Six of the seven candidates for Baltimore County executive outlined their visions for a more transparent and accountable county government on Wednesday at the first candidate town hall ahead of the 2026 primary elections.
Four Democrats — Baltimore County Council members Julian Jones, Izzy Patoka, and Pat Young, as well as attorney Nick Stewart — are vying for the county’s top elected office alongside Republicans Kim Stansbury and Pat Dyer and independent candidate Rob Daniels. Dyer, however, did not attend the event.
Questions at the forum hosted by the Randallstown NAACP ran the gamut from disparities in policing and creating opportunities for young people to housing, how county redistricting will change legislative dynamics and education.
But amid the variety of topics, all of the candidates, regardless of party, seemed to agree that more transparency, oversight and accountability are needed in Baltimore County government.
The candidates acknowledged many Baltimore County residents don’t understand how county officials made some key decisions in the last few months. They include questions about the county’s inspector general appointment process, how councilmanic redistricting maps came about, and why Baltimore County Public Schools detained a student after its artificial intelligence alert system mistook a bag of chips for a weapon.
Candidates offered both criticisms and ideas.
Jones and Young, for instance, were the only two County Council members to vote in favor of current County Executive Kathy Klausmeier’s pick for inspector general, a nomination that came after she declined to reappoint current inspector general Kelly Madigan to the role automatically. The two men, who were also the only council members to vote against the final version of a nine-district councilmanic redistricting map last month, took issue with how the year-long redistricting process unfolded.
“I had a problem with the process, I had a problem with the product,” Jones said of redistricting. “At the end of the day, I don’t think Democrats should be sitting here helping Republicans get more power than they deserve in Baltimore County.”
Patoka, who voted against Klausmeier’s inspector general nominee and in favor of the final redistricting map — something he said he was proud of — highlighted his charter amendment to create an independent board for inspector general appointments.
“No one can play politics with accountability, because transparency shouldn’t be optional,” he said of why he championed the legislation. “It should be the standard.”
Young, who said criticisms of the county’s redistricting process were warranted, called for increased engagement and public input in both legislative actions and school budget decisions.
“Other jurisdictions allow for transparency for where those dollars go once they’ve been allocated to their school system,” he said. “I think there’s nothing wrong with advocating for and allowing for citizens, and also regular folks, whether they have kids in school or not, to be able to see where their money goes, where their tax dollars go when it comes to BCPS.”
Stewart, who said he would implement a performance management system for the schools to share data, emphasized a need for “radical transparency” in the way county government operates.
“We should be engaged in this community because the process matters to the outcome, that people believe in the process. Even if they don’t like the outcome, they have trust,” he said.
Stansbury said more oversight is needed, especially with the school system’s budget.
“Having an inspector general be able to go in to see where that money is spent is paramount, because every dollar that is spent should be as closely related to our children as possible,” she said.
Daniels called for openness from the outset.
“When public meetings happen after decisions are made, deals are done and the ink’s dry, that’s not transparency — that’s theater,” he said.
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