Remarks by John Reedy
38 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 51:31
“John? Yeah. Is someone from SPARTA here that could help me understand some policy things? Oh, great.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 51:42
“Thanks. So SPARTA affirmants, somewhat common, happened before this, yes?”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 51:50
“Okay. What is the process that was used in some of those other ones?”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 52:59
“Right. Okay. So are you saying that the CFD that we adopted does not permit it to be used for deferred fees?”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 53:16
“Right. Okay. Well, that wasn't the question I asked. Oh, I'm sorry. So I asked if the CFD we adopted permits us to use proceeds from a second, third, or fourth issuance to pay deferred SPARTED fees.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 53:33
“Can I get someone to weigh in on that? Because it was my understanding that it very clearly allows us to pay fees.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 55:34
“Okay, so I'm sorry, because you feel like you're repeating the same thing to me, and it's the same words and you're drawing a differentiation. The CFD we adopted, the city council under either CFD verbiage, is the one that controls the issuance. And we have, every time they do it, there's a resolution that comes that we have to approve. It's pretty perfunctory normally. It's allowed to cover SPARTA fees, right? Our CFD that we adopted in 2025 can cover SPARTA fees. So if the city of Lincoln says that we agree to pay the fees to you and our CFD allows us to ensure that those come from the CFD…”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 56:26
“Now, projections aren't verbiage. You talked about verbiage before, and now you're talking about projections. Right. The CFD can't generate enough money to pay the $2.9 million? That's correct. That's correct.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 56:40
“Okay, so as someone who was pretty involved in the development of that CFD, I can assure you that there is a lot of money in that CFD that is available in PAYGO and otherwise to cover the $2.9 million, because there's millions in there to help for a school, plus extra to help them if they run into a problem, plus extra on top of that. I mean, it's nearly a billion dollars, but those are obligated for... They have other obligations to this. They have the obligations in the CFD the exact same as the SPARTA fees. Because what you really need is the city of Lincoln to commit that we're going to…”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 59:34
“So let me so when I when I read through it there's there's two mechanisms, as I read it, maybe you can clarify if I have this wrong. The first mechanism is this proposed language which i'm still not failing to see the difference that you're drawing between. How much they obligate us to do it or not, but the second one is is that the board of Sparta has the ability to adopt an alternative one correct. So is there a reason that we can't provide an agreement with us and Lewis to solidify that these will be paid and provide to the SPARTA board for approval as an alternative mechanism?”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:00:21
“Okay. So the MOA very clearly says the FD language reviewed by staff. Right. or alternative funding approved by board. It does not say that all the member agencies have to effectively do an amendment to the MOA in order to do it. It says the SPARTA board can approve an alternative, which could be an agreement that says the City of Lincoln and Lewis Development commit to do the thing they were already planning to do the whole time. So is there any reason why we can't do that and it be brought to the SPARTA board for approval?”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:01:00
“But his question was, no, if we provided you one, you can provide to the SPARTA board and meet your MOU criteria as written today.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:01:33
“The approval of an alternative mechanism to approve a deferment is the board. And they're represented by their representatives. What you're doing here in this document that I'm seeing is effectively an amendment to the MOA, which is crazy.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:02:05
“That's not what the individual jurisdictions all approved that the Sparta board can approve an alternative deferment. That was already done. It's those four people's decision about whether they will accept that deferment or And staff can provide advice about whether to do that or not. But the decision was already made by the four jurisdictions that those four presentives have the power to approve an alternative. It's already in the MOA.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:02:41
“That's a process that was already adopted by the four jurisdictions that gives those four people the power to approve it. And then there's what the actual agreement would be before them to approve, which can have lots of opinions and needs to have specifics that you're talking about. Those are separate things and you're conflating them.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:03:43
“Yeah, I mean, I think... Do you want to do that? My problem is that this process is crazy. It involves our staff going around the whole community to get everyone else to agree on essentially what amounts to an MOA amendment.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:05:23
“Right. I understand that you got the right, you're trying to do the right thing.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:14:23
“So it'd be my motion that we either say no or table this proposal and direct staff to come up with a deferment agreement that looks more like the one that they did with the county between us and Lewis in consultation with Sparta's staff that tries to meet their obligation without this crazy whole thing and then take it to the SPARTA board as an alternative mechanism. Before we take the crazy out of the direction.”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:31:07
“Yeah, just some new initiatives, sports complex. I've Okay john anything else, so I had what ma and not wasn't so much with the with the facility, but an important update and there's. regulation called 1383 about organics and it's a critical factor for why mama the landfill invested $150 million in an update. is to become a 1383 qualified facility that provides for all of us that are part of that to be qualified, which allows us to continue to have the one big Ben, which is a huge cost infrastructure savings for us not having to run extra routes and everyone having three bins versus two and…”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 51:28
“Bring it back to my colleagues for comments. John? Yeah. Is someone from SPARTA here that could help me understand some policy things? Oh, great.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 51:42
“Thanks. So, SPARTA affirmants, somewhat common, happened before this, yes?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 51:50
“Okay. What is the process that was used in some of those other ones?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 52:59
“Right, okay, so are you saying that the CFD that we adopted does not permit it to be used for deferred fees?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 53:16
“Right. Okay. Well, that wasn't the question I asked. Oh, I'm sorry. So I asked if the CFD we adopted permits us to use proceeds from a second, third, or fourth issuance to pay deferred sparted fees. Is your opinion that it does not allow us to do that? Yes. Can I get someone to weigh in on that? Because it was my understanding that it very clearly allows us to pay fees.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 55:34
“Okay, so I'm sorry, because you feel like you're repeating the same thing to me and it's the same words and you're drawing a differentiation. The CFD we adopted, the city council under either CFD verbiage, is the one that controls the issuance. And we have, every time they do it, there's a resolution that comes that we have to approve. It's pretty perfunctory normally. It's allowed to cover SPARTA fees, right? Our CFD that we adopted in 2025 can cover SPARTA fees. So if the city of Lincoln says that we agree to pay the fees to you and our CFD allows us to ensure that those come from the CFD…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026