Faribault Daily News reports on a candidate forum between City Council candidates Paul Wunderlich, John Rowan, and Katie Howard…

All three city council candidates present during Wednesday night’s candidate forum at Harvest Church said they did not support the Archer data center development, while two said they use artificial intelligence daily. Other topics of conversation included the difficulty in keeping tax levies low, and whether Faribault should loosen density regulations and embrace smaller homes.

A crowd of elected officials, candidates, and about 8 members of the public gathered to hear what candidates Paul Wunderlich, Councilor John Rowan, and Katie Howard had to say. Candidates Natalie Halverson, Lexi Temple and Kameron Gustafson had scheduling issues and could not attend, organizer Linda Cross said.

The article outlines their various views, including the following…

All three candidates said they opposed the Archer data center, but acknowledged it was too late to just say no to it. Howard said she, Wunderlich, and Jacob Reed, who did not advance past the primary election, worked to develop a plan of what regulations and limits they’d like to see for any data center development coming into Faribault. …

Rowan, the only incumbent in the race, said in his introduction that he was not on council when the data center was initially approved. Rowan called the developer a speculator, saying the ultimate goal was to flip the data center to a buyer to make an easy profit. That process is already in motion, he said. …

Wunderlich agreed with Rowan and said he believed the developer was treating Faribault as a commodity, not a town. He was also concerned with the current council’s plan to vote on datacenter standards in November. Wunderlich said he was concerned the standards would not go far enough.