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Name:
Kevin Burns
What office are you seeking?
Mayor
What is your political party?
Non-partisan/Independent
What is your current age?
60
Occupation and employer:
Communications, Development & Advocacy Professional
What offices, if any, have you previously held?
Elected Positions: Geneva Library Board of Trustees City of Geneva 1st Ward Alderperson City of Geneva Mayor Appointed Positions: City of Geneva Planning & Zoning Commission City of Geneva Historic Preservation Commission Kane County Stormwater Management Committee Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Economic Development Committee Chair, Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Env & Energy Committee President, Metro West Council of Government
City:
Geneva
Campaign Website:
Education:
Geneva Community High School Class of 1982Augustana College Class of 1986 B.A. Political Science & Speech Communications Northwestern Kellog Graduate School Philanthropy Program Indiana University School of Philanthropy Program Metropolitan Mayors Caucus/Illinois Science & Energy Innovation Foundation Energy Academy Graduate
Community Involvement:
Geneva Chamber of Commerce Geneva History Museum Geneva School Community PTO Fundraising Events Geneva High School All Sports Boosters Fundraising Programs Genva Private School Fundraising Events Geneva High School’s Unified Vikings Athletics City of Geneva Natural Resources Committee City of Geneva International Cultural Exchange Committee Geneva Public Library’s “One Book One Community” Program Geneva Park District/City of Geneva “Safety Camp” Program Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (Past Chair) Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Environment & Energy Committee Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Greenest Region Compact Metro West Council of Government (Past President) LivingWell Cancer Resource Center Rising Lights Project Geneva High School’s Students Against Destructive Decisions Club American Legion Post 75 Fundraising Programs Geneva High School Key Club Annual Dinner Fox Valley Hands of Hope Elderday Center’s Annual Fundraising Program St. Jude’s Research Hospital Fox Valley Food for Health Mutual Ground Geneva School’s “Walk to School” Annual Event HOPE Fair Housing Annual Conference Northern Illinois Food Bank Changing Children’s World Foundation Special Olympics Illinois Geneva Academic Foundation Fundraising Programs Geneva Community Chest Fundraising Programs Belong Fox Valley Geneva Women’s Club American Cancer Society Illinois Municipal League Geneva Baseball Association Geneva High School Student Government Program Boy Scouts Girl Scouts, The Joshua Tree Community
Marital status/Immediate family:
Partner: Aimee Bychowski Daughters: Emma, Grace, Florence Grandchildren: Micah, Bosco, Murphy, Baker
Questions:
City officials have made it clear that Geneva’s facilities need to be either replaced or extensively remodeled. With the withdrawal of the referendum for this year, do you support a new ballot question for 2026 to get voter support to meet these needs? Why or why not?
I support re-engaging all of Geneva’s stakeholders - residents and business owners - to seek their guidance on how best to proceed. The Council’s responsibility and opportunity is to take the temperature of the community as a whole to effectively determine what their desire is in terms of investing additional revenue to support the facilities needs of our police, fire, public works, and administration. Based on such engagement, the Council will then, and only then, have the appropriate information to guide them on whether to seek a referendum question in March of 2026.
Discuss how you would implement the Geneva Strategic Plan Advisory Committee plan, which measures the city’s goals and prioritizes its resources.
The City of Geneva’s 2030 Strategic Plan - The Peoples Plan - was developed by the volunteer leaders of the Strategic Plan Advisory Committee (SPAC) over a span of many months with input from almost 2,000 residents and business leaders. The 2030 Strategic Plans was adopted unanimously by the City Council late last year and we are advancing that plan through the development of the FY2026 budget process. As Mayor, my responsibility is to collaborate with SPAC, City Council, professional staff to cultivate an environment whereby the broad principles and multiple goals and objectives in the 2030 Strategic Plan are advanced with clarity and consensus - Strong Governance, Informed and Engaged Citizenry, Purposeful Development & Economic Vitality, Safe, Active & Welcoming Community, Environmental Stewardship and Quality Infrastructure & City Services. These are the “GPS Coordinates” given the Council and professional staff and we must honor the effort provided by Geneva’s stakeholder who developed the direction they want the city to take. As Mayor, I have successfully articulated, advanced and achieved multiple City strategic plans by respecting the process of developing such plans and recognizing that our efforts as policy makers must follow that plan as prescribed. Doing otherwise, ignoring the voices of the residents and businesses owners who unmistakenly told us how to move Geneva forward is akin to sending a “thanks, but not thanks” who spent months on creating the direction of our community.
