After only being in office for about six months, Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy has delivered significant contributions to the City of Sycamore, and kept his campaign promise to keep the mayor’s office open to the public.

Mundy is no stranger to NIU. He worked as payroll manager for 30 years; retiring from NIU last March prompted him to run for the mayoral office. He ran independently in the April election against three candidates and took office in May.

Mundy also worked concurrently with the NIU position as the Sycamore library board’s treasurer for nine years and Sycamore treasurer for 24.

“By far, Ken Mundy has a vast amount of experience in city government,” said 1st Ward Alderman Alan Bauer, who works in close quarters with Mundy. “His mastery of financial concepts is a great asset for Sycamore and he brings an aura of mature direction without emotional distraction.”

Prior to taking office, Mundy saw a need for more access, communication and service to and from the mayor’s office to keep the people of Sycamore informed. He promised he would keep open office hours for anybody to take advantage of. Bauer said he has kept that promise, and encourages the general public to come in.

“One promise was to make the mayor’s office more accessible to Sycamore residents, and he keeps regular hours in the mayor’s office,” Bauer said.

Upon taking office, Mundy faced a challenge: taking office as Sycamore is expanding and dealing with the impact of growth on the city.

Mundy has made the channels of communication available to Sycamore residents and other taxing bodies about the impact of the city’s growth.

“I have an ad hoc group that has met periodically to address the economic impact [of] growth on Sycamore,” Mundy said. “A recommendation to pursue a referendum for a real estate transfer tax to support operating revenue for school has been proposed and adapted by the city council and school board.”

Having the ability to please everybody is almost an impossible task, especially in a city that is growing so quickly.

But Mundy said residents who have concerns about the city’s growth should attend the city’s meetings to become aware of the advantages of commercial and residential growth.

“People are beginning to understand that growth can be managed and can be mutually beneficial as public services [grow] at a reasonable pace to match the commercial and residential growth,” Mundy said. “Responsible community residents who have attended public meetings see the value in the paced and balanced development as it occurs.”

Some of the challenges Mundy has forgone while being in office has been to keep the city informed and he feels open communication with all aspects of the city can be beneficial.

Mundy said continued commercial and industrial development challenges the city to work on rebalancing the tax base to ease residents’ taxes.

Mandi Montavon, an NIU payroll specialist, said she has fond memories of working with Mundy. She remembers him as being easy and fun to work with, but also had a great talent working as the payroll manager because of his financial background.

“Mundy was just so easygoing all the time and funny, which made it fun to work with him,” Montavon said. “He was a payroll guy through and through, and we had a lot in common because we were both previous bankers.”