2025 Awards for Excellence: City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
2025 Awards for Excellence: City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
DownloadThe City of Grand Rapids connected residents and other customers with a modern application it called “GR PayIt” that is used to pay bills, receive notifications, opt out of paper billing, expand payment options, and conduct business with the city. City staff began updating in-house lockbox operations, interactive voice response (telephone) payments, and online payment options starting in 2017 to provide a streamlined, consistent, and accessible payment tool for use across the city. Using a Challenges of disparate software comprehensive marketing campaign, the city communicated with the public and made the case for how GR PayIt could provide superior service for citizens while also improving back-end operations for the city’s treasury function. Results from the program included better resident access, cost control, lower administrative fees, and enhancements to customer service. Since it started to launch its modernization efforts, the city has increased internet/mobile payments by 440 percent, and 85 percent of all payments for water, refuse, property taxes, and parking tickets are now collected electronically.
Publication Date: December 2025
Author: Mike Mucha
