MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday said she would move for the “immediate removal” of Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis amid clashes between the governor’s office and the State Board of Veterans Affairs over his performance.
In a letter to Davis sent on Friday, Ivey said she would call a special meeting of the board on Tuesday and call for Davis’ removal on several grounds, including allegedly mishandling federal grant money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and “manipulation of the board.”
“You and your agency have failed, or appear to have failed, to cooperate with other state executive branch, state legislatures, members of our state’s congressional delegation, and my office,” Ivey said, adding that “general lack of cooperation” violates his duty under Alabama law.
The Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement Friday that it “stands by its mission to ensure that all Veterans and their families understand and receive the full benefits, support, care, and recognition that they have earned and are entitled to.” It referred questions to John Saxon, an attorney for Davis. A message seeking comment was left with Saxon.
Ivey demanded Davis’ resignation in September after accusing him of delays in allocating the ARPA money that she said threatened the state’s ability to spend that money.
In a Sept. 5 letter, Ivey accused Davis failing to present applications for ARPA grants in a timely manner and of taking “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.”
The governor’s office also accused Davis of not presenting grant applications for mental health applications funded through ARPA until January, just months before a June 1 deadline, which, she said, raised questions from other department heads about compliance and proper fund use.
The Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) terminated a contract with Veterans’ Affairs in part due to these concerns. The Alabama Department of Finance later contacted Veterans Affairs with concerns about the grants, some of which the department said had little to no connection with veterans’ mental health.
An April 12 letter from the Department of Finance to ADVA, sent 10 days after ADMH’s letter withdrawing from its agreement, outlined numerous concerns regarding numerous grants, most of which revolved around programs having small or no connection to veteran mental health.
In one example, the department questioned whether funds could be given to Dovetail Landing, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans with rehabilitation and job training services on their return home, to buy outdoor activity equipment and training, such as scuba, kayaking and mountain biking; or to provide financial counseling through Family Counseling Center of Mobile to veterans, which is not eligible for ARPA funding.
Davis later filed an ethics complaint against ADMH Commissioner Kim Boswell, accusing her and other department heads of conspiring to prevent Veterans Affairs from receiving the ARPA money. The Alabama Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint in August.
The commissioner initially refused to resign, saying the department had been “transparent” in the use of funds and did not jeopardize the state’s access to them. Ivey then called a meeting of the veterans board to remove Davis. Before the meeting took place, Davis met with Ivey and agreed to resign at the end of the year.
The State Board of Veterans Affairs asked Davis to withdraw his resignation on Oct. 10 after a subcommittee found no wrongdoing with the $7 million that the Veterans Department had been allocated from the ARPA. Ivey on Friday alleged that Davis manipulated the board, citing a letter from Vice Chairman Scott Gedling accusing Davis of putting pressure on board members to act “in service of [Davis’] personal interests.”
Gedling, in his letter to board members, expressed disappointment in how the board handled the meeting in which Ivey was present.
He said the Ivey “personally” attended the meeting, and after “praising our work,” the board responded by “publicly rejecting her conclusion without considering any input from any other state agencies about Commissioner Davis’s handling of the ARPA grant program and by publicly questioning the private resolution that Governor Ivey had reached.”
Gedling said that “Davis, along with a few others in the veteran community, orchestrated the outcomes of the votes” by placing pressure on some board members to “say things that went against your beliefs and the very principles on which this board should stand.”
Gidley did not give specific examples in the letter of how Davis manipulated the board by placing pressure on some board members.
Ivey’s office said that she attended the Oct. 10 meeting but left early to go to a meeting of the State Board of Education. The resolution asking Davis to stay passed after Ivey left.
This article originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector, an independent, nonprofit news outlet. It appears on FOX54.com under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
