Advertise on podcast: Podcast 83

Host: Stephan Currie Guest: Curtis Pennala of Karhu Cyber Topic: A cybersecurity firm details a 2024 “horror story” involving a Michigan county and the lessons all counties can derive from it in a new episode of Podcast 83. Karhu Cyber, a veteran-led firm, is now operating in more than 25 percent of Michigan counties, said its CEO, Curtis Pennala. “We've seen kind of the full gamut of county government's cybersecurity posture … all the way up to some of the bigger ones who have internal cybersecurity teams and a large, robust IT team, and all the way down to the smaller counties where they don't actually have any internal IT resources or they're contracting the local IT provider, who may not have other, municipal experience and doesn't really understand the risk profile,” said Pennala, who developed his cybersecurity skills during a seven-year stint with the U.S. Navy. “So, some of the horror stories … the worst one that we did was when we actually onboarded with a client back in the fall of 2024, and then, during onboarding, they got hit with a pretty significant data breach,” he continued. “We had some of their security controls, in this case. Their firewall was … an eight-year-old firewall, which is at least three to four years out of date, depending on the firewall. … And what that was doing is it was publicly advertising basically a login portal, and it allowed the threat actor to kind of walk in the front door, if you will. So, that resulted in a pretty significant outage for the county.” To address the ever-evolving threats online, Pennala said: “The information I would like to bring to (county) decision makers, and I consistently have those conversations, is, get a third-party assessment so you can understand, because if you talk to your internal IT team, and they say, ‘Yeah, we're good, we got endpoint security. We got, you know, this, you know, MFA, what have you.’ All of that's good, but it's not proven until it's tested. “So, let's run it through a test,” he continued. “It's not an adversarial mindset; it's a collaborative thing. Let's work with your team, and let's assess this environment in not a checkbox fashion.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guest: Dan Kelly of MAC Topic: MAC continues to expand its free services to counties in guiding them on the best way to deploy opioid settlement dollars, a MAC staffer explained in a new Podcast 83 episode. Dan Kelly, technical assistance specialist, joined host Stephan Currie for a review of the latest offerings from MAC’s nationally recognized opioid settlement program. “Why don't you talk a little bit about this new evaluation tool/toolkit you and (Director of Opioid Services Amy Dolinky) have developed?” Currie asked. “One thing we're seeing as we're a few years into the settlement space is they've funded programs, they've done their RFPs and now they're asking the question of: ‘Well, what went well? What didn't? Where can we improve our investments?’” Kelly replied. “So, we worked to come up with this evaluation toolkit to meet that need,” he continued. “What it’s meant to do is walk counties through how to do an evaluation from start to finish. It assumes that you've had your projects funded for a year, and now you're looking back and you're going through (and saying), ‘OK, how do we evaluate these projects, and how do we inform that information to make our next decision around who we're going to fund and what we're going to prioritize? “Putting that together at the county level or multi-jurisdictional local level to apply for some state funds there makes sense,” said Currie. “And I know you have been putting together some statewide cohorts of some smaller meetings across the state. Tell me a little bit about those and how those have been going.” “We broke up the state into five cohorts. Back in May, we did our first cohort in Upper Peninsula. It was a really powerful conversation, because we did it in Escanaba, and we do the first meeting in person for these, so people can get together and … now we've invited townships and cities, any jurisdiction that receives settlement dollars, because they can work together, right?” Kelly said. “Just a reminder for all of our county partners, Amy and I are readily available. Our no. 1 goal is to meet your individualized needs.” Contact Kelly at [email protected] or Dolinky at [email protected].  See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Deena Bosworth, Davis Grimm and Maci Main of MAC Topics: In its most recent legislative update episode, MAC’s Podcast 83 team goes on the campaign trail to see what is happening in state legislative races that may have escaped attention amid the avalanche of advertising for U.S. Senate and the governor’s race. “I think on the state House side, it's kind of up in the air,” said Davis Grimm. The Republicans have the House at a 58 to 52 margin, so, they're just looking to hold on to every seat they can. I think the two seats that are going to be of most interest there are House District 54 (Oakland County) and House District 31 (Washtenaw County). … “The rest of the House seats that I think are of most interest to people are the ones that we talk about every term. I think Rep. Karl Bohnak up in Marquette (House District 109) has another tough race, especially because, you know, El-Sayed and all the top-line tickets are polling really well in that Marquette area. … Then there’s the Battle Creek seat with (Rep. Steve) Frisbee (House District 44) that I think will be interesting. And (Rep. Kathy) Schmaltz in the Jackson area (House District 46) continues to be interesting for Republicans, so, all of those they're looking to hold onto.” In legislative news, Maci Main reported on the struggle on court funding:  “The court funding authority bill, House Bill 5452, was brought up in Senate committee for testimony only. I testified, and Deena did as well, in support of the bill. … (It essentially will just keep the lights on in the courtrooms while a longer-term funding plan is, thought of. “But in the meantime, we're standing to lose up to $50 million if this doesn't go through. So, there's a lot on the line, and we stressed that to committee on Wednesday.” “The Legislature loves to get their back up against the wall before they have to make a decision,” said host Stephan Currie, “so, we're probably in a lame duck sort of situation where we're banging on people, ‘Hey, let's get this done. It's time now, we're at the end here.’ So, stay tuned on that, because there's probably not a lot of session days left when we start looking at the calendar.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guest: Andy Hetzel of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Topic: The newest episode of Podcast 83 explores the complex answer to a simple question: Why do county health insurance costs keep rising? To answer that, Andy Hetzel of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan joined host Stephan Currie for an extended review of health care realities in 21st century Michigan. “I want to ground everybody in what we're talking about,” Hetzel started. “So, health insurance rates or the prices that people and employers pay for their health insurance are based on primarily two things. “One is the cost of the health care system, and the second thing is the use of that system. So, funny stat, if you took everything in the American health care system ― hospitals and doctors and insurance companies and all the money that we pay in premiums and all the money we pay for care, drugs and drug makers and all of that industry, if that whole system seceded from the union and became its own country … (it) would be the third biggest economy in the world, after the United States and China …” And, Hetzel noted, “75 percent of all the health care spending is related to chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, those types of things. And a lot of those things are manageable through things that you and I and your audience can do every day. … So, we all have a role to play in staying as healthy as possible, because if we do that, then the use of an expensive system goes down and the downstream pressures on health insurance premiums go down. “If we don't do that, we're going to see what we've seen over the last five to six years, which is becoming unaffordable for a lot of employers.” Currie replied. “As an employer, we do get our annual premiums. When those increases come across that we're all seeing, I mean, we've seen it even here in our small office of 12 people … Where is the money actually going?" “Let's go back to the health care dollar,” Hetzel said. “All of your members can access this information online at mibluedaily.com/affordability. Find the graphic that's the health care dollar. What they'll see is … 47 cents of that dollar in premium gets paid out to hospitals for the care that our members receive in hospitals. Twenty-five (25 cents of that dollar gets paid out to doctors' offices, outpatient centers, physical therapy for medical services. Twenty (20) cents of that dollar gets paid out for the prescription drug claims of our members. Eight (8) cents of that dollar is kept by Blue Cross to run our business. Two (2) cents of that dollar is paid out in taxes, because Blue Cross does pay federal, state and local taxes. And so that's how the dollar coming into our company is apportioned.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Deena Bosworth, Davis Grimm and Maci Main of MAC Topics: What didn’t happen, or has yet to happen, in Lansing highlighted this week’s Podcast 83 discussion. MAC’s Davis Grimm explained how discussion of a gas tax holiday ― and a resulting $800 million hole in the budget ― rose and then faltered at the Capitol. “So, you know, it was very concerning for (the County Road Association). We were out there on the floor with them all Tuesday (Sept. 29), just trying to figure that out. But it didn't end up happening, so I guess it worked out.” Meanwhile, a new package of bills to control data center siting was introduced. “It deals with large-scale data centers, local units of government having to give a site certificate and approve it, but the criteria in there is extensive,” explained Deena Bosworth. “It would require significant studies of any kind of environmental impact, noise, sound impact, infrastructure impact, water usage, impact on farmland, or wetlands … there's a whole host of things,” she continued. “So, clarify that for me,” replied host Stephan Currie. “Do these get at zoning issues, or are these just in general things you need to do if you want to build a data center?” “Both,” said Bosworth. “Some of these bills amend the Zoning and Enabling Act. Some of the bills just create new sections of law for specific data centers, yes, and these are the things that you have to do. The local unit of government has to render written decisions and take into account all of this information. And it's every local unit of government affected has to actually give an affirmative thumbs up to this. The primary bills have been assigned to the House Government Operations Committee. In other updates: A trial court fee authority extension, vital to court funding beyond Dec. 31, is out of the House and awaiting action in the Senate.County boards would have more meeting flexibility under Senate Bill 271, which was heard in committee last week. The bill would allow remote participation in public meetings, under certain requirements, but not allow commissioners attending remotely to vote.Funding for drug abuse programs is threatened due to the lack of movement for House Bills 5099-5100.Progress has been made to protect county funds owed by the state, as HB 6105 is now on the House floor. This bill would prevent the Department of Natural Resources from taking their lake level assessment responsibilities out of county PILT payments.See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Deena Bosworth, Davis Grimm and Maci Main of MAC Topics: MAC’s Podcast 83 discussed what appears to be a shrinking legislative work calendar and how that affects remaining county priorities in 2026 in a new episode. “We had a little bit of legislative activity last week, and it’s probably going to be spotty going forward now until at least till the election, but let's touch on what they did work on,” said host Stephan Currie. “Senate Bill 947 finally moved through the House last week,” replied Davis Grimm. “That bill changes some of the inspection requirements and registration requirements around dams. … It is going to impact dams across the state. “We're looking at roughly 360 county-owned dams across the state, and 60 of those are listed as higher significant hazards,” he added, “so, they're going to see almost triple the number of inspections required. … “For counties like Gladwin, who own close to eight dams, and two of which being high hazard … they're going to see probably a $30,000 increase in inspection costs alone …” Also covered in this week’s episode: Indigency standards – “(Senators) heard testimony last week on Senate Bills 1089, 1090 and 1091 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and they were voted out of the committee,” said Maci Main. “What those bills would do is create a statewide process for determining indigency,” she continued. “So, if that person is determined indigent, they would then not be able to impose certain costs, fees and assessments on those defendants. Our concern with the bills isn't necessarily the indigency determination factor of it. It's the fact that revenues might be lost in that process.” Lake assessments – “When the (Department of Natural Resources) owns a boat ramp, or a campground, or a parking lot, they have an obligation to help pay for that lake level maintenance or the establishment of a lake level, and all the costs that are incurred in it,” explained Deena Bosworth. “Although they're statutorily obligated to pay it, back in 2022, there was some legislation that kind of monkeyed around with that, and now the state is taking their financial responsibility for their portion of those assessments out of county and township PILT payments. And that's absolutely not OK. So, Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare) introduced House Bill 6105 for us, and that bill would just take it back to the previous way of handling this.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Hosts: Stephan Currie and Deena Bosworth Guest: State Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) Topics: State Rep. Julie Rogers of Kalamazoo County discussed her county service and legislative efforts on courts, state support for counties and more in the newest “Legislator Spotlight” episode of MAC’s Podcast 83. “My very first dipping into county world was serving on our Kalamazoo County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Board and served for over 10 years in a volunteer capacity,” the Democrat from Kalamazoo County told episode co-hosts Stephan Currie and Deena Bosworth. “I do want to give a shout out and a plug, because counties have oodles of these different advisory boards and they often do not get enough applicants. “Often people think that the bar is really high, and that, it's very competitive, and sometimes you may be the only person applying for it. So, shout out for county advisory boards. It's a great way to give back … So, that was my first foray into county government.” In reviewing her work in the Legislature, Rogers touched on: The FY27 state budget: “I think most listeners are probably aware that the federal government keeps kind of cost-shifting a lot of things down to states. … So, we had a lot of difficult decisions to make; much of it was involved around shoring up Medicaid. … We were really doing all we could to not make cuts to Medicaid, and, unfortunately, there were a lot of other important programs, like local revenue sharing, that did not see increases.” The creation of judgeships: “Judges don't just magically happen. You need to pass legislation to get additional judges.  … When I looked at (the State Court Administrative Office’s) most recent report, it showed Kalamazoo County could use one more circuit court and one more district court judge. So, we got to work on some legislation. We had many meetings with our local county commissioners to see what their interest was, our local county administrator and the judges themselves. … We shall see how that goes.