Callaway County Presiding Commissioner candidate interview: Rob Barnes

Three Republicans are competing in the August primary for Callaway County Presiding Commissioner. In contention is Rob Barnes, Larry Robinson and former Sheriff Clay Chism. ABC 17 News sat down one-on-one with each candidate to discuss their priorities for the county, the proposed data center in northern Callaway County, planning and zoning, government transparency, and why they believe they are the best choice for voters. Mike Conner is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

EUPHENIE ANDRE: Welcome, everybody, to the ABC 17 segment of Your Voice Your Vote voters' guide for August 2026. I’m Euphenie Andre, and thank you for joining us today. I’m here with Callaway County presiding commissioner candidate Rob Barnes. Rob, thank you so much for joining us here today.

ROB BARNES: I appreciate the invitation.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: Please introduce yourself and tell me why you would like to be the next Callaway County presiding commissioner.

ROB BARNES: Certainly. A little bit about myself. Long, longtime resident of Callaway County. Sixty years old, getting to be an old man. Fifty-five years in the county. Always called it home. Can’t see myself anywhere else. Been fortunate, I suppose, in some ways; have had a couple of really good jobs in the county, so I was able to stay close to home, and not everybody can share that same story. So I’ve been blessed in that regard. Currently, I’m heavy into a broadband project, or we’re kind of on the tail-end of a broadband project.

I’m a telecommunications guy. Technology nerd, so to speak. That’s what I’ve done most of my career and, fortunate again, to be able to have done that in Callaway County. So, you know, kind of on the tail-end, I guess I’m not ready to go to pasture, but kind of on the tail-end of a lot of hardwork. And I’ve always been connected to the community through boards, civic organizations, community functions and events. I’ve always had that connection to the community.

As I’m kind of starting to enter a new chapter in my own life, I thought this was a great opportunity to give back in a different way. And that’s really why I stepped forward to run for the presiding commissioner position. What else you want to know about me?

EUPHENIE ANDRE: There is a proposed data center that will be built in northern Callaway County that would take about 14 acres of land in your county. What are your thoughts about that?

ROB BARNES: Well, I mentioned just a second ago, I’m kind of a technical nerd. Maybe I’ve grown out of that phase just a little bit as I’ve evolved into the business world. I rely, I suppose, in my daily life, personally and work functions. You know, data centers are not something new. I rely on them every day as a person, as an employee. And while it’s a bit surprising, I suppose, that a data center would be located in Callaway County. We’ve also seen other counties kind of dealing with the same topic. I guess I would stop short of saying, you know, 'welcome with open arms.' It’s certainly something very different, in a very rural part of Missouri. But it is a topic to be dealt with.

There is, as you put it, a proposed data center. We don’t know whether that will come to fruition or whether that’s just chatter at this point. But there’s a good possibility, again, based upon what we’re seeing around us, that could very likely happen. If I can jump in to maybe, thinking as a presiding commissioner, how to handle or deal with that scenario. Unlike Boone County, which does have planning and zoning, and building permits, and land use applications, and a very structured environment, Callaway County, some years ago, formally said through a ballot issue, no, we’re not interested in those sorts of things, and planning and zoning was pretty soundly defeated some 25 years ago or so.

And what’s that really done, I suppose, in some ways, is it kind of set up Callaway County, again, to, I guess, the concept of open arms. We basically say, you know, whatever you want to do in Callaway County, welcome aboard and enjoy. I’m not trying to be flip about this particular scenario because some people are very passionate one way or the other. But it certainly is a tough issue to address when the Callaway County government is, by nature, weak government, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just the limits in the control, or lack thereof, that the citizens gave to the county, or didn't give to the county.

In this particular case, just about any business that comes to Callaway County can start construction, do almost anything they want, as long as it’s within the legal confines of state law and federal law. They don’t even have to call the commissioner’s office to say, hey, we’re doing this, because, again, there’s really no planning or permitting process involved. I hope we’ll delve into maybe this topic just a little bit more as we go through this conversation.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: Yeah, we could do that now. Is that something that you are interested in looking into when you take, if you are given that term?

