MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Gov. Kay Ivey has called a special meeting of the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs to consider the dismissal of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis, following Davis’ refusal to resign at Ivey’s request last week.
On Thursday, Ivey asked Davis to resign as commissioner citing the agency’s mishandling of federal relief funds saying it jeopardized the state’s ability to satisfy federal law and Davis’ ability to serve veterans. On Friday, Davis announced he would not resign saying, “I respectfully disagree with the claims made against the Department of Veterans Affairs this week.”
“It is my desire and will to continue advocating for Alabama Veterans,” Davis said in a statement. “We have continuously been transparent in our department’s mission and day-to-day operations in our service to Alabama’s 400,000 Veterans. This includes earlier this year when ADVA attempted to work with members of the Governor’s staff, cabinet, and the Department of Finance regarding American Rescue Plan Act funds. At no time did our actions jeopardize the State of Alabama in fulfilling its obligations of the $2.1 billion in ARPA funds.”
Within minutes of Davis’ statement, Ivey announced a special meeting of the State Board of Veterans Affairs on September 10 to consider his termination and the appointment of an interim commissioner.
“Of all of your important duties, cooperation with your fellow agency heads is perhaps most important because without cooperation and collaboration, our state government simply cannot function,” Ivey wrote in a new letter to Davis. “Cooperation and collaboration requires mutual trust. Yet over the years, my office has repeatedly perceived your actions to produce strife and conflict – with my office, with other state executive branch agencies, with state legislators, and with members of our congressional delegation. This alone constitutes cause for your removal.”
Her office also released several pages of correspondence and notes documenting myriad concerns over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ proposals for American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Veterans Affairs ARPA Correspondence & Notes
Included in the documentation is a letter from Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell informing Davis that she was terminating an interagency agreement between the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs due to concerns over grant recipients, including one that requested funds be used for lobbying, which is against state and federal law.
Another letter from Taylor Nichols, general counsel for the Alabama Department of Finance, spells out to ADVA General Counsel Beverly Gebhardt several reasons why their funding requests were being questioned, including programs that are ineligible for ARPA funding, programs without a nexus to mental health and proposals “with an excessive use of ARPA funding for administrative costs.”
“In the ADMH termination notice to ADVA, there are a number of concerns cited by the ADMH regarding the grant selection process. These concerns include concerns regarding one approved proposal including lobbying expenses (which the DOF previously advised the ADVA was an impermissible expense) and that communications took place with awardees stating that funding amounts could be different than what was approved by SBVA and listed in the notification of funding provided to the awardees,” Nichols wrote.
Nichols’ letter included several pages of notes raising questions over the propriety of many of the 33 grant proposals submitted by Veterans Affairs. The notes show concerns such as, “considering the focus, staffing is excessive,” “weak to non-existent nexus to veterans’ mental health,” and “can we buy ammunition with ARPA funds?”
The rare inter-agency dust up between Veterans Affairs and Mental Health spilled out into the public in August when an ethics complaint authored by Davis agains Boswell and others was leaked to the news media. The complaint alleged that Boswell and others worked to improperly scuttle the AVDA/ADMH agreement to coordinate ARPA funds because of some comments critical of Mental Health from John Kilpatrick, a member of the veterans affairs board and director of a Mobile-based veterans recovery clinic that was seeking other state funds. Alabama Daily News later reported that Kilpatrick never made such comments, at least not publicly.
Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton later dismissed the complaint saying that, even if proven true, Davis’ allegations didn’t amount to ethical violations. Ivey called the complaint “entirely frivolous,” which portended her displeasure with Davis. She also removed Kilpatrick from the board.
Legislative leaders have backed Ivey’s decision. Both House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed posted on social media calling for new leadership at the Department of Veterans Affairs.