Lo and behold, the two candidates agree on something—texting while driving is bad.

Sheriff Timothy B. Howard and challenger John A. Glascott found common ground on that one issue during a debate Tuesday that put their differences on full display.

A metropolitan police department?

Glascott, a captain in the Cheektowaga Police Department, is dead set against it. Howard thinks it could work, but only if the county’s cities, towns and villages buy into the idea.

Eliminating overtime at the jails? Glascott said the problem can be solved by putting more supervisors on weekend shifts. Howard said that would simply transfer the overtime to a different group.

“My opponent is again talking about something he knows nothing about,” the sheriff said after Glascott accused him of running a scandal-plagued department.

“Every time I turn over a rock or a stone,” Glascott said, “there’s something wrong.”

Neither candidate minced many words in going after the other during the 25th annual debate at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, which has become a part of the fall election season.

One of the most heated exchanges came when Howard was asked why he refused the U. S. Justice Department access to the jails while, at the same time, granting access to a Holly-wood movie crew.

“We trusted the news crew,” Howard said. “We don’t trust the federal government’s investigation.”

Glascott seized on that statement to suggest that Howard’s trust is misplaced.

“The Department of Justice is not trusted by an Erie County law enforcement agency,” Glascott said. “I don’t know what to say about that statement. It’s a terrible, terrible indictment.”

Glascott also found himself answering questions about jail deaths, most notably a recent suicide at the Cheektowaga lockup.

The difference, Glascott told the students, is that his department worked with, not against, the state agency investigating the death.

“We followed the guidelines,” he said. “We took responsibility for what happened.”

The faceoff between Glascott and Howard marked the silver anniversary of St. Joseph’s annual debate, an event that started in 1984 when representatives of then-President Ronald Reagan and his Democratic challenger, Walter Mondale, answered questions from students in the school’s Advanced Placement government course.

Over the years, the debate has become a high-profile event for candidates seeking office, with a guest list that has included former Mayor James D. Griffin, former County Executive Dennis Gorski and former Rep. William Paxon, a St. Joe’s alumnus who took part in that first debate 25 years ago.

“We’ve pretty much had everybody,” said Ted Lina, the school’s AP government teacher and debate moderator.