ROB BARNES: Well, I think one thing that I have committed to, for those folks that I have had conversations with, where this is a very disturbing development, sort of, so to speak. It’s a neat, fancy word. It’s neat to see people that still care about others and neighbors and what they do on their land through their property rights, how it might affect others. And that’s clearly, I think, one of the things that those who are not so much in favor of data centers, that’s one of the things they’re very passionate about. And I understand that. I try to be careful of how I might affect my neighbor as well. I think that’s just how you live life, so to speak. The absence of planning and zoning, which, again, has existed in our county for a long, long time, I think is worthy of a conversation.

Are there certain things that can come to a county that simply need to be controlled? I think, while we never fathomed, I don’t think, a data center coming to Callaway County, this might be one of those examples of not having anything. Is that the right thing? And so that’ll get a lot of the property rights people excited when I say that. It’s certainly not something that I would, directly; it’s not part of my campaign platform, but I think it’s worthy of a conversation. Are there certain limits when something reaches a certain scale that you don’t just get to do everything that you want to do? So I’m all for a reasonable conversation relative to planning and zoning, not to make it so restrictive that people can’t build that barn on their property. But I think it’s at least worthy of a good conversation that really hasn't been discussed. Much like I said, 25-to-30 years. That’s one of the things that I have expressed to folks. I’ll have that conversation. We’ll see where it goes.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: Are you in support of the data centers?

ROB BARNES: I figured that was going to be a question that would be asked, and that’s certainly a tough one to answer, based upon the limits that county government has. It’s hard to say that I’m in opposition to a data center when there’s little that I could do from the presiding commissioner seat to shut that down. If it can’t be one, then I kind of got to be the other. It’s hard. It’s hard to be in the middle. As I sit here today, again, thinking about the limitations on government, it’s likely going to happen. There are some things that can be done to maybe restrict, or control, or add some balance to a development of that size. You may have this question to ask, but that gets into almost another interesting topic, and I choose the word interesting for a reason. It’s a difficult topic, and that’s tax abatement. Many people, they don’t want somebody getting off the hook from paying their fair share.

I understand that. I completely get that. If Callaway County is going to impose any sort of restrictions on a data center, it’s going to be through a tax-abatement arrangement. That’s the only play that the county really has. Because once you open that discussion and enter into a contract on how much tax might be abated, it’s a negotiation process. Well, for this percentage of abatement, we’ll give you, or we want, we being the county, we’re going to want A, B and C, and the county would have the latitude to define what A, B and C are. That could be the ability to inspect property, to validate water usage. It could also be the sort of thing where, and I haven’t heard this talked about anywhere else, but it could be the requirement of a data center. You’re going to have to store water in some sort of a lake, pond, or storage tank.

You’re going to harvest rainwater that comes off of a million-square-foot building. I don’t know how big of a building we’re talking about, for sure, but you certainly start thinking in that realm, and that’s certainly a way to start mitigating or limiting the amount of groundwater that might get consumed by one of these. So that tax abatement conversation, again, not very popular a lot of times, but again, it’s a way for the county to gain some control over a process that they have really no control over. It’ll be interesting to see. I’m sure our current commissioners are already having these sorts of conversations. And exactly what’s being discussed, I’m not fully tuned in, but I would be surprised if these conversations aren't already going on.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: That definitely flowed into the following questions. Many are not even opposed to it, just have more questions about what the data center has to offer to the county, and that they will waste water, as you mentioned. It will increase electricity bills. Taxes will be taken out for taxpayers to pay for the structure. The loud noises, it will ruin the community and the environment of what they know and love. So, what is your response to those residents that have all those fears?

ROB BARNES: You gave me about eight different things, and I don’t know if I’ll remember all of them. So, keep me honest here. I think, first of all, I don’t know if we know everything that we need to know. One of the commissioners had said so, so I won’t steal his statement. But one data center is not exactly like another data center. There’s a variety of engineering that can go into a development like this, and not all of them follow the same cookie-cutter approach. I believe that, from a water consumption perspective, we’re talking about a closed-loop system, which is massively better than something that’s just using a lot of water and discharging a lot of water. So, it’d be interesting to find out exactly, from a water consumption perspective, what are we talking about?

