MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A vote on a bill to change the leadership structure of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs was delayed Tuesday to give veterans’ organizations, several of which have opposed the legislation, more time to review amendments made on the Senate floor.
Sponsored by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, Senate Bill 67 would reform the ADVA by granting the governor the sole authority to appoint and remove the agency’s commissioner at will, shift the State Board of Veterans Affairs to an advisory role, and authorize the board’s appointments to be made by the governor, the Alabama House speaker and Senate president.
Currently, the board is made up of nominees from various veterans’ service organizations, who also select the commissioner.
The Gov. Kay Ivey-backed bill faces some GOP pushback, including Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who presides over the Senate and issued a statement Monday that “the method of selecting members of the ADVA Board have operated well under the current system for many years.”
Among the veterans’ group leaders who have spoken out against the original bill is Pete Riehm, president of the Mobile Council Navy League.
“We’re not opposed to the elevating (of the ADVA commissioner to a member of the governor’s cabinet), but I still think we still should get to do the hiring and firing; the ADVA still gets to screen them, but the (appointed commissioner) has to still be accountable the veterans the way it is now, because that’s worked well,” Riehm told ADN Tuesday.
The bill was championed Ivey during her recent State of the State address, and comes on the heels of the inter-agency dispute last year between the ADVA and the Department of Mental Health that led to the former ADVA Commissioner, Kent Davis, being removed from his position by Ivey, despite support from the ADVA Board.
“This is just a further step in building on all that work that we have done to further elevate the department by bringing it fully into the fold of state government and by making the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs a cabinet level position,” Jones said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“The commissioner will have the ear of the governor, be a part of the governor’s team and cabinet, and I think that only helps what we’re doing to promote veterans and work with veterans around the state.”
The 17-member board would be reduced to nine members under Jones’ original bill.
For more than an hour Tuesday, senators introduced amendments to Jones’ proposal, largely to increase veteran representation on the board and expand membership to 17. Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, was the first to introduce an amendment, a requirement that at least two members of the ADVA Board be members of the Alabama National Guard. Jones said the amendment “improves the bill,” and it was adopted unanimously.
Other amendments adopted unanimously mandated that VSOs be given a 30-day written notice of a vacancy on the ADVA Board, that the State House and Senate minority leaders each get an appointment on the board, and that at least one member of the board be a woman, amendments that were offered by Sens. Josh Carnley, R-Ino, Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, respectively.
The amendments were all approved unanimously on the Senate floor, however, Jones asked that a vote on the legislation be delayed until next week to give veterans and VSOs time to review the changes.
“…A lot of folks are still hung up on this sort of personality conflict that happened a few months ago; that’s not in this bill at all,” Jones told ADN. “The main focus is focusing on veterans, meeting their needs, elevating the position (of VA commissioner) to a cabinet-level position that has the ear of the governor, and brings to bear the full resources of state government.”
Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, successfully offered an amendment to give the lieutenant governor an appointment to the board, selected from three names submitted from the largest VSOs in the state.
Speaking with ADN, Elliott said he supported Jones’ proposal to delay the bill in the hopes that Alabama veterans would have the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed changes to the ADVA.
“The goal was to stop, take a breath and listen to our veterans, they’ve earned it; we’re in there slinging amendments around, I’m not sure all the members know what is all in there,” Elliott told ADN. here fighting these guys to try to get back the influence we had.”