Summer is supposed to be slow in politics. That’s when Congress takes its August recess (err, district work period). That’s when politicians and politicos get the chance to find a sunny beach, even if it is at an association conference or four.
The summer slowdown is especially true when we are in the middle of a term in Alabama, still two years away from the big state elections. But this summer has defied those norms and been exceedingly busy for the news business. If you need to, go back and read that last Inside Alabama Politics edition to remember just how crazy the first part of the summer was. Actually, it would be good to have it up in a separate tab as we will refer to the last issue a few times here.
That’s why we have IAP – to go beyond the headlines into the background conversations politicos dare not have on the record to reveal what’s really going on in and around the halls of government.
Let us offer a special welcome to new ADN Insider subscribers! There’s a lot more insider content on its way from where this came from. And you’ll be glad to have your ADN Insider subscription in the coming months as more Daily News content – from exclusive stories to polling – will be behind the paywall for subscribing members only. Happy reading.
The Veterans Affairs fallout
“What a mess.”
That’s how many Alabama politicos, shaking their heads, describe the bizarre chain of events that led to Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis offering his resignation on Sept. 9. Going back to the 2024 legislative session, there were quiet indications of disagreements between the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Most publicly, the two agencies didn’t see eye to eye on legislation aiming to create a whole new mental health system for veterans. But you really had to be paying attention to know that much and only a handful knew what all else had happened and what was brewing beneath the surface.
And we came close to not knowing for some time, perhaps until the end of the Ivey administration’s final term. Had Davis not filed an ethics complaint against Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell and several others in and around state government, we are probably none the wiser. Better yet, if that complaint never gets leaked to Lagniappe, we are probably not talking about this at all right now. But those two things – the complaint and the leak – did happen, causing a cascade of consequences that saw Davis take the fall and that could lead to fundamental changes in state government.
The timeline
When picking this debacle apart, it’s helpful to establish a timeline of how it unfolded. Here’s what we can piece together from three weeks of reporting and conversations with more than a dozen sources…
July 2022 – The Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs learns it has been awarded $353,000 for the “Supporting Alabama’s Veterans Grant Program.” Ultimately this money would be directed, without ADVA’s say in the matter, to the Lakeshore Foundation, which outfits wounded vets with prosthetics and other therapeutics. This was part of a longstanding legislative priority.
November 2022 – ADVA is awarded $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and signs a memorandum of understanding with the Finance Department to administer grants to non-profits. Later, an additional MOU would be signed between ADVA and the Alabama Department of Mental Health to distribute grants to non-profits for veterans mental health services and projects.
July 2023 – The Alabama chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) meets and announces that it has terminated its contract with lobbyist Bradley Cox. According to Cox, then-MOAA Vice President John Kilpatrick, impatient and unfamiliar with State House politics, was disappointed that lobbying efforts did not produce immediate returns in the last legislative session. Kilpatrick proposes that the State Board of Veterans Affairs “should give the MOAA Council money that could be used to hire a lobbyist to push bills that benefit veterans,” according to the meeting minutes.
August 2023 – ADVA is awarded an additional $2 million in ARPA funds as part of the same agreement, which requires veterans mental health grants to be awarded following U.S. Dept. of Treasury guidelines.
December 2023 – ADVA receives requests for proposals from would-be grantees, going against the advice of Finance due to the tight timeline for disbursing funds. Finance had advised ADVA not to go through an RFP process because there would not be time to untangle any problems by an internal June 1 APRA deadline.
January 2024 – ADVA & ADMH representatives meet and select 15 ARPA grant recipients. Later, the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs votes to add an additional 18 recipients bringing the total to 33 organizations to divide up the $7 million. According to Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis, Kilpatrick, who became a board member a few months earlier and whose Mobile-based Vets Recover clinic was among the grant recipients, recused himself from the vote.