The noise element. There are state standards that have to be met at the property line. Exactly what are those? I just, I don’t know exactly what the noise level can be leaving the property, but I know there are standards in place that a development would have to follow. And again, it’d be interesting to understand what is projected. That’s a tough thing to undo after the fact. Although, if you’re exceeding noise levels, the developers are going to have to do what’s necessary to comply with the law.

I think citing a location is extremely important. I can’t see a data center right on the edge of an incorporated community. I think that’s difficult. The rumors, as many people have heard, is the northern part of the county, that the development would likely be located pretty squarely in that area where a couple thousand acres of solar are already deployed. Are there homes within certain proximity? From my recollection, if the rumors are correct as to where the location might be, I don’t know of any that are close. And those may be words I have to pedal back because, honestly, I just don’t know. With so much being hypothetical, nothing being firm yet, it’s kind of like we’re talking a lot about things, and we’re trying to answer some questions, but we really don’t know all of the details yet.

I think you probably had something else there that I did not comment on?

EUPHENIE ANDRE: The electricity bills.

ROB BARNES: I really don’t think that we’re going to see an increased cost to consumers for electricity. Now that I’ve said that, I think there are going to be others. I think there’s a particular utility right now that is proposing something like a 13% increase. We have to be careful. Is that directly related to that, to a data center, or is that the cost of improving a network that hasn’t been, let’s say, maybe it hasn’t been maintained to standards for a while? I don’t know. I think that particular entity will have to ask, answer a lot of questions in front of the Public Service Commission, right, in this realm, because I think they’re going to be very interested. Is the rate increase directly attributable to a data center, or is it for some other purpose?

I know since COVID, really before data center development was happening in this area, there was a massive increase in transformer costs, wire, poles. I know, from the electric perspective, there’s just been heavy inflation, probably much more so than we’ve seen in our homes. Some of it could be attributed to that as well. But again, it’s understanding the facts, getting to the facts, and the information that can truly be trusted and verified. Again, some of these questions are kind of hard to respond to. I’m making guesses in some realm based upon what I know.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: Do you see any benefits and opportunities for the county with having a data center?

ROB BARNES: Development will employ lots of people. I don’t think that, at least in Callaway County, and again, I know a little bit about what’s going on in Montgomery County, I would not expect a lot of jobs to come out of a data center development. So, is there a benefit? Yeah. I would think, when you think about our schools being somewhat poorly funded, if I can be so bold to say, at the state level, I don’t know when the last time public schools saw full funding from the state, state dollars, so that leaves the local, so to speak, to pick up the tab. And I think when you start looking at a school district where a data center could be located, I think it’s going to bring a lot of dollars into the school. The side to that equation that we have to remember is: those additional dollars that are flowing into the school, do you have a direct benefit to us as taxpayers? They’re paying school taxes; you might see, we probably would see, your levy go down.

For some folks, that could be saving annually three- or four- or five- six-hundred dollars, all depending. It could be more. I don’t know. It just kind of depends. Everyone’s kind of going to be unique on the amount of school taxes that they’re paying. I guess it’s a benefit. I want you to think that a data center development is just not going to run the county in total. Yes, we’re giving up farmland. I’m not a fan of that. I’m probably less of a fan of having 2,000 acres of solar that is taking up some pretty good farmland. Managing the data center development, I think, is a critical piece, and again, in a county with very little controls, I think it comes back to that whole contractual relationship that you can enter into, that if a development wants to save money through their taxes, again, what are you going to give up? You’re going to give us something, and we expect to have some control over at least a portion of what you’re doing.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: You have mentioned a lack of control that you can really control with this new development if it happens, but what can you say and do to ensure to residents that have fears, or they are going through this process with you, that everything—or what can you tell them, at least, for this major development about this major development?

