Birmingham City Council approves funding agreement with BJCTA

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The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 23, voted 8-0 to approve an agreement in which the city will pay the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority $10.8 million a year for three years to provide transit and paratransit services within the city limits.

The resolution passed despite the fact that councilors Lashunda Scales and Steven Hoyt expressed concerns that the city should invest more money in the system.

Birmingham needs to increase the level of transit service it offers within the city “to get our folk where they need to be,” Hoyt said.

He said there’s a need for “a comprehensive solution” to transit, even taking into account recent plans for a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system in parts of the city.

There are also economic costs to substandard transit, according to Hoyt.

“We don't have to lose out on some of these companies coming here because transit is not doing what it needs to do,” he said.

Addressing some of his concerns directly to Mayor Randall Woodfin, Hoyt said, “We need to talk real seriously about transit, and as we sit down with the budget hearings and what have you, we really need to revisit transit.”

Woodfin told Hoyt he was willing to have such discussions moving forward.

Scales asked Council President Valerie Abbott is the agreement could be a one-year rather than three-year agreement, thereby allowing the city to increase the level of funding much sooner.

She was assured by Abbott and Hoyt that the three-year agreement could be revised or amended later.

BJCTA Executive Director Barbara Murdock, in response to a question from Councilor Darrell O’Quinn, confirmed that she had reviewed and signed off on the funding agreement.

Murdock appeared before the council in November and said the BJCTA and outgoing Bell administration were “not singing from the same page” at that time in terms of the amount of money promised to the transit system in fiscal year 2018.

Other items

As part of its consent agenda, the council accepted a bid of almost $77,000 from Montgomery Environmental in Birmingham to do emergency asbestos abatement and glass removal at  the Ramsay-McCormack Building in downtown Ensley. The building is a once-grand 10-story office building now owned by the city. In late 2016, then-Mayor William Bell announced plans to spend $40 million to turn the decaying structure into a new public safety center for the city. The mayor’s office is currently studying the issue, according to media reports.

The council also voted to amend the city's Fiscal Year 2018 capital fund budget to spend about $1.9 million on bridge maintenance and $16,500 for tunnel repair at various locations.

Mayor's report

Mayor Randall Woodfin told the council that the city would engage Siena Consulting to conduct national searches for police chief, IMS director, finance director and public works director for the city.

Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper announced in November that he would step down from the position.

Woodfin also announced that Crowe Horwath LLP -- teaming with PGV Advisors -- will do a performance assessment of all city departments, starting with community development, finance, HR, information management systems, law, municipal court, public works; and planning, engineering and permits.