(Editor's note: This is just one part of a series of stories about local candidates in the upcoming June 2 primary, municipal and school board election. Find more coverage here.)

Simplified: Five people are looking to fill one open seats representing Sioux Falls' core neighborhoods on the Sioux Falls City Council. Four of the five candidates sat down with Sioux Falls Simplified for interviews covering a wide range of topics from affordable housing to data centers and much more.

Why it matters

  • Four of the eight City Council seats are up for election this year. That means as many as half of the seats could see new faces. The city's Central District is guaranteed to have a new face serving in that open seat because outgoing Councilor Curt Soehl is term-limited and thus unable to seek re-election.
  • The Central District is, unsurprisingly, in the central part of town, encompassing downtown, Terrace Park and Sherman Park on the west side, the Big Sioux River on the east side and Spencer Park on the south end. It's not a perfect rectangle, so if you're uncertain about which district you live in, you can double-check using this map.
  • The five candidates looking to fill the Central District seat are (in alphabetical order) Zach DeBoer, Tommy Kunz, Matthew McKinley, Zak Okuwe and Bob Trzynka.
  • This guide aims to make it easy to feel smart about how the candidates feel on a wide variety of relevant policy issues. If you prefer to listen/watch full interviews, you'll find them in this YouTube playlist.*

*Note: Tommy Kunz wasn't able to be interviewed on camera, but I'm hoping to be able to share audio of our conversation if/when I figure out how podcasts work. Thanks for your patience as this Millennial learns how to do tech-y multimedia things.

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First, let's meet the candidates

Zach DeBoer

Zach DeBoer previously ran for the Central District seat in 2018 and narrowly lost to Curt Soehl (by 149 votes). The TK-year-old artist and educator has been involved in city politics for some time, including on the Visual Arts Commission and the Historic Preservation Board. He's also heavily involved in his neighborhood association.

"A lot of the work that I do is aimed at just creating a better community, creating a better environment for Sioux Falls," DeBoer said. "So I think if I were on City Council, I'd have a greater opportunities to do some of those things and try to push for some big ideas I've been passionate about the last, almost, 15 years now."

Tommy Kunz

Tommy Kunz is a 27-year-old who works for delivery apps like Door Dash and Uber Eats. He decided to run because of a number of issues that've come up over the last year from the data center to the police department's use of Flock cameras as automatic license plate readers.

"We've really seen a City Council that's not – it doesn't really give the feeling that it's really listening to the people," Kunz said. "It's more just speaking for the people. And, you know, you can't really speak for them if you don't listen to them. ... I want to bring a lot more transparency and a lot more communication to city council, which I'm seeing severely lack as of late."

Matthew McKinley

McKinley did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting an interview. He does have a Facebook page for his campaign, for what it's worth.

Zak Okuwe

Zak Okuwe is a 30-year-old nurse and former refugee who founded the nonprofit STEM the Gap to help connect kids from underserved communities academic support – specifically in STEM fields. He said running for office was "a response to a calling."

"Coming to this country as a refugee, the city has opened its arms for me, providing the safe neighborhood to live in, a good school to go to, and opportunities that were within reach," Okuwe said. "I've just taken in so much. I truly think it's just time for me to give back."

Bob Trzynka

Bob Trzynka is a 49-year-old attorney who's lived in the Central District for almost 26 years. He decided to run for office after his experience being involved in the Cathedral Neighborhood Association both to get traffic circles on Ninth Street and in converting a vacant lot into the new Lincoln Commons.

"Throughout that process, folks started to encourage me that the City Council could use someone with my skillset as a lawyer and as someone who has worked in both historical issues, with ordinance issues, with zoning issues – that I would be a good fit," Trzynka said. "And so I eventually took their advice and decided to do it."

Let's talk policy

At the risk of this story turning into a novel, you'll find specific topic-based stories linked below that you can peruse based on your interests and concerns. Click the topic below to see candidate responses to questions on that topic.

Here's how the candidates responded to questions regarding:

What if I don't want to read a whole bunch?

More of an auditory processor? No problem.

You can listen to full interviews with each of the candidates by following the YouTube embeds above or by going directly to Sioux Falls Simplified's YouTube channel.

  • Stay tuned in the coming days for topic-based videos featuring each of the candidates on specific topics including affordable housing, data centers, the future of downtown and more.