Outgoing Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) commissioner Kent Davis defended his actions to board members on Monday after Gov. Kay Ivey recently called for his "immediate removal."
The State Board of Veterans Affairs (SBVA) will meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Old Archives Room of the State Capitol in Montgomery to consider Ivey's request to immediately remove Davis as commissioner.
The SBVA unanimously voted at a meeting earlier in October to ask Davis to consider rescinding his resignation in a show of support for the outgoing commissioner.
Ivey has maintained that ADVA mishandled American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Davis resigned on September 9, effective December 31, after previously declining to resign. An SBVA committee approved a report at a meeting on October 9 stating Davis and ADVA did nothing wrong with the funds.
Ivey originally asked for Davis' resignation effective September 30 and removed John Kilpatrick from the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs. Davis filed an ethics complaint in August at the request of board members against Alabama Department of Mental Health commissioner Kim Boswell for allegedly preventing ADVA from obtaining $7 million in ARPA funds. The Alabama Ethics Commission later dismissed the complaint.
Ivey said on Friday in a letter to board members that she'd be asking to remove Davis at the special-called Tuesday meeting for general lack of cooperation, "mishandling" of the ARPA grant program, filing of "frivolous" ethics complaint, breach of agreement on resignation, "manipulation" of the SBVA, failure to comply, and general loss of trust and confidence.
Davis wrote a response to SBVA members on Monday regarding Ivey's letter.
Davis said in the letter obtained by 1819 News regarding the ethics complaint he filed, "I am glad that there is now open acknowledgment that this is one of the reasons cited by the Governor for calling for my resignation."
"As a reminder, on July 9, 2024, before a quarterly meeting of the SBVA in Enterprise, Alabama, I was approached by SBVA members Mr. Tony Berenotto and Mr. John Kilpatrick, and was quickly joined by SBVA Vