faced "headwinds" during licensing but had continued supporting town efforts. "We don't really consider this a contract. We consider it a partnership," the representative said.

Town Administrator Adam (who led the staff presentations) told trustees Avenue had improved in recent months but that the town had also discovered "a series of issues" that raised concern about ongoing performance. "They were providing some very terrible service, but within the last few months they turned things around," Adam said, adding that the town must weigh error rates, customer frustration and staff workload when deciding whether to continue with a vendor.

Trustees and several short-term rental owners told the board they had experienced registration problems and confusing communications during the rollout. One owner described repeated failures when trying to register a second cabin online and said help tickets went unanswered for days.

Granicus representatives answered detailed questions about product features, billing and detection of underreporting. The vendor presented an annual fee of $264,107.25 and described a quarterly-billing option that would break that total into four payments of roughly $66,026.81. Granicus staff said their platform uses algorithms and multiple indicators to flag the largest discrepancies so staff can prioritize audits.

Trustees pressed Granicus on payment timing and whether the platform requires separate payments per cabin. Granicus said the system can report and attribute revenue at the cabin level and that remittance processes can be customized to the town's needs; the town will decide how property managers remit taxes under the new agreement.

The board's action came after trustees and staff discussed vendor performance, community complaints and the operational burden on town clerks who have fielded many calls and manual reconciliation tasks. After the vote, the moderator announced the board had "voted not to extend the contract between the Town of Hochatown and Avenue Insights and Analytics LLC."

The trustee vote to contract with Granicus was recorded by roll call; trustees present voted in favor. The agreement is slated to begin Oct. 1 under the terms discussed at the meeting.