Scaled back ADVA bill passes senate

There will be a change to the governance of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, just not a very big one. 

The state senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would move the Veterans Affairs commissioner to a governor’s cabinet position – giving the governor the power to hire and fire the commissioner at will – but shelved more sweeping changes to the ADVA board. Instead, in a last-minute change and after outcry from various veterans groups, bill sponsor Sen. Andrew Jones substituted a new version that kept the current board selection process, along with the number of board seats, intact. 

“We want to make this position a cabinet-level position and ensure this person has the ear of the governor and access to the governor’s team,” Jones said. “That’s essential to Alabama becoming the most veterans-friendly state in the nation.” 

The change should significantly improve the bill’s chances of sailing through the Alabama House, where it previously appeared destined to be the focus of a prolonged fight. As late as Tuesday morning, veterans groups in the state were sending out press releases and making calls encouraging lawmakers to vote against the bill because it “strips veterans of their current oversight and supervisory authority,” according to the Alabama chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. 

Prior to Jones’ substitute legislation, the original bill would have dramatically altered the makeup of the ADVA board, moving away from a board that’s primarily constructed by appointments made by various veterans organizations. Instead, under the old bill’s redesign, the governor would have been primarily responsible for appointing members. Also, the bill would have reduced the number of board members from 17 to 9, although that number was pushed to 15 through various amendments introduced during floor debate last week in the senate. 

Rightly or wrongly, the bill and its various changes were viewed as Gov. Kay Ivey taking control of the ADVA board and commissioner’s position in retaliation for an embarrassing and very public fracas over the firing of former commissioner Kent Davis. 

Ivey called for Davis’ resignation in September after he filed an ethics complaint against the head of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. The allegations in the complaint were eventually dismissed, but its filing and subsequent public disclosure were enough to lead Ivey to call on Davis to step down. He initially refused. 

Because he was appointed by the ADVA board, Ivey lacked authority, it appeared, to fire him. So, she asked the board, of which she’s the chair, to do it. But before the board could take up the matter, Davis met with Ivey and offered his resignation at the end of the year. 

Then, at a later ADVA board meeting, members voted unanimously to request that Davis reconsider his resignation. When it appeared that he might, Ivey called for the board to immediately dismiss him. The board declined. 

So, Ivey did it herself in late October, citing the governor’s “supreme executive authority.” 

A short time later, the first rumors of legislation that would change the makeup of the ADVA board and bring the commissioner’s position into the governor’s cabinet started making rounds.