BJCTA Board
The Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority Board is the governing body responsible for operation of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority.
The first 3-member board of directors for a Jefferson County Transit Authority (JCTA) was created by Act No. 993 during the 1971 Alabama legislative session. It specified three members, one elected by the Jefferson County Commission, one by the Birmingham City Council, and one elected jointly by the mayors of the largest municipalities in the county.
Later the board makeup was changed to include five representatives from Birmingham, one appointed by the Jefferson County Commission, and one each from the three other participating municipalities with the biggest populations.
For many years, the three seats based on population were occupied by representatives from Bessemer, Mountain Brook, and Homewood. Despite the suburbs having shifted in relative population. It wasn't until 2012 that the rule was rediscovered, resulting in the Homewood and Mountain Brook seats being cleared for representatives from Hoover and Vestavia Hills.
In 2004 a bill sponsored by Representative George Perdue and passed as Act of Alabama 2004-500 would have further amended the make-up and powers of the BJCTA Board, expanding it to 14 members while also establishing a Transit Citizen Advisory Board. The law was set to go into effect once the system received an influx of federal funding secured by U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, but his series companion bills to provide the required 20% local match did not advance. Some opponents of the funding bills were protesting Birmingham's reduced control over the board if the 2004 law were implemented.
Membership
- 2004: Phil Gary (chair), Calvin Elder, Ouida Fritschi, Hugo Isom, Johnnye Lassiter, Ronald Lyas, Bob McKenna, Reginald Swanson, Dan Trotman
- September 2014: Joyce Brooks resigned from the board
- 2015: Johnnye Lassiter, Andrew Edwards, Patricia Henderson, Reginald Jeter, Bacarra Mauldin, Patrick Sellers, and Adam Snyder.
- January 5, 2015: Sellers succeeded Lassiter as chair.
- October 2017: Tameka Wren was appointed to the board.
- November 2017: Wren was elected chair.
- February 2018: Wren resigned from the board. Ruby Davis was appointed to the vacancy.
- April 2018: Darryl Cunningham was elected chair
- October 2018: Ted Smith was elected chair, with LeDon Jones as vice chair and Kevin Powe as secretary
- 2024: Theodore Smith (chair), Willie Davis III, Becky Carpenter, Paige Coker, Darryl Cunningham, Roderick Evans, LeDon James, C. Randall Minor, Sam Parker