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Deena Bosworth, Davis Grimm and Maci Main of MAC Topics: County commissioners attending the 2026 Annual Conference were urged to contact their legislators regarding key court funding in a special “live” episode of Podcast 83 taped on Sept. 11, 2026. The MAC team of Executive Director Stephan Currie, Governmental Affairs director Deena Bosworth and governmental affairs staffers Davis Grimm and Maci Main reviewed House Bill 5452, which would extend the court-fee funding sunset through Dec. 31, 2028. Without action, fee authority expires Dec. 31 of this year, creating a $50 million funding cliff. Other issues covered in the Legislative Update included: HB 6105, which would correct a legislative error on lake level assessment payments from the state to counties. Senate Bill 947 and HB 5485, which would increase dam rehabilitation costs and reporting requirements for approximately 530 county-owned dams. While MAC secured $20 million for publicly owned high-risk dams, further funding may be required. SB 1136, a potential fix to the Public Employee Health Care Act (Public Act 152) that now contains outdated inflationary mechanisms for hard cap limits on health insurance premium payments. SB 81, enacted in August, which expands Michigan Indigent Defense Commission responsibilities to indigent youth on Oct. 1, 2027. See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Bill Burke and Richard Carpenter of Rehmann Topic: MAC’s Podcast 83 hosted staff from Premier Partner Rehmann to discuss how Michigan’s changing minimum wage could affect mental health services in a new episode. “The minimum wage is changing in 2027,” noted host Stephan Currie. “So, tell us a little bit about what's happening, why it matters to counties, and what they should be maybe doing to prepare for that.” “There was a judgment, finally, about 2 years ago,” said Richard Carpenter, Rehmann’s director of public sector industries, “that the minimum wage that was passed and repealed a few years ago was required to go into place. What we're starting to see is those minimum wage adjustments. We saw the first big one in February of 2025. We saw another minimum wage adjustment in January of 2026, and then our next scheduled adjustment is in January of 2027. “And over that course of time, the minimum wage has really gone from about $10 to be settling in at $15 an hour on Jan. 1,” he continued. “And the issue that we want to bring to people's attention is the consideration of what does that look like from a budgetary perspective? “What we're seeing, is community mental health is impacted by this, because there are services that community mental health entities provide in people's homes, whose costs tend to sit right about, or just slightly above, the minimum wage, so as that moves, you know, that cost is going to move as well. “The state has acknowledged that to some extent. There was a total of $351 million in the state budget that was identified for minimum wage. About $70 million of that is related to the January 1st increase that we're anticipating. The question is, is that enough?” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org

Host: Stephan Currie Guests: Sarah Kline and Paul Bragenzer of Acrisure Topic: A new episode of Podcast 83 explores the growing human resources challenge in county government and features a MAC Corporate Partner positioned to help members address it. Keying off a presentation made at the MAC Legislative Conference in April, Acrisure’s Sarah Kline and Paul Bragenzer spoke with host Stephan Currie about the need for counties to be in transition mode today to avoid big trouble tomorrow. “Statistically speaking, about 37 percent of organizations, both in the public and private sector, are going to have leaders that are retiring, in the next 10 years,” said Kline. “And only about 30 percent of organizations actually have a true perpetuation plan. So, we see that as an area of risk for counties, especially. “And the reason why we wanted to bring that topic into today's podcast is it really resonated with the folks (at the conference),” she continued. “So … we could see the wheels turning as they were having conversations at their tables that we felt like that topic resonated with them.” “Let's talk a little bit about risk management. What risks and safety concerns come from these generational risks?” Currie asked. “Well, it's, very interesting to see when an organization has a specific mindset and structure, where information and knowledge is housed in a few people, and then when that person leaves,” replied Bragenzer. “There goes some information that does not then get passed down throughout the organization, so consequently, there's disharmony.” Acrisure, Kline explained, focuses on helping counties and others maintain a “safety culture” in everyday operations: “If you walk into the building on your first day or into that job, are we exhibiting that culture as everyone is interacting, and are we also creating that as part of their onboarding and just so that it's something that is all the way from the beginning, they know what to expect and what the culture is going to be. That's a great foundation for bringing up those future leaders and making sure that we minimize that risk from a perpetuation standpoint.” See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606 Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org