Should local law enforcement cooperate with ICE to identify and deport immigrants who do not have legal status to be in the United States?
The 2017 TRUST Act adopted by the Ilinois Legislature prohibits local law enforcement agencies from participating in the identification and deportation of said individuals and, equally important, the TRUST Act prohibits local law enforcement agencies from interfering with any actions by federal agencies efforts. It’s also important to note, as a non-Home Rule community, Geneva does not have the authority under Illinois laws to amend or rewrite the laws governing our public safety professional’s role in such efforts described above.
What are your top three priorities for our city, and how do you plan to address them?
The 2030 City of Geneva Strategic Plan, adopted unanimously by the City Council, contains six core principles - Strong Governance, Informed and Engaged Citizenry, Purposeful Development & Economic Vitality, Safe, Active & Welcoming Community, Environmental Stewardship and Quality Infrastructure & City Services. These principles, and their respective goals and objectives, are interconnected and interdependent of one another. Therefore, all six principles are vital and must be advanced simultaneously. In other words, we cannot just name purposeful development and economic vitality as a top 3 priority without also succeeding on providing quality infrastructure and city services. The same situation applies to naming environmental stewardship as a top 3 priority without also providing strong governance. Each and every principle of the 2030 Strategic Plan is derives it promise from one another and must be advanced in the spirit of collaboration and connection with and to one another.
How do you intend to balance economic development with environmental sustainability in the community?
Economic development and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive goals. Geneva’s commitment to both goals allow us to strike a balance when courting development and collaborating with interested developers. We strike this balance in many ways, including but not limited to: - Providing an energy portfolio that includes 25% renewables- Concise and consistent building efficiency standards - Tree and landscaping requirements - Partnering with conservation agencies to create open space and perpetual care for conservation spaces - Encouragement of sustainable development practices such as installation of EV charging station and advanced building energy standards - Providing the highest level of water quality and wastewater management practices to accommodate development and redevelopment proposals - Encouragement of site specific solar energy opportunities as a certified SolSmart Community which eliminates the complications of installing solar energy components to power respective developments and redevelopments - Adherence to best-practices of stormwater management to eliminate unnecessary run-off from the proposed site- Sharing of and encouragement of smart salting practices which we employ in our own public works department - Use of our energy peaking plant to provide cost-effective and more sustainable energy during high energy use periods - Providing energy audits to our busienss and residential customers to assist them in creating the most energy-efficient environments in their facilities (and saving them money) - Encouragement of planting native growth materials to eliminate having to mow large grass-only fields- Encouragement of installing permeable paving materials in parking lots and similar surfaces to allow for more natural water filtration and less run-off into the Fox River.
What are your plans for enhancing public transportation and infrastructure in the city?
The City of Geneva is unique in that the busiest roads in our community fall under the jurisdication of either the Kane County Department of Transportaion (KDOT) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) i.e. Randall Road, Peck Road, Kirk Road, Rt. 38, Route 31 and Route 25. By working in concert with officials from both KDOT and IDOT, we strive to develop and enhance these specific traffic routes in a way that serve dual goals of moving vehicles and providing safe passage of pedestrians on foot and bike. Our relationship with both KDOT and IDOT have proven successful with respect to integrated intersections (those with traffic lights) to be timed in such a way to allow for the movement of traffic, safe pedestrian crossings, and increased signage to alert both motorists and pedestrians of potential conflicts. Geneva is also intimately involved with working with both METRA and PACE to provide alternatives to driving by supporting use of PACE Bus service and METRA train service. In addition, we have enhanced signage on our roads throughout Geneva by installing clearly visible “Bike Lane” images on roadways so both drivers and bikers are aware to “share the road” and elevate caution when doing so. On roads that Geneva has full jurisdiction, we have in place multiple programs that allow for collaboration between citizens, businesses to work with our public works and police departments on identifying key areas to reduce traffic/pedestrian conflicts - the most visible being the crosswalk signage along Third Street in downtown Geneva and regular improvements to crosswalks in neighborhoods.
What role should the city council play in supporting local businesses and economic growth?