February 19, 2024 – Britney Garner submits a quarterly statement of lobbying activities, listing the Action Now Initiative and AARP Alabama as clients, but not MOAA. (Garner explains to IAP that she intended to claim MOAA as a client, but there was a glitch with the Ethics Commission website)
February 20, 2024 – HB 197 / SB 135, The Veterans Access to Care Act, is introduced to create a new mental health care system for veterans through ADVA bypassing ADMH. The bill sponsors would eventually engage the two agencies to negotiate details. Those negotiations include ADVA staff and John Kilpatrick and Britney Garner on behalf of MOAA.
February 28, 2024 – MOAA sponsors a lunch for the Alabama House Republican Caucus to promote the new legislation and their ARPA grant proposals. Organizers include Kilpatrick and Garner, who is working as an “advocacy consultant” for MOAA. Neither are registered as a principal or lobbyist for MOAA at the time. The effort to build support for the legislation also includes billboard advertising around this time.
March 12, 2024 – Commissioner of Veterans Affairs Kent Davis tells the State Board of Veterans Affairs that he was “blindsided” by the veterans mental health care legislation. Kilpatrick tells fellow board members that the legislation came out of his conversations with the bill sponsors about veterans mental health needs and that he did not intend to “go around” the department or board.
April 2, 2024 – ADMH Commissioner Kim Boswell terminates the Memorandum of Understanding with ADVA, citing concerns with the grant administration process and the permissibility of some funding proposals. Among the concerns is a proposed ARPA grant recipient, Kilpatrick’s Vets Recover clinic, who “requested funding for lobbying” which is against state and federal law.
April 2, 2024 – Britney Garner submits a back-dated, revised ethics statement adding MOAA as a client, according to Fast Democracy. The updated statement says she has represented MOAA since Jan. 1, 2024.
April 4, 2024 – Dept. of Finance requests ADVA provide a complete list of proposed grants using ARPA funding.
April 12, 2024 – Dept. of Finance General Counsel Taylor Nichols writes ADVA General Counsel Beverly Gebhardt a 19-page letter listing the Department’s myriad concerns with the proposed ARPA grants, with comments including “considering the focus, staffing is excessive,” “weak to non-existent nexus to veterans’ mental health,” and “can we buy ammunition with ARPA funds?” The letter reiterates concerns raised by ADMH that a grantee wants to use ARPA funds for lobbying.
May 2, 2024 – Gebhardt writes Nichols back, rebutting the concerns about grantees listed in the April 12 letter.
May 8, 2024 – Senate Bill 135, the Veterans Access to Care Act, passes the Legislature. The final version is significantly scaled back to establish a veterans mental health steering committee to chart a path forward after negotiations between ADVA & ADMH.
May 2024 – According to the ethics complaint, Britney Garner tells ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis that Taylor Nichols has a conflict of interest because he is friends with a lobbyist who works in the mental health space. This lobbyist was uninvolved with ARPA funds or the legislation.
May 21, 2024 – Finance Director Bill Poole informs Davis that the $7 million in ARPA grants would not be approved due to the concerns raised by counsel.
June 9, 2024 – Davis is approached by SBVA board members Kilpatrick and Tony Berenotto who repeat the same conflict of interest allegations raised by Garner and expand the allegations of impropriety to include Commissioner Boswell, members of her staff and other lobbyists.
July 22, 2024 – Davis submits a formal complaint against Boswell, Nichols and six others to the Alabama Ethics Commission.
August 9, 2024 – Mobile-based Lagniappe publishes a story on the ethics complaint leaked to the publication.
August 15, 2024 – Alabama Daily News reports further on details of the ethics complaint.
August 25, 2024 – Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton dismisses Davis’ complaint, saying that, even if true, the allegations made against Boswell, Nichols and others are not ethics violations. Gov. Kay Ivey issues a statement calling the complaint “frivolous.”
September 4, 2024 – Ivey asks Davis to resign as commissioner citing the grant dustup and removes Kilpatrick from the State Board of Veterans Affairs.
September 7, 2024 – Davis refuses to resign, saying in a statement that he respectfully disagrees with how his agency has been portrayed. Within minutes, Ivey releases correspondence and notes detailing the problems ADMH and Finance had with ADVA grant proposals. She calls a special meeting of the State Board of Veterans Affairs to consider Davis’ status.
