Kalamazoo’s Taylor talks with NACo about getting the public’s attention on county issues
Kalamazoo Commissioner John Taylor was interviewed at MAC’s Legislative Conference on April 8, 2025.
Kalamazoo County Commissioner John Taylor was interviewed at MAC’s recent Legislative Conference by NACo’s Charlie Ban for their “Now I Know” feature.
“After I was elected, I found out people didn’t really know who I was or what issues I was fighting for. They generally vote along party lines and that was discouraging. I was a college student then, so I was pretty idealistic.
The public didn’t seem to know their commissioners’ names unless they had done something wrong; that’s just the level of awareness we had 20 years ago.
I felt like we had a big victory over that after my first year. We were building a new jail, and I started asking questions about how we would lower the recidivism rate, what services we would provide and I finally got the sheriff to agree with me that these were real concerns. We were able to put some educational programming in place, and help people get certifications so they have employment opportunities when they were released.
It would have been easy to be jaded in the face of public antipathy, but I decided to just take one issue at a time, maybe two. Solve this, accomplish that and then you move onto a new issue. The most important way to get people to understand what was at stake was to make it clear to them what the county commission could do to change things.
Fiscal sustainability doesn’t really get people excited when you are planning for it, but they appreciate it when it pays off for them. Now we’re 130% funded after taking a long-term, conservative approach to investment in our defined benefit plan. We took whatever assumptions the actuarial tables gave us, and we made them even more conservative, making that dollar stretch and stretch. Now we can lower the employee contributions and we can give a cost-of-living increase for retirees. …
Podcast 83 reviews MAC’s unique assistance to members on opioid planning
MAC’s work with members on planning the use of opioid settlement dollars is the theme of a special episode of Podcast 83 this week.
Host Stephan Currie interviewed Amy Dolinky, MAC’s technical adviser on opioid settlement planning, about the association’s cutting-edge work in the field and how MAC is adapting to counties’ changing informational needs.
“We are still offering our existing individualized technical assistance to county governments on their opioid settlement funds,” Dolinky said. “What’s changed is really that we went from supporting counties mostly in planning efforts, and now many counties are spending or in the process of executing contracts with grantees or vendors. So, we’re really kind of transitioning to looking more at assessing the impact of the dollars, how folks are reporting and monitoring and considerations around transparency as well.
“Last year, MAC was able to work with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to adapt MAC’s guidance on transparency, to create the national guidance on transparency related to settlements, or one of the quick guides that we’ve seen come out to really support counties in their efforts related to these funds,” she added.
“We’re also involved in the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Opioid Solutions Leadership Network … and we’ve been able to participate and present in (Washington, D.C.) on the work that we’re doing to help other associations provide support to their members.”
“Yes, because really, we’re one of the unique associations that’s providing the service?” Currie asked. “Can you talk a little bit about that, what the outlook is at other state associations or other states across the country and maybe what some of the goals of this NACo program are?”
“So, specifically, the three states associations that presented at this conference were North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan. It’s important for the other states to see our three distinct and unique models for providing these supports, to understand that these services don’t have to be provided within a specific framework,” Dolinky replied. “Based on the reporting requirements in that state, based on funding for positions like mine and based on the ways in which the statewide associations are working with both local government and state government can really impact the supports that are provided. We were able to highlight three distinct models for how those services can be done, whether that’s an individual providing the support or a team providing that support to members can really make a difference. And there’s a lot of other considerations in this work that we were able to talk to the group about as well.”
Learn further details by clicking on the image above or here.
Previous episodes can be seen at MAC’s YouTube Channel.
Videos now available from 2025 Legislative Conference
MAC Executive Director Stephan Currie (right) and National Association of Counties Executive Director Matthew Chase share a laugh during a discussion on federal policy issues at the 2025 Legislative Conference on April 8, 2025.
Video resources from the 2025 Michigan Counties Legislative Conference are now available via MAC’s website and YouTube channel.
Featured are complete videos of two 45-minute plenary sessions:
Matt Chase, executive director of the National Association of Counties, engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with MAC’s Stephan Currie about the changes in Washington since January and what that means for counties going forward.
Sens. John Cherry (D-Genesee) and Thomas Albert (R-Kent) and Reps. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) and Joseph Aragona (R-Macomb) held a discussion about legislative action in Lansing in 2025, moderated by Kyle Melinn of the MIRS News Service.
For those on a tight schedule, we have a series of video snippets of approximately 3 minutes on:
- Addressing the Health Care Challenge: Newaygo County’s Strategies on Employee Recruitment
- What’s Going on in Washington, D.C.: Liability Issues with ICE Detainer Requests
- Better Roads in Michigan: Why You See What You See in Road Repairs
- Dealing with Ransomware Attacks: Benzie County’s Experience with an Attack
- Building More Housing in Michigan: Tax Increment Financing and Housing
To find links to all of the conference resources, visit MAC’s website.
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MAC Board President Melissa Daub of Wayne County led a Michigan delegation to the Western Interstate Region event in South Dakota in late May. Here’s she is pictured at the Crazy Horse Memorial with (l-r): Ottawa Commissioner Phil Kuyers, a former MAC president, Wayne County Chair Alisha Bell, Immediate Past President Stan Ponstein of Kent and Executive Director Stephan Currie.
Learn about mobile health units and OUD meds during June 9 webinar
Mobile units offering medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are an effective strategy for expanding access to care — particularly for underserved populations such as individuals experiencing homelessness, those with transportation or scheduling challenges, minoritized communities and people recently released from incarceration.
In a June 9 webinar, Quality Behavioral Health (QBH) will share insights from launching their mobile methadone program in 2023, including key steps in the implementation process and lessons learned along the way.
To register for the webinar, which will run from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern, click here.
Communities across Michigan are receiving funds from recent opioid settlements that should be used to support evidence-based programs for preventing or treating opioid-related harms. The goal of this series is to share information and assist county, city and township officials who have received settlement funding and are involved and/or interested in learning more about evidence-based practices and strategies to help remediate opioid overdoses in their communities.
For more information about this webinar, contact Erin Marks at erinmarks@wayne.edu.
For more information about MAC’s opioid settlement services, contact Amy Dolinky at dolinky@micounties.org.
Staff picks
- Tornado Alley? Think Tornado Nation. (Governing)
- Volunteers help tornado-hit St. Louis amid wait for federal aid (Kaiser Health News)
- Measles on the rise: What county officials need to know (NACo County News)
- These 10 states have the highest fiber broadband availability (American City and County)