By MARY SELL and TODD STACY, Alabama Daily News
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The head of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs has filed an ethics complaint against the leader of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and others in a rare inter-agency dust up. But the distribution and content of the complaint are revealing more conflicts and questions.
The ethics complaint was reported late last week by Lagniappe in Mobile. The outlet received a leaked copy of the complaint that alleges ADMH Commissioner Kim Boswell “colluded” with other state officials to keep the veterans affairs department from getting about $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The complaint, a copy of which Alabama Daily News later obtained, also accuses Boswell and lobbyists of trying to “kill” a bill to create a state-run system of mental health care for veterans. A lesser version of the bill did become law this spring.
The background
The complaint was written and submitted by ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis. At the center of it is John Kilpatrick, a Mobile-based veterans care provider who was seeking funding for his Vets Recover clinic. He’s also on the State Board of Veterans Affairs that oversees the department and the commissioner.
Davis on Wednesday told ADN he at first had some reservations about the complaint but was eventually compelled by his board and state law to submit it.
“Several state board members came up to me – cornered me – and expressed pretty serious ethics concerns about some activities of the last few months that we have had with the Department of Mental Health around the opioid settlement distribution commission,” Davis said.
Kilpatrick and board vice chair Scott Gedling are among members mentioned in the complaint.
“To me, it didn’t rise to the level, initially, per se where these are ethics concerns, but the new information these several members passed to me was pretty serious,” Davis said.
Davis echoed an official statement from his office saying he was complying with state law requiring agency directors to report any potential ethical violations.
“I looked them in the face and I said, ‘I’ve been down this road before. You do understand that by bringing this to my attention, I am obligated to report this to the state ethics commission as an agency head.’ And they said, ‘Yes, we understand that and we want you to do that.’ So I forwarded the concerns to the Ethics Commission.”
A discrepancy and potential conflict
According to the complaint, Kilpatrick was critical of the mental health department in a Feb. 12 presentation before the Opioid Settlement Oversight Committee, a panel of lawmakers and other state leaders helping to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement funds. Kilpatrick was seeking some of that funding.
However, archived footage of the meeting does not show Kilpatrick presenting.
“Isn’t that interesting?” Kilpatrick told ADN in an interview Wednesday evening. “I didn’t speak at that meeting, yet it was all attributed to me.”
He said he didn’t know how that mistake was made.
Asked about the discrepancy, Davis said he wasn’t at the meeting but was told about it.
“Again, I wasn’t there. But I heard it pretty widely that he was pretty critical, feathers were ruffled and it went south from there,” Davis said.
Kilpatrick did speak at a Feb. 13 House Tourism Committee meeting. Representing a military officers’ association, he asked lawmakers to use revenue from a proposed gambling bill to fund mental health care in the state. He was not critical of ADMH in that meeting.
But according to the ethics complaint, Kilpatrick’s criticism of ADMH allegedly led to Boswell and ADMH pulling out of an inter-agency memorandum of understanding and disrupting the millions in funding.
The complaint accuses Boswell of undoing an MOU between the two departments involving $7 million in federal funding for non-profit organizations and colleges to provide services to the military and veteran community.
That money was to be dispersed in grants to as many as 33 organizations, including one to Kilpatrick’s Vets Recover clinic. Another would go to the Military Officers Association of America, which Kilpatrick represents on the state board. The complaint claims that Kilpatrick recused himself from votes on the “Supporting Alabama’s Veterans Grant Program.”
Kilpatrick, a 38-year military veteran and a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, reiterated that to ADN Wednesday.
“I am very aware of the perceived and potential conflicts of interests,” he said. “I take great care not to cross a line.”
Asked about a potential conflict of interest with Kilpatrick being both a provider of care for veterans and and on the board advocating for expanded care and funding, Davis said the issue had come up but he wasn’t ultimately worried.
“He’s on the board, which was a concern,” Davis said. “But I will say, there were a lot of organizations before that opioid commission and they were all asking for dollars, many of them quite specifically. UAB made a presentation, so did many non-profits. That didn’t really strike me at the time. It’s like, well, everybody here making a presentation before the commission is basically asking for money.”
Boswell, Ivey respond
Gov. Kay Ivey chairs the State Board of Veterans Affairs. She also appointed Boswell to her cabinet post. In a statement to ADN, Ivey defended the mental health leader.