September 9, 2024 – After meeting with Ivey, Davis announces he will resign effective Dec. 31.
Davis in a corner
Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis is at the center of this debacle. He’s also the one taking the fall. That’s the way it goes because the buck has to stop somewhere. But he’s far from the only individual responsible for the situation spinning out of control like it did.
In his complaint, Davis specifically mentions that John Kilpatrick and Britney Garner, who were lobbying the Legislature not only for the veterans mental health legislation but also for Kilpatrick’s Vets Recover clinic, told him there was a conflict of interest that became the impetus for the ethics complaint. That account is backed up by others sharing their recollection on background with IAP.
They were mad. Mad about their ARPA spending plans getting scuttled. Mad about the veterans mental health legislation getting scaled back. Going back to 2022, it felt like critical veterans programs were getting the runaround in Montgomery for the third straight year. And so eventually, Davis, spurred by a few aggressive board members, lashes out via an ethics complaint against all those thought to have been to blame for another failed opportunity to help veterans access needed services.
In retrospect, Davis and his team shoulder plenty of that blame for that failure. It took ADVA more than a year to come up with ARPA grant proposals after being advised to use a speedier process. Perhaps the State Board of Veterans Affairs can’t be expected to know the permissible and impermissible uses of ARPA funds, but as an agency director, Davis should be. And his general counsel most certainly should be. The state could have been on the hook for clawbacks on improperly spent money or for unspent funds being sent back to the federal treasury. Perhaps Davis and Kilpatrick shouldn’t be expected to have detailed knowledge of the ethics code or, specifically, what a conflict of interest is. But, again, their lawyers and lobbyists should be. For what it’s worth, the Alabama Ethics Code requires a “conflict of interest” to include a financial interest, which the ethics complaint never alleged.
Legislation gets killed or scaled back all the time. It seemed to be no surprise to the bill sponsors that the original proposal to create a separate mental health care system for veterans, at the cost of billions to the state, was eventually substituted to take a much slower approach. It’s also not surprising that the Department of Mental Health would be against such a wide-ranging proposal, especially considering the duplication it would create. Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth has gotten a lot of mileage out of promoting the widening of Interstate 65 to alleviate congestion, but he’d get nowhere if he proposed building a brand new highway right alongside it.
To hear Davis tell it, he got pushed into filing the complaint by a few aggressive board members. That seems to check out, given all that has come out since. But the fact that he or no one on his team had the discernment to stop such a bad idea from going forward is telling. And, ironically, in an attempt to sully those with whom they disagreed, the ones involved in this fiasco shone a light on their own questionable activities, namely Kilpatrick with pushing grants and legislation benefiting his company and Garner with her ethics reporting two-step.
What’s next
The very public conflict created by the leaked ethics complaint and the apparently longer concern over the management of funds has led to discussions on Goat Hill about who should select future leaders of the veterans department.
There are currently 23 agency leaders in Gov. Kay Ivey’s appointed cabinet, but the veterans affairs commissioner isn’t one of them. The position is appointed by the veterans board, made up largely of designees from several veterans organizations. And the governor is president. That gives her a lot of sway, but it’s not the same as handpicking the commissioner.
Making the role a governor’s appointment would take legislation and sources told Inside Alabama Politics that has been at least discussed. Whether those talks turn into a bill is still TBD.
“I have not had those conversations with the Governor, but several of my colleagues have suggested that a move to a cabinet position is worthy of discussion,” one lawmaker said. “I suspect that those conversations will be had in the lead up to session.”
While there would surely be pushback from veterans groups — and it might look a bit like sour grapes on the part of the governor — some see the potential move as a benefit to the department. More access to the governor and more consideration when it’s time to draft the state budgets.
And there’s no doubt Ivey was angry about the ethics complaint and inter-agency fight.
“If I was governor, I would want to make sure this didn’t happen again,” another lawmaker told IAP.
During a panel discussion at the Manufacture Alabama conference last week, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter mentioned reforms to veterans affairs as a likely priority in 2025.
Checking in on AL-2
The last time IAP checked in on the two campaigns competing in Alabama’s 2nd District, Republican Caroleene Dobson and Democrat Shomari Figures were still preparing the battlefield and spending most of their time raising money. To be sure, they’ll need the money in this nationally watched race. Now, both campaigns are on the air with ads, which is about right in terms of timing. Look for more ads in the near future with popular surrogates. There are plans for Gov. Kay Ivey to appear in a Dobson ad, which will be a boon as Ivey is the most popular politician in the state and even has some appeal with Democrats. Figures’ surrogates could be even stronger, though. He’s already touted former President Barack Obama in his own ad, but don’t be surprised to see the 44th president cut his own ads for Figures on television and radio. Other surrogates could include Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Vice President Kamala Harris. At the very least, voters will see those individuals in mailers in the final 46 days.
There was an SPLC/Impact Research poll showing Figures with a substantial advantage, but we don’t know much about how much push respondents got. We will likely have some polling for ADN Insiders in the coming months. There are also some planned debates in October that could be a big deal. And if you don’t think debates matter in Congressional campaigns, just ask Jeff Coleman or Bobby Bright.
For now, we will await more polling and fundraising numbers in AL-2.
Cui Bono in the presidential?
Alabama and its electoral votes are of no consequence in this presidential election. But the state’s political landscape will be deeply impacted by the result. Many Alabama politicos are looking ahead of November to see who might benefit from a Trump or Harris victory.
A Trump victory would obviously benefit U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has not been coy about his desire to work in a second Trump administration. In the last issue, we ran through in great detail how Tuberville getting a Trump post would reverberate in the state. But we’ll throw another name into the mix of who might be considered for an appointment to the Senate should Tuberville vacate: Caroleene Dobson. To be sure, Dobson is 100 percent focused on winning in AL-2 and won’t even contemplate a losing scenario. But, that’s our job. And if Dobson does come up short on her uphill climb of a campaign, there’s little doubt that she’ll remain involved in politics and likely run for office again in the future. Some have speculated she could be Commissioner of Agriculture, given her farming and ranching background. She could well be in the running for an Ivey appointment to the Senate. It would certainly be interesting for the State of Alabama to be represented by two relatively young mothers in the U.S. Senate.
A Trump win and Tuberville vacancy may also benefit candidates for governor. As we noted above, it’s unlikely that Tuberville is serious about running for governor. But the chatter alone is enough to make would-be candidates concerned about his entrance into the race, especially considering what he did to seemingly superior competition in 2020.
Should Harris win, one beneficiary could be Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed. It would essentially give him another shot at a high-profile administration job, which he is said to covet. That would of course trigger another race for Montgomery mayor in the middle of widespread community concerns over gun violence.
Congresswoman Terri Sewell would no doubt benefit from a Harris win. She has been close with Biden, but nowhere near the same level of relationship she had with the Obamas. It is unclear just how much longer Sewell plans to remain in Congress, but having a friend in the White House would probably convince her to stick around a few more terms. It would also help if the House went Democratic and she could wield a gavel on House Ways & Means.
What will supplemental spending look like in 2025?
Gov. Kay Ivey and the Legislature could for the third year in a row be able to craft supplemental spending bills in 2025. Excess revenue above what was anticipated is now expected in both the General Fund and Education Trust Fund. However, in the General Fund, at least some additional money has already been claimed for prisons and a new State House. The spending of excess revenue outside the regular budgets will be less than in 2023 and 2024 and comes as budget leaders watch revenue growth in both those funds slow. The Alabama Department of Finance confirmed this week supplemental appropriations are expected next year.
“Funding amounts, however, will not be known until the end of fiscal year 2024, which will conclude at the end of this month,” the department said in an email to Inside Alabama Politics.
General Fund revenues for fiscal 2024 were up in August 7.6%, or $223.7 million, with one month remaining in the fiscal year. But lawmakers and Gov. Kay Ivey already assigned purposes to much of that surplus.
