Gov. Kay Ivey stands at attention during the National Anthem prior to the State of the State address on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 in Montgomery, Ala. Ivey on Friday scheduled a meeting of the State Board of Veterans Affairs to remove Commissioner Kent Davis, who the governor has accused of mismanaging ARPA funds. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
Gov. Kay Ivey Friday set a special meeting of the State Board of Veterans Affairs next Tuesday to removeAlabama Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis, accusing him of mismanagement and a failure to cooperate with other state agencies.
Ivey demanded Davis’ resignation by 5 p.m. on Thursday, but the office said Davis did not respond by the deadline.
“Because you have not chosen to resign voluntarily, I will be calling a special meeting of the State Board of Veterans’ Affairs to consider your removal as Commissioner and the appointment of an Interim Commissioner for the Department,” the letter from Friday stated.
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Messages seeking comments were left with Davis on Friday. Brandon Miller, a public information manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the department was notified of the special-called meeting “but have not received any additional information at this time.”
The governor accused Davis of failing to comply with responsibilities required by state and federal law, including securing “additional services or benefits” for veterans and collaborating with other department heads. According to the letter, Davis’s performance “falls short in each of these important areas.”
The governor also accused Davis 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,” adding that “this alone constitutes cause for your removal.”
According to Lagniappe and Alabama Daily News, Davis filed an ethics complaint against Department of Mental Health (ADMH) Commissioner Kim Boswell alleging that Boswell and the department had coordinated efforts with other state officials to prevent the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs from receiving $7 million in ARPA funding. The Alabama Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint as frivolous last month.
According to Ivey’s letter on Friday, Veterans Affairs received $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant funds intended for mental health programs for Alabama veterans in November 2022. The governor said that Davis’s department did not present grant applications to the State Board until January 2024, just months before a June 1 deadline, resulting in questions from other departments about compliance and proper fund use.
The Department of Mental Health (ADMH) ultimately terminated its agreement with the department over these concerns, according to an April 2 letter from ADMH, in which concerns were raised about grant funding being used for lobbying.
Ivey wrote that the delays led to “irreparable” breaches in other departments’ abilities to work with Davis.
“They jeopardized the State’s ARPA obligations and very nearly prevented veterans service providers from receiving needed funds,” the letter said. “Moreover, your agency’s administrative problems distracted senior officials at other state agencies from their important work, as we worked quickly to reallocate the ARPA grant funds and find an alternate funding source for the grants.”
The governor’s letter also included an April 12 letter from the Department of Finance to ADVA, sent 10 days after ADMH’s letter withdrawing from its agreement, outlining numerous concerns regarding numerous grants, most of which revolved around programs having small or no connection to veteran mental health.
For example, the department questioned whether funds could be given to WarHawgs, a nonprofit organization with the goal of improving veteran well-being through outdoor activities, to buy ammunition or to Faulkner University for building an additional site specifically for mental health services. The letter states no veterans program currently exists “and it appears the grant funds will be used to create one in order to expand Faulkner’s existing therapy center.”
Davis has until September 9 to submit a written response.
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