“Kim Boswell has served the entirety of my Administration, and today, I am extremely proud to have her serving as commissioner,” Ivey said. “Each and every day, she and her team at the Department of Mental Health do a tremendous job to ensure we provide mental health care to all Alabamians, including our veterans. Mental health care is a focus area in Alabama, and we can certainly thank Commissioner Boswell for her important role in ensuring that truth.”
Boswell told ADN she was unaware of the complaint until contacted by the newspaper.
“The first time ADMH became aware of the complaint was after a Mobile Lagniappe newspaper reporter contacted our public information staff and asked for a comment. At that time we informed the Lagniappe that we were unaware of the complaint and asked them to send a copy.
“In the interim, I contacted the Alabama Ethics Commission and formally requested a copy of the document, as I was made aware of it by the media request. While awaiting a reply from the Ethics Commission, the Lagniappe forwarded a copy of the complaint in its entirety. Two articles were published by media outlets while I waited for an official copy.”
Ethics complaints and investigations are supposed to be treated with confidentiality similar to grand jury proceedings.
Boswell said she was notified and reassured by the Ethics Commission that the complaint was not leaked to the media by a member of their staff.
“Since then I’ve signed a document that binds me to confidentiality and I am not able to address the false allegations outlined in the complaint,” Boswell said. “We are confident in the Ethics Commission’s ability to address the matter and look forward to fully cooperating. ADMH will remain focused on our mission and continue working towards solutions to address the mental health needs of those we serve.”
Veterans affairs said it will not comment further on the complaint, citing what is supposed to be a protected process.
Davis did say Wednesday he did not leak the document and was troubled that it was leaked. Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton on Wednesday said he could not comment on the complaint, but did say the leak did not come from his office.
Kilpatrick said he was given a copy of the complaint by Davis, but insisted that he did not share it with media.
The legislative angle
Several pages of the 10-page complaint were about legislation this year aiming to greatly expand the scope of ADVA into the mental health space.
A significantly scaled-down version of the bill was eventually approved. Senate Bill 135, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, and Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, went into effect on June 1.
Kilpatrick on Wednesday said he was not working on the bill in an official board member capacity. In March, ADN reported Kilpatrick had discussions with lawmakers about access to care but he was surprised when the bill was filed.
“(Rep. Brown) comes to take a tour of (the Vets Recover) facility and he says, ‘This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. We need this across the state.’ From that came the bill that he drafted,” Kilpatrick said Wednesday.
A similar exchange happened with Jones, Kilpatrick said.
Under the law, the ADVA and ADMH will collaborate through a series of meetings, one of which is scheduled for later this month, to identify gaps in existing mental and behavioral health care resources for Alabama’s veterans.
In the complaint though, Davis said Boswell tried to kill the bill and lobbyists working on behalf of ADMH rewrote it to benefit that agency and their clients.
According to Davis via the complaint, Jones and Brown “noted to me that they could not understand how ADMH was legally/ethically able to so overly use lobbyists to do its bidding with elected officials.”
Contacted Wednesday, Brown and Jones, said they didn’t know about the complaint prior to its filing.
“My focus along with Sen. Jones is to provide increased access to mental health and substance abuse treatment for the veterans of Alabama,” Brown, himself a veteran, said. “This complaint is a disagreement between two state agencies and I hope for the good of the veterans of our state they settle their disagreements and focus on providing care for Alabama’s veterans.”
Said Jones: “It is unfortunate that myself and Rep. Brown have been inserted into the middle of an inter-agency dispute. I have prided myself as a neutral arbiter between both the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs and the Alabama Department of Mental Health and will continue to remain so.
“One of my primary goals as a legislator is to serve Alabama’s veterans population and better understand their needs. Increasing veteran access to mental health treatment and services is a major component of that work.”
Asked if he’s been critical of ADMH, Kilpatrick said he’s relying on data.
“So, if I stand up and say, and I have, Alabama has one of the worst mental health systems in the country, as noted by Forbes (Advisor) …
“I’ve developed a program that works. Not my opinion. It’s documented,” Kilpatrick said. “I have opened the first certified community behavioral health clinic in the state of Alabama, and met the federal criteria before anybody else did in May of 2023 I have a letter from the federal government stating such. Commissioner Boswell refused to acknowledge that …”
Alabama Daily News’ Anna Barrett contributed to this report.