In the 2025 General Fund budget approved in May, there was about $248 million in conditional spending. The largest allocations are $200 million for prison construction and $35 million for the new State House, currently under construction behind the current State House under a lease-to-buy agreement with the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Excess revenue above that $248 could go into a supplemental.
“The amount of those supplemental appropriations (in the General Fund and Education Trust Fund) will depend on what the members and Governor are comfortable with considering uncertainty with revenues and obligations next year,” Kirk Fulford, deputy director of the Legislative Services Agency, told Alabama Daily News.
Revenues in the General Fund are up 11.9% in the first two months of fiscal 2024, dipping to 7.6% 11 months into the year. Higher-than-usual interest rates and yet-to-be spent federal COVID-19 relief money continue to make interest on state deposits a significant revenue stream, accounting for about 65% of the growth in the ETF this year.
Asked about supplemental and possible uses, Senate General Fund budget chairman Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, rattled off a list of new expenses looming in 2025, including increased state employee retirement and health care costs.
“I would suggest that if we have excess money, it’s not really excess,” Albritton said.
House General Fund budget chairman Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, agreed there are “substantial needs” on the horizon and said lawmakers will be getting recommendations from the governor’s office. The 2024 education supplemental was $651.2 million; the General Fund’s was $263 million. In 2023, they were $2.8 billion and $217 million, respectively.
The total amount available for supplemental appropriations in the ETF is limited to the amount allowed in the Rolling Reserve Act after transfers to the Budget Stabilization Fund, Advancement and Technology Fund, and the Educational Opportunities Reserve Fund, Fulford explained.
Though revenue growth has slowed in the ETF more than the General Fund this year, it was up 1.2% for the year as of August to $9.4 billion, more than the needed $9.3 billion to meet expenditures in fiscal 2024.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said supplemental spending in 2025 could be about $500 million.
But like in the General Fund, there are spending increases on the horizon for the ETF, including $50 million for the school choice legislation approved this year and a large, looming shortfall in the state’s health care plan for teachers. Lawmakers will be asked next year for $134 million to help plug that hole.
“We’re going to have to look at that increase and decide where that money is going to come from,” Orr said. “Are we going to be able to shoulder that out of growth in the regular budget? Are we going to shoulder it out of the supplemental and growth? It’s dangerous to do it out of a supplemental because that’s one-time money.”
State Superintendent Eric Mackey at the state school board meeting last week mentioned school safety efforts as a possible supplemental expense next year.
“I think we should really have a lot of discussion between now and next February about what we want out of school safety, and ask for that to be a part of the supplemental appropriation,” Mackey told the board.
“The good thing about supplemental money is it’s available immediately, whereas the budget we’re working on right now, it’s not available to the schools until October (2025).”
Bronner sounds off on Reed
Speaking of Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, he was the object of ire from Retirement Systems of Alabama CEO David Bronner at a Montgomery Kiwanis Club speech this week. Bronner went through the list of mayors and other officials he has worked with since moving to Montgomery in 1973. Emory Folmar resisted the RSA office buildings, but was instrumental in bringing minor league baseball to Montgomery. The Renaissance, conference center and IMPAC wouldn’t have happened without Bobby Bright, he said. Todd Strange was the easiest mayor to work with, Bronner said, and understood the Capital City’s unique role with state government. Current Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair worked wonders for the city during her time with the chamber, landing Hyundai and spurring downtown development. Bronner even praised Sheriff Derrick Cunningham for his hard-nosed approach to cracking down on crime.
But Bronner had little praise for Reed. He did credit Reed for redeveloping parts of West and South Montgomery, which had been neglected. But Bronner criticized Reed for city crime, blight and the general ability to work together.
“You can’t have folks driving through Montgomery shooting at each other,” Bronner told the group. “We might as well be in Dodge City, Kansas in the 1860s.”
Interestingly, Bronner said he’s only met with Reed twice in the five years since he was elected. He did get a letter from Reed opposing the newest RSA office building going up on Ripley Street on Centennial Hill. Bronner said Reed urged him to spend those resources elsewhere claiming the city would “clean up” the Centennial Hill neighborhood that abuts the Capitol complex. Bronner said he told Reed to focus on the Union and Decatur Street corridor that is a major gateway to the city.