The City of Genva is committed to cultivating and curating an environment that supports and welcomes all businesses to launch, grow and succeed in pursuing their dreams. Individually and collectively, the Council should demonstrate its appreciation for all our businesses by celebrating their success, supporting them when challenges arise and always being engaged with businesses so both business leaders and Council members have a relationship built on mutual trust and respect. We regularly assess the City’s policies to ensure that they are meeting the needs of an ever-evolving business environment which, of course, is often steered by an ever-evolving behavior, demands and expectations. Encouraging and supporting outdoor dining, encouraging and supporting more flexible space needs, more creative signage, removing archaic sales-times restrictions on certain businesses, investments in infrastructure both physical and natural to elevate the overall shopping experience throughout Geneva, developing financial partnerships through strategic investments via sales tax rebates, utility hook-up discounts, facade improvement grants, are but a few examples of how Geneva strives to be the best partner possible with all our businesses.
What are your top public safety concerns for our community and how would you propose addressing them?
Geneva is ranked in the top 50 safest communities in Illinois. Our police force is, for the first time in 20 years, fully staffed with 38 sworn officers. More than 80% of all our officers are also trained in de-escalation processes to designed to help reduce the natural stress when residents/guests are experiencing the stress of incidents.
For the first time in 20 years, the City of Genva Police Department is fully staffed - 38 sworn police officers - who provide the necessary patrolling of our community 24/7 and complimented by a team of detectives who help investigate crimes ranging from retail theft, car burglaries, vandalism, identify theft and the like.
Our police officers practice the “golden rule” of community policing by treating everyone they come in contact with as they would treat someone they care about deeply and personally. This genuine practice is one of many reasons why Geneva’s police department is consistently ranked high on “customer response surveys” from people who have worked with the police during some of their most challenging moments.
Geneva’s reputation as a safe community to live, learn, work, play and raise a family is rooted in the collaboration they have instilled with our schools, parks, library, township, chamber of commerce generally and individual businesses who receive training on how to protect themselves and their property, how to work with police when risks are identified and, most importantly, why it’s vital to engage our police officers when there is any unease about their safety.
I’m proud of the Geneva Police Department and I know that the residents and businesses of Geneva are equally proud.
What can or should the city do to increase affordable housing?
On August 17, 2020 the City of Geneva City Council approved an Affordable Housing Plan that focuses on considering incentives to potential affordable housing developers. Such incentives can include, waiver of utility connections, waiver of building permit fees, if land is owned by the City – consideration of donating land or selling it a less than market value. In addition, the City of Geneva has published on it’s website a list of “potential affordable housing signts” so that our residents as well as prospective affordable housing developers know in advance what land is available. We welcome discussions with prospective affordable housing developers who wish to aid our community in diversifying our housing stock.
How will you ensure that city policies promote inclusion for all residents?
The spirit of inclusion for all of Geneva’s residents is a core element of the City’s 2030 Strategic Plan - and previous strategic plans - and rooted in everything we do, including and not limited to, easy access to information, materials and support regardless of a person’s identity and/or their station in life, support for all the organizations who serve our residents throughout their respective journey’s, speaking out against hateful behavior, communication and verbal assaults toward others in a forceful way (which, sadly, we have experienced on multiple occasions) and generally being open to and accommodating of everyone’s right to be whom they choose to be without judgement. I am proud to play such a visible and authentic role in helping shape our community’s goal of cultivating a welcoming and respectful environment throughout Geneva.
Do you support requiring government officials to publicly disclose potential conflicts of interest, and how would you enforce this?
Absolutely and without question. In fact, the City of Geneva through its “onboarding” of elected and appointed officials advise and remind said officials frequently that if there is a question that rises to the level of “should I disclose or not disclose” we always suggest disclosure is the best option - even if it means that such disclosure does not meet the statutory definition of having to recuse oneself from discussions. Better be as transparent as possible then to have the decision of the body you are representing called in to question.
How will you make sure you are accessible to your constituents?
I have always prided myself on being available, accessible and responsive to our residents and business owners by providing my cell phone to anyone who asks, posting my cell phone online, by being involved in events, activities and programs throughout the community including those of the city, parks, library, schools, township and county.
The surest way to be approachable and available is to be present at the events in Geneva where people gather - volunteering for chamber events, attending ribbon cuttings for new businesses, supporting our school functions (academic, athletic, artistic, etc), not-for-profit events, cultural activities, business association events and so on.
It’s not uncommon for me to be contacted by residents and business owners who weren’t certain who to call so they reached out to me because I make it easy to do so and they have been told by others, “call Kevin, he’ll get right back to you”.
My cell phone number for all matters related to the city is 630-742-8916 and I invite anyone to call or text me any time.