Meet candidates running for Sycamore office in 2025

SYCAMORE – At least four, and maybe more Sycamore residents will campaign to be elected to a city office in the 2025 consolidated election, but only one of them isn’t currently an elected official, according to city documents.

Mayor Steve Braser, City Clerk Mary Kalk and 1st Ward Alderperson Alan Bauer have filed petitions to be incumbent candidates for their respective offices. As of Thursday afternoon, no one else had filed as potential challengers, but Rob Dancey has indicated he’ll be vying to take a seat on the Sycamore City Council representing the 4th Ward.

Like DeKalb, Sycamore’s Mayoral office is open to the will of the voters. As of Thursday afternoon only one person, Mayor Braser has filed to run for the position. Braser, previously a longtime 3rd Ward alderperson, said he’s really enjoyed his time in the office, as well as the people that he’s worked for and with, since he was elected Mayor in 2021.

Over the past four years, Braser said he’s focused the city’s efforts toward streamlined efficiency, succession planning and cyber security, and plans on focusing more of the same if elected to another term.

“The biggest thing I would want is to keep the city moving in the proper direction,” Braser.

Kalk’s candidacy comes after Sycamore voters voted down a referendum measure on Election Day which would have made the clerk’s office an appointed role instead of elected by the people.

Dancey is currently the lone candidate for the open ward seat, but was not immediately available for comment. Fourth Ward Alderperson Virginia Sherrod said she plans on filing her own candidacy petition in the coming days, however. The incumbent alderperson said she’s running to stay on the Sycamore City Council because she enjoys what the governing body does for the city.

Sherrod said the city’s efforts to address public concerns about the city’s water quality would continue to be among the top priorities for her if she were to be reelected.

The city’s years-long effort to replace lead water service lines that connect individual properties to the city’s overall public works system was largely completed in 2024. The City Council recently has approved construction projects that will replace sections of the city’s water main in 2025.

“I think that we’ve done a really good job in getting the lead pipes out,” Sherrod said. “We’ve always tried to be transparent about what’s going on, and when there seemed to have been a problem we tackled it head on. And that’s a big thing for me, to be transparent, because you can’t get anything done when you’re trying to cover up and hide things.”

Sycamore residents filed a lawsuit against the city in 2020, alleging issues with the city’s drinking water. That suit was settled in 2023, and required to pay an average of $1.2 million toward water quality improvements and also pay for additional testing of lead and chlorine levels, according to the settlement agreement reached out of court.

City officials have maintained that recent public works projects are not being done as a result of the lawsuit, however.

In late 2023, after Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall had presented preliminary numbers for a proposed property tax levy, a Shaw Local investigation discovered that the city had levied about $120,000 more against property tax payers in 2023 than the City Council had voted for the previous year. As a result of the investigation, and without requiring City Council approval, city officials opted to return the money that was over taxed in a rebate check.

Bauer, who’s held a spot on the City Council since 1997, said he’s going to going to continue to seek reelection for as long as he thinks the city government is working toward transparency.

“We still work toward, as always, open government,” Bauer said. “We’re always going to be open, and the day we’re not I’m stepping aside and will stand at the podium and fight for it, but so far so good.”

Presently, Bauer is running unopposed, but that could change. The candidate filing period for the 2025 consolidated election opened on Tuesday and will close this coming Monday, so opposing candidates still have time to file.

The April 2025 consolidated election will decide the face of various municipal offices throughout DeKalb County, including the city of DeKalb and multiple school boards.