“Go to south Decatur. It looks like hell,” Bronner said. “We’ve got two abandoned dry cleaners and other rundown buildings that half of state government drives by every day.”
The mayor’s office responded to Bronner’s criticism pointing out some recent accolades, including that Montgomery was ranked the 57t best city to live in by U.S. News & World Report.
“That said, if Dr. Bronner wants to discuss Montgomery’s future, I’m more than willing to have a conversation with him at City Hall,” Reed said. “I look forward to sharing the vision and the progress we’ve made — from our financial position to the many other areas where we are moving forward as a city.”
Bronner’s office later told IAP that he actually reached out to Reed’s office to air some of these grievances privately, but never heard back.
Who follows Jack Hawkins at Troy?
It’s tough to succeed legendary figures. Ray Perkins was a heckuva football coach, but he had a hard time in the shadow of the great Bear Bryant. For that matter, so did Doug Barfield following Shug Jordan, but few would call Barfield a heckuva coach. And yet there are examples of the heir apparent thriving: Tim Cook at Apple, Steve Ballmer at Microsoft, for example.
So with Troy Chancellor Jack Hawkins’ recently announcing he will retire a little less than a year from now, any consideration of who might succeed him has to take into account that this person will be following a legend. No one personifies Troy more than Hawkins. In his 35 year tenure he has taken a regional teachers college and grown it into an international university, complete with sports teams that compete at the highest level. In short, he will be a difficult legend to follow.
So who might be the successor at Troy. Officials are saying the process is in its very early stages and it’s too early to speculate. But that’s what we do at IAP, we speculate! And informed sources relay to us that one familiar name being considered for the Troy chancellorship is Cam Ward. A former state representative and state senator, Ward is now in Gov. Ivey’s cabinet serving as Director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. He’s also on the Troy University Board of Trustees and has been heavily involved in university administration for more than a decade.
To be sure, Ward’s background is not in academia. That might disqualify him from some university president searches that have sought those in the academic pipeline to lead campuses. But the ivory tower types don’t always worked out. Just ask Auburn about its experience with Steven Leath. Many universities are leaving the academics to the provosts and deans, while seeking those with leadership skills and connections to take the helm. That would certainly describe Ward.
Again, it’s early in the process so we are still listening for whispers as to how this might go.
In memoriam
The world of Alabama politics lost some legends recently in the likes of Bill O’Connor, Gorman Houston and Boyd Kelly. Rather than try to do them justice ourselves, we asked those who knew them best to contribute pieces offering a glimpse into their lives and legacies in the hope that they will not soon be forgotten. Rest in peace, friends.
Bill O’Connor
By John Matson
Soon after Bill O’Connor was hired as President & CEO of the Alabama Nursing Home Association, one of our members told our board that they didn’t hit a home run hiring Bill. They hit a grand slam! There’s a lot of truth in that brief statement from 2013. Bill brought a level of success not previously enjoyed by our association and made a lasting impact on the future of long-term care before his retirement at the end of 2019.
Before joining our staff, Bill was the consultant who led our “Keep Alabama Working” campaign in 2012 which successfully passed a constitutional amendment to fully fund the General Fund. That was followed by “Stand Tall Alabama” in 2015 where he assembled a broad coalition of groups that convinced lawmakers to pass three revenue measures to support the General Fund. In 2016, Bill guided the policy development and passage of the Integrated Care Network legislation. The ICN is today expanding home and community-based services for senior citizens and people with disabilities while ensuring nursing home care is available for those with higher level medical needs. This is helping Alabama meet the needs of its growing number of elderly citizens.
Bill’s track record of legislative and campaign wins is impressive and reaches across many sectors. Around the office I would often tell Bill he was the James A. Baker, III, of Alabama. Baker has long been considered one of the most influential people in Washington, D.C. who was never elected to office. That was Bill O’Connor. People sought his advice and followed it. He was a formal and informal advisor to governors, members of congress, legislators, local politicians, lobbyists, business leaders and many more. A call from Bill O’Connor made government move. People in power valued his opinion and knew he could be trusted to look out for their best interests.
