This is an opinion column.

If someone tells you they're going to do something, then does it, you shouldn't be surprised.

Unless you're the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority Board of Directors. Then you're shocked and appalled. Indignant even.

On Wednesday, during its committee of the whole meeting, at least some directors seemed downright offended that Mayor Randall Woodfin, with full support of the City Council, did exactly what he stood in front of the sparkling new edifice known as the Intermodal Transportation Center in late April and said he'd do: hold the BJCTA's $10.8 million in funding unless the board--which ousted three chairs and lost two members in six months, and went through five executive directors in eight years--met three seemingly reasonable conditions.

Each of which pretty much fell under one clear demand: start acting like a professional board rather than a petty, bickering bunch on a head-spinning leadership merry-go-round.

By all accounts, little, if anything, happened.

The board did not fulfill any of the conditions: establish a leadership stability plan with a timeline, mandate a minimum of 12 hours of board training or establish rules and procedures for board officers' terms.

It only minimally responded to correspondences from the mayor's office and requests to attend meetings with council members on the matter. And until Wednesday failed to provide specifics regarding implementing the conditions (board training will happen in July).

When I asked Darryl Cunningham, the newest board chair, for updates, his response was usually: "We're making progress."

Except he seems to be the only one who thought so.

So, to the surprise of almost no one, except the BJCTA, the city council Tuesday approved the mayor's $436 million FY2019 budget, which included $5.4 million in funding for the authority and $5.5 million for "Future Transit Projects."

BJCTA Director Patrick Sellers called it a "sad and gloomy day for the city of Birmingham," which it says, "needs to understand the BJCTA is not a charity."

"People, 'y'all got to wake up," he added.

At the other end of the room director Martin Weinberg countered: "We put ourselves in this position.... Ultimately, we're responsible. We're not being any more transparent or accountable than we've been in the past. I'm not going to sit here and blame other folks for issues we've done ourselves."

"That's not accurate," Cunningham interjected before saying Weinberg was "acting off emotions" and apologizing to those in attendance.

"I will not apologize," Weinberg said.

Cunningham: "Well, I did."

Weinberg: "Well, you can apologize for yourself."

Cunningham: "Next."

Just another transit authority meeting.

"It kind of illustrates what's been going on with the board," says city council member Hunter Williams.

"We're committed to protecting our riders by providing the $5 million," says mayor Woodfin. "We are optimistic that the board will stabilize its leadership, come to the table for discussions and move forward toward a better tomorrow for BJCTA,''

Later, Weinberg elaborated on his comments at the meeting: "We were given a mandate and I'm not sure we complied. We can't expect they'll continue to fund us if we don't comply with tasks and aren't more transparent. This is going to be a long-term process--to clean up the stench of what has been here for so many years will not happen overnight, but it's got to move swiftly. We can't go back in there and beg for money when we know stuff that has to be done."

Birmingham contributes the largest share of the BJCTA's $41 million annual budget, so the loss of $5.5 million would have a significant impact on service. At the meeting, Josh Johnson, the director of planning and development, outlined a pretty grim scenario in which operational hours within Birmingham could be slashed from its current level of 212,000 hours annually to just 17,591 hours on routes that operate within city limits.

The powerful are watching

The cuts--along with the circus that led to them--could also potentially reverberate in other areas, including the BJCTA's standing in high places.

Daryl O. Perkins, the BJCTA's governmental affairs consultant, painted a sobering and much-needed image for the board on Wednesday: "When I get calls from [U.S. Congresswoman] Terry Sewell and [Alabama 6th district representative] Gary Palmer, they're not pretty," he said. "They put their political capital on the line for us.

"Internally, we have to continue to fix ourselves. Whatever we're doing we have to do it better and faster and tell folks we're doing it better and faster."

[Update: the following day, Perkins was informed that his contract with the BJCTA was terminated. "I just received a phone call," he said. "I don't know why it happened."]

Should the board fix itself--right now, Las Vegas wouldn't likely take odds on such-- the BJCTA could actually receive its full funding.

"I am very aware that residents depend on public transportation to get to work, the doctor, the grocery store and other places," said Woodfin. "That will not stop. What does need to stop is the second-guessing of the city's dealings with BJCTA and suggestions that riders will be without transportation.

"This causes unnecessary worry for residents," he added. "I want residents to know that they are my concern, and I'm determined to work on a solution for all.''

"We don't want to pull the rug out from under transit," said Williams. "That's not anyone's intent. The point is for the board to show a bit of competence."

"The reduced funding is not a punitive action," said councilor Darrell O'Quinn, in a text message. "It's about seeking a different path, one that will yield significant improvement in service."

And there is a significant way to go.

On Wednesday, the board was told that the system's on-time performance was 62%; industry standard is 70%, said Peter Walcott, who heads fixed route operations.

There is also a driver shortage and 30 of the system's 110 buses have "reached their useful life," Walcott said, with another 12 are close to that mark.

Also, according to O'Quinn, "96 percent of public transit systems are delivering service at lower cost."

Here's perhaps the most damning of figures: the BJCTA's latest AllTransit Performance score, which measures connectivity, access to jobs and frequency of service, was a tragic 0.9, placing the system 284th out of 293 cities with populations of more than 100,000. For comparisons, here are scores of other cities in the region: Atlanta (7.9), Charlotte (4.2), Memphis (4.1) and Nashville (3.9).

On-demand service coming?

"All options [for improving service] are being considered" by the mayor's office and city council, said O'Quinn, "including an on-demand service".

The "microtransit" systems offer smaller vehicles utilized over flexible routes--they're hybrids between Uber/Lyft and your traditional max-sized Max bus. They've had mixed success worldwide, but many U.S. cities are experimenting with various on-demand systems, operated by companies such as Via, Lyft Shuttle, and Chariot.

"We don't need to take away the busing system, but we don't have a lot of happy riders," offered Williams. "The system is unreliable, and we owe it to our citizens to have something that is at least reliable."

"Our first priority is protecting our riders and residents. That's job one,'' Woodfin said. "It's been clear that the instability at the board is a major concern. The approach to putting what is in the budget for 2019 is what accountability looks like. Again, we want to have additional conversations with the board to address next steps.''

That, at least now, out-of-the-box options are being explored without the BJCTA at the table is both telling, and, alas, not surprising.

If potentially losing funding isn't enough to wake this board from its shenanigans, then being left standing at the curb as new transit options are being explored certainly should.

Roy S. Johnson's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Hit me up at rjohnson@al.com or/and follow me at twitter.com/roysj.

Column was updated at 4:20 p.m with comments from mayor Randall Woodfin