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Capping off what has been one an odd stretch for the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday removed a board member and demanded the resignation of Commissioner Kent Davis.
Davis, who is appointed by the Veterans Affairs board, apparently declined the offer. Ivey’s office said Davis didn’t submit a resignation, nor did he correspond with the governor’s office. A message left with Davis by APR was not returned.
Ivey’s letter demanding Davis’ resignation, which was released by the governor’s office, cited the agency’s mishandling of American Rescue Plan Act funds as one cause for removal, but the move also comes on the heels of an inter-agency squabble between Veterans Affairs and the Alabama Department of Mental Health.
Last month, Davis filed an ethics complaint against Mental Health Commissioner Kimberly Boswell, accusing Boswell of working with lobbyists and staff at Mental Health to kill an inter-agency agreement for veterans mental health care.
Ivey’s letter made no mention of the ethics complaint, but instead stated Davis’ department had “mishandled” the ARPA funds, putting in jeopardy its ability to best serve veterans.
“… your agency mishandled an ARPA grant program by, among other things, proposing— on a substantially delayed basis – uses of grant funds that would be ineligible under U.S. Treasury rules and regulations and/or state law or policy,” the letter reads. “This put in jeopardy the State of Alabama’s ability to fulfill its obligation under ARPA and your agency’s ability to most effectively serve veterans. It thus seriously calls into question your ability to secure ‘additional services’ for Alabama veterans and to ‘cooperate with all other heads of the state departments’ as are your duties under state law.”
Ivey gave Davis until 5 p.m. on Thursday to resign. If he did so, the letter stated, he could make his resignation effective Sept. 30.
In addition, Ivey also informed Davis that she had removed John Kilpatrick from the Veterans Affairs board, which Ivey heads. Kilpatrick was at the center of the agency squabble and apparently encouraged Davis to submit the ethics complaint against Boswell, alleging that she and others conspired to kill a services agreement because Kilpatrick was critical of the Mental Health agency during an opioid settlement meeting.
Alabama Daily News later reported that Kilpatrick never spoke at the meeting and that his nonprofit agency, Vets Recover, was to receive some of the disputed funds. The Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint and Ivey later referred to it as “entirely frivolous.”
Davis also admitted that he had concerns about the complaint and didn’t initially feel that the allegations rose to the level of ethics violations. However, he said state law compelled him, as an agency head, to pass the allegations along.
What happens now isn’t clear. The Veterans Affairs board has the authority to hire and fire the agency’s commissioner. Ivey, as head of that board, can push to have Davis removed, but it would fall to the board members – some of whom pushed for the ethics complaint against Boswell – to make that decision. Ivey also has the authority to replace any board member at her discretion.