Working with Bill was a dream job for a public relations professional like me. I’m fortunate to have spent a lot of time with Bill in meetings and traveling to visit members during his years at the ANHA. It was a master class in strategy and shaping public opinion. He could quickly analyze a complex problem and clearly communicate how to solve it. You would sit and ask yourself how he could make it seem so easy.
What most impressed my co-workers and I is that Bill kept his focus on others. Each day he would ask us in the office how he could help us. He always worked to do what was best for the patients and caregivers in nursing homes. When visiting a nursing home, Bill would speak to every resident and offer encouragement to the staff members. He truly enjoyed brightening their day and it reminded him why his work at the ANHA was so important.
I think that is what best sums up Bill O’Connor is that he used his talents to help others and make Alabama better. Those are worthy goals for all of us.
Gorman Houston
By Justice Champ Lyons
Gorman Houston was a good colleague, a good friend and a good man.
Our paths first crossed in Montgomery when he associated me for help in a case in federal court in Montgomery. In 1985 he was appointed to a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court where he would serve until January of 2005. Thereafter I was one of the many attorneys who would appear before him representing clients. Over the years at various bar functions my wife and I enjoyed being with him and his wonderful wife, Martha.
In 1998 I was appointed to a vacancy on the Court and we would serve together for the next almost seven years. I was blessed by being assigned to the office next door to him and he became a big brother, showing me the ropes as I adapted to my new duties.
Gorman was the gold standard of judicial temperament, a master of the art of disagreeing agreeably when the occasion arose. A gifted legal scholar he drafted opinions in longhand with beautiful penmanship which his law clerks then adapted into finished products.
The duties of the judicial oath are not always pleasant. As Justice Antonin Scalia, a jurist whom Gorman greatly admired, once said, “The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge.” That occasion arose for me when the Court was confronted with a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from the main floor of what is now the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building. As the clock was ticking on the time for compliance and threats of significant monetary sanctions loomed, eight members of the Court met into the night of August 4, 2003, in Gorman’s chambers. The ninth justice who had brought the monument to the building had previously announced his refusal to comply with the order.
We discussed the obligations of our judicial oath and the lack of authority for a state court judge to disagree with the opinions of the U. S. Supreme Court construing the United States Constitution. As the meeting broke up I told Gorman I would have a vote for him in the morning. At 6:30 AM on the next morning Gorman called me at my home in Montgomery. He was at the judicial building and a crew was on standby to take steps necessary to comply with the order. “Champ, I need your vote,” Gorman said. I told him I concurred to comply , an extremely difficult decision for me in light of my dissatisfaction with existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent that had been followed in the federal court.
The rest is history. The eight justices entered an order on August 5 recognizing that “[t]he refusal of officers of this Court to obey a binding order of a federal court of competent jurisdiction would impair the authority and ability of all of the courts of this State to enforce their judgments,” and issued an order countermanding the “administrative decision of the Chief Justice to disregard the writ of injunction of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama” and ordered “that the Building Manager of the Alabama Judicial Building be, and the same hereby is, DIRECTED to take all steps necessary to comply with the injunction as soon as practicable.”
In the ensuing months following the Chief Justice’s suspension from office Gorman ably served as Interim Chief Justice. Upon the removal of the Chief Justice by the Court of the Judiciary and the appointment of his successor Gorman resumed his duties as Senior Associate Justice until his retirement in January of 2005 at which time he was beyond the age limit for election to the Court.
The State of Alabama has lost a great jurist who took the helm in troubled waters and guided us safely to port. Well done, Justice Gorman Houston.
Boyd Kelly
By David Azbell
When Boyd Kelly passed away on Sept. 1, which happened to be his 70th birthday, many who work within a three block radius of the Alabama Capitol were saddened because at various points in his career he mentored, counseled, befriended and encouraged just about every Montgomery lobbyist who was worth their salt and even some that weren’t.
