This is an opinion column.

The Birmingham Jefferson-County Civic Center Authority board of directors, for too long an epitome of entrenched cronyism characterizing many of our state’s public boards, may soon need a larger table.

The Alabama legislature passed a bill expanding the nine-member board by two seats and creating term limits, capping service at three consecutive four-year terms.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, awaits Gov. Kay Ivey’s signature.

Someone get the woman a pen.

RELATED: Bill would spark long-overdue change in BJCC board good-old-boy cronyism

SB302 was approved just under the wire before the end of the legislative session. It passed the House Wednesday afternoon with two amendments, meaning it had to be re-approved by the Senate, which did so later that evening.

When signed, the bill becomes effective immediately, which means at least one additional board member could be in place by the BJCC’s next meeting on June 21.

One of the new seats will be appointed by the Jefferson County state Senate delegation, which alternates BJCC appointments with the House delegation. The other seat is designated for a board member from the Greater Birmingham & Convention Bureau. Its next meeting is slated for June 26, so its appointee will not likely join the BJCC board until July.

The BJCC board oversees five sports, music, and theater venues; exhibition and meeting halls; the Sheraton and Westin hotels; and the Uptown Entertainment complex.

A cap on the number of terms a board member may serve isn’t unusual. It’s a necessary tool for eliminating entrenched entitlement, for yanking the gavel of power and decisions involving millions of your money from the grip of those who hold on as if it’s theirs.

And supposed to be theirs—forever.

There are such limits on the boards of the University of Alabama and Auburn University, and a plethora of reasonable, responsible boards.

Not so with the BJCC board. One current member (Dr. Clyde Echols) was initially appointed in 1988 when fellow board member Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin was seven years old. Echols was re-, re-, and then re-appointed in a ramrod move by the board last December; his term expires in 2026.

The seat long held by BJCC board chair Dennis Latham, a retired lobbyist who represents Bessemer, will be filled with a fresh face much sooner. He was appointed in 1998, served until 2010, dropped off yet was reappointed in 2011. Latham was elected chair in 2012 and has held the position since. (U.S. Senate committee chairs are limited to a single term; the president, as you know, is capped at two terms).

Latham’s term, his third consecutive, expires later this year and once the bill is signed he will not be eligible for reappointment.

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I’m a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and winner of the Edward R. Murrow prize for podcasts: “Unjustifiable,” co-hosted with John Archibald. My column appears in AL.com, as well as the Lede. Stay tuned for my upcoming limited series podcast Panther: Blueprint for Black Power, co-hosted with Eunice Elliott. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, The Barbershop, here. Reach me at [email protected], follow me at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj