Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the April 1 general election.
The race for mayor in Geneva in the April 1 election is between incumbent Kevin Burns and challenger Karsten Pawlik.
Burns, 60, is seeking his seventh term as mayor and said that voters are concerned about “the financial health of the community, having an experienced leader who knows how to advance a strategic plan and preserving the quality infrastructure and city services.”
“Everyone is concerned about the financial health of the communities they live in. Geneva’s tax rate, effective 2026, will be the lowest rate in 44 years,” Burns said. “We have healthy reserves and zero debt in the general fund. That is reflected in the ethos of the community but, of course, is appreciated by those paying property taxes. People are concerned that this could be jeopardized.”
In regards to local leadership, Burns insists voters “want someone who knows and understands Geneva and has involved himself in Geneva like I have.”
In regards to services and infrastructure, Burns said “our business owners expect and deserve quality infrastructure and city services and we have provided that.”
“We need to continue to provide the resources necessary to maintain that quality everyone expects,” he said.
If elected for another term, Burns said “based on the 2030 strategic plan, the six core elements of the plan are equally important and tie into one another.”
“The interconnectedness of that plan requires a deft leader to advance and articulate to achieve those plans the community built themselves,” he said.
“I also want to continue to focus on purposeful development and economic vitality,” he said. “We also need to continue to provide quality infrastructure and city services, as well as provide a safe, active and welcoming community.”
Burns said that Geneva is currently among the safest communities in Illinois and “we always expect and we always deserve to have a safe community, and we will continue to pursue and achieve that.”
“An active community is – we want our residents to participate in the process of community building, and a welcoming community is a core principle by providing inclusion, accessibility, opportunity and a spirit of belonging for all 22,000 residents that call Geneva home,” he said.
Pawlik, 58, is running for mayor for the first time and said in talking to voters, people are concerned about the cost of living and taxes, and “empty storefronts in the downtown.”
Cost of living locally, Pawlik said, is an issue in regards to taxes “because everyone’s house prices went up.”
“Even if you keep the tax rate the same – Geneva has actually lowered the tax rate – people are paying more taxes because the value of the homes went up,” Pawlik said. “We have a lot of people my age – middle-aged people – who are very concerned about being to stay in their homes.”
The empty storefronts need to be filled, he said.
“We need to really promote Geneva and get these storefronts filled and work with retailers. The more storefronts we have filled, the more taxes we’ll have coming in,” he said.
If elected for the first time, Pawlik said his goals include working on infrastructure as the city “needs a new police station, city hall and maybe fire station as well as some public works and infrastructure projects built.”
“We also need to get some stalled developments moving,” Pawlik added. “We’ve got some stalled developments in town that the city has held up and we want to get those moving. We need to compromise with the developer and get the project moving. It’s been sitting for 10 years at the entrance of Geneva – the Mill Race Inn property – and it’s where everyone drives into town and it’s just dirt with a fence around it for a long time.”
Pawlik said another goal would be to “right-size the government.”
“We need to have the right amount of people working in government. We only have 21,000 people in town – we’re not a huge city,” he said. “We need to make sure we control our overhead in the home office. We have budgeted for a DEI officer, for example, and I don’t think that’s really necessary. We’re all for treating people equally but that should be more for a human resource person’s job.
“We also have a lobbyist we pay $55,00 for and none of the aldermen even know who this person is,” he said. “We also have a couple other assistant positions where cities bigger than ours don’t have them.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
