In 88 days, Baltimore County voters will select their top Democratic and Republican choices for who will lead the jurisdiction for the next four years.

Do they want someone who knows their way around local government in Maryland’s third-largest county, or do they want someone new to elective office who can bring fresh approaches?

At Goucher College’s candidate forum Thursday, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the stage was split. Three candidates have more than 30 years of elected office between them. Councilmen Julian Jones, Pat Young and Izzy Patoka — all Democrats — touted their experience as proven leaders in county government as well as outside of it.

Jones, the contest’s only Black candidate, rose through the ranks as an Anne Arundel County firefighter and reached the level of chief. Patoka led planning initiatives and oversaw large budgets in both the city and county. Young, a state delegate representing the Catonsville area before he ran for council, is an Iraq war combat veteran.

On the other side are Republicans Patrick Dyer and Kimberley Stansbury, both businesspeople who raised or are raising children in the county, and Democrats Mansoor Shams and Nick Stewart. Shams works for the county’s parks department and also served as a Marine. Stewart is an attorney, a former appointed school board member and a longtime advocate for smart county planning and more housing.

“Talk is cheap, so a lot of people will talk a good game about what’s going to happen and what they’re going to do,” Jones said. “I can tell you, having been there, working in the highest levels of government in Baltimore County, it’s not that easy.”

Baltimore County is facing some of the biggest challenges in its 70-year existence, the candidates agreed. Recent census data shows it is losing population, in part due to decreased immigration. Immigrants who already live in Baltimore County are frightened of ICE’s enforcement efforts, which led the trio of Democrats running for council to pass what limited protections they could in the face of federal law that often trumps local statutes.

Groceries are expensive, gas prices are rising, affordable housing is scarce, and those with means sometimes seek properties that better meet their needs in neighboring counties.

All the more reason, Stewart argued, that the voters should choose a new direction.

“This is our chance to change the system, to become the county that we know and that we hold in our hearts,” he said.

Stewart this week picked up an endorsement from the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police, which it says represents more than 3,200 active and retired members.

Meanwhile, the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, which has 8,200 members, voted Thursday evening to endorse Patoka. TABCO President Kelly Olds said several candidates sought the endorsement. Both Jones, a former PTA president, and Stewart, who served on the school board, mentioned their education bona fides on stage.

Independent candidate Rob Daniels is also running for the office.

Though the night was fairly civil, Stewart and Shams could not resist taking shots at the three councilmen, who all voted for a bill nearly two years ago that would have doubled the pensions of their retiring council colleagues as the body shifts from part-time to full-time and their pensions rose along with their salaries.

Stewart has called the situation a “pension grab” and sent out fundraising emails asking voters to chip in and help him work to overturn it. He also railed against it in television interviews and multiple videos on social media, mostly blaming Patoka for the legislation.

All three councilmen said they never liked the legislation, introduced by retiring Republican Wade Kach. Earlier this month, the council voted unanimously on a Patoka bill to repeal the provision that coupled their pensions with the expanded council’s salary. Young also introduced an amendment that made sure such a decision would never again be in the council’s hands and that a salary board would decide it.

Stewart also hit Jones for a 2023 attempt to curtail the Baltimore County Inspector General’s subpoena power and create an advisory board to oversee the position. And he criticized Patoka’s championing of an adequate public facilities ordinance aimed at making sure schools had capacity before allowing more housing in the district, which Stewart called “a racist housing ban in Baltimore County.”

The forum’s moderator, WBAL radio host Clarence Mitchell IV (known as C4), read some questions submitted beforehand by audience members. One asked whether the candidates would support an inspector general to oversee Baltimore County Public Schools, which is half of the county’s budget.

All the candidates said they supported it save Jones, who called the question moot — the Maryland General Assembly has to agree to that, and earlier this month voted no — but also that he did not support such oversight because teachers have not mentioned that as a primary need.

“This has to be a very bizarre question,” Shams said. “Over $2 billion of this county budget goes to Baltimore County Public Schools. I don’t think any one of us want to live in a lawless society without any accountability.”

Immigration in the county provided more of a contrast, with Dyer and Stansbury saying they supported cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE, and Jones and Patoka arguing passionately for the rights of Baltimore County residents to live without fear of deportation.

Patoka, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, has worked with Jones to sponsor legislation to ban detention centers from the county.

“What’s going on in our country today, where immigrants are seen as the enemy, they’re not the enemy,” said Patoka. “Empathy is underrated, my friends, and I think it’s something that prepares you well to be county executive.”