Most observers in Baltimore County are wondering who will be the next county executive if Johnny Olszewski wins his congressional election in November, which it looks like he will. However, the better question at the outset is what traits the next county executive should have — and what issues they should be focusing on.

The stakes of this appointment are extraordinarily high.

The county is facing difficult choices when it comes to next year’s budget, such as how it will pay for increasing costs for health care and pension obligations and the implementation of the Blueprint education plan without reliable funding streams. This comes at a time when federal grants tied to the pandemic will be exhausted and the taxable value of commercial property in our county has waned.

These are important choices to be sure, made even more important when you think about how they impact our ability to tackle the challenges that have contributed directly to the first population loss in the county since the 1920 census.

These challenges include reinvigorating smart growth policies and solving our housing crisis, implementing Blueprint and its promise for education transformation, creating a holistic economic vision to compel collaboration and outcompete in the region, adapting to climate change and unlocking open space for the 90% of residents who live inside the Urban Rural Demarcation Line.

But perhaps the most important consideration is what happens to the progressive movement that was launched by the Olszewski administration within Baltimore County government.

Through their efforts, big and small, the county executive and his team were able to turn the ship of state and point it toward a horizon that is more open, transparent and modern.

They began transforming our massive but antiquated bureaucracy that is known for doing business a certain way (often behind closed doors, deferring certain challenges, bowing to populism) simply because that is the way it has always been done.

This kind of progress redefines the culture of government and serves as the cornerstone that makes even bigger things possible.

But progress in the county is like a flywheel — you can spin it faster and faster with less effort after it gets going, but if you give up on it, it becomes incredibly difficult to restart the wheel again.

So the baseline question for us, as a county, is whether we are going to take up the mantle from the county executive and spin the flywheel faster toward a more modern, professional government, or are we going to let that momentum fall away and return to yesteryear.

That is why I support an interim executive who shares fidelity to this progressive, good governance movement. No doubt this person needs experience in county government, but we need more than a caretaker who feels compelled to return to business as usual or who lacks authority to have honest conversations with the county.

Instead, we need an advocate with an ability to think critically and creatively, to pull people together as one county and to drive solutions through community involvement. We cannot afford to fall into the “sameness trap.” Baltimore County should lead, and we have the citizens and servants to do so.

Nick Stewart is a partner at the Baltimore office of law firm Duane Morris LLP. He is cofounder of the advocacy group We The People — Baltimore County.