A mainstay in the lobbying community for more than 40 years, most of which were devoted to the Alabama Forestry Association, his trademarks were his syrupy slow manner of speaking, his lightning fast wit, and his deadpan delivery, which could elicit howls of laughter or cut an opponent or opposing idea like a rapier.
During one of the business community’s many legislative battles with the Alabama Education Association, Kelly once said about the boss of the teachers’ union, “Paul Hubbert is looking out for the schoolchildren about like Billy Powell [then head of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association] is looking out for the cattle.”
During the 1990s, Kelly was deeply involved in efforts to enact tort reform measures and elect business-friendly judges to state appellate courts. He also fought Gov. Don Siegelman’s attempts to impose levies on the business community and, perhaps most famously, helped lead the campaign against Gov. Bob Riley’s $1.2 billion tax referendum, commonly known as Amendment One, in 2003.
Prior to publicly unveiling specifics of his tax proposal, Riley summoned to his office various association executives whose members would be directly affected by the increases. Kelly and the leadership of the Alabama Forestry Association were among those brought in for a briefing.
Once the group settled around the conference table that serves as the centerpiece of the governor’s ornate private office, Riley explained that assessed values of timber and farm land under “current use” classification would be dramatically increased, and “current use” would be capped at 2,000 acres per owner if his proposal passed.
But, Riley said, in order to spare landowners the immediate impact of the painful tax increases, they would be phased in over a four year period.
The stunned silence in the room was soon interrupted by Kelly, who turned to Riley and said, “Governor, if you’re going to chop off a dog’s tail with a butcher knife, I’m not sure you can convince the dog that cutting it off 25% at a time is any less painful than loping it all off at once.”
That comment likely got Kelly removed from Riley’s Christmas card list, but after an aggressive referendum campaign in which both supporting and opposing factions spent several million dollars, Amendment One would be defeated at the polls by a wide margin.
A savant-like expert on classic country music, he could reel off the names of every title recorded by even the most obscure artists like Narvel Felts, Mel Street, and Dick Curless, provide you the year of their release, and even sing a few off-key verses from memory. It is no secret, though, that the music of John Prine ran deep in his DNA.
Kelly was most at home deep in the woods, where he sent untold numbers of turkeys to a quick demise and plucked countless game fish from their idyllic aquatic homes. Many were the times when he rose well before sunrise to fit in a few hours of turkey hunting before devoting the balance of his day to lobbying in the committee rooms and corridors of the Alabama State House.
From the moment he received his initial liver cancer diagnosis three years ago to his last, Kelly was attentively nursed and cared for by his wife of 42 years, Liane, who was the love of his life and the perfect Yin to his particular brand of Yang, and their son, Jesse, who seeks to embody and reflect the very best of his father’s qualities…and even a few of the not so great.
And as the prognosis became bleaker and his days grew fewer, Kelly was visited and contacted by his army of friends, admirers, and colleagues with Alabama NFIB Director Rosemary Elebash, former Coalbed Methane Association of Alabama Executive Director Dennis Lathem, and Tom Layfield, whose own lobbying resume is extensive, among the most frequent.
Kelly wished to be cremated, and his final instruction was to forego the traditional sad and somber funeral service. Instead, he wanted his friends and family to gather after an interim and enjoy some beer and drinks while swapping happy stories and memories of his exploits.
That event will take place on Oct. 13 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Wynlakes Country Club, and all who wish to celebrate – not mourn – their friend, Herbert Boyd Kelly, are encouraged to attend.
The dress will be casual, the mood will be upbeat, and the stories told will be mostly true because that’s the way Boyd wanted it.
Potpourri
Just one job announcement this issue and it’s in the Fourth Estate!
Safiyah Riddle has joined the Associated Press as state government reporter in Montgomery. She’ll focus on rural law enforcement and criminal justice coverage and, hopefully, offer lead AP reporter Kim Chandler some backup in covering the State House come session time. Riddle was a fellow at “This American Life” public radio program and previously worked as an intern at Reuters. Welcome to the wild world of Alabama politics, Safiyah!