ROB BARNES: One of the things that come to mind, many of the people that I have visited with seem very cynical, and I think rightfully so, of the information. There’s a great deal of misinformation. I think we just have to go to social media and see a lot of that. Some of it is miss-marked greatly, for those who are concerned. I think, let’s try to do our homework. Let’s try to find the real facts, and I think, ultimately, at least I will be thinking from the presiding commissioner position, is I’m not sure I will not just trust. There always has to be a verification process, and it’s getting those controls in place. I think they’re extremely critical. I would just, and again, it kind of comes back to the whole limit of county government, at least in Callaway County. I go back to the occasional four or five, six years ago, I lose track of time, those confined feeding operations, a very contentious topic of some years past. A lot of people were upset about them. Fortunately, in Callaway County, I only know of one that was ever built. There may be others. I only know one, and I think, as citizens that didn’t particularly love that as a concept, I think we just said, well, it’s nothing that we can do, and we kind of forgot about it. A couple of years go by, and now thousands of acres of farm ground are being consumed with solar, and many forfeited, so to speak. Another topic that really kind of demonstrates the fact that the county government is weak by design or by nature. Development happened, and we fought the fight, and nothing more.

I think if we’re serious about these things that really, we feel like, disturbed our community, and we raise our voice, and maybe we’re heard. I like to think, in the current county administration, I know we’re heard, we’re being heard, but I think conversations got to continue on. Well, it happened. Welp, it happened, and you know, I alluded to that earlier. I’m not a huge fan of planning and zoning in Callaway County, but again, is it a time to have a conversation? I think maybe that’s how I would encourage some folks, that if a data center comes to Callaway County, which it looks like it could very well happen, don’t drop the conversation. And if I’m the presiding commissioner, I’m all ears. I’ll have that conversation again. In 25, 30 years, it may be time to re-ask that question.

I think that would be partially my advice to folks. This is a really disturbing topic. I get the reasons for it, but let’s continue that conversation. Let’s just not say we lost; we couldn’t do anything. Let’s see what’s down the road and continue on discussing it because there will be the next unexpected thing that’ll walk into Callaway County before too long, and we’ll be right where we are today.

EUPHENIE ANDRE: What are your top-three priorities, if elected?

ROB BARNES: Callaway County, I think, is in pretty good shape. Prior commissions have done a phenomenal job. We got a beautiful justice center, a new facility. Part of the commission's responsibility is to oversee facilities, so from that end, there’s not, to me, a lot of problems. I think the EOC, our 911 Dispatch Center, needs some attention. Those poor folks are asked to do an extremely tough job, and they’re sitting in a basement with no sunlight. It just makes a tough job even harder. That’s a priority. Continuing to support our Sheriff's Department, I think Sheriff Maylee is doing a good job. I think his deputies are doing a good job. Jail facilities run well. How can I support them? It’s not my job to oversee them, per se, because Sheriff Maylee, that’s his job. I want to support the sheriffs in every way I can, make sure they got the resources, and then, of course, the big topic. It’s what has to be a priority, is those lethal potholes.

We got 800+ miles of gravel road in Callaway County. I somewhat feel for those guys. That’s a lot of work. I don’t know that they ever get done. From a heavy rain season, washout roads, it’s evaluating where we’re at with road and bridge. What do we need to do different? How can I help them? I don’t know if that was a total of three priorities, but those are important things to me. Very boring things, in some ways, but at the core, very, very important to citizens. I’d like to see some more housing in the county.

There’s a few developments that have happened, and that has filled some of the void, but I think we need more. I talk to people quite frequently that they’re lucky to find a job in Callaway County, but they can’t find a place to live, and most of us want to live pretty well where we work. We don’t want to drive 30–45 minutes. Well, in Callaway County, that can be a bit of a problem. I don’t know that it’s a big role for the commission. We’re not going to build houses, but again, if a developer wants to come to the community, what can we do to help them?

Make sure that they know they get the support that they need. Those are some of the things that are important to me. I’m not running on a platform of changing the world. I just want to keep our great county running as it is. We’ll make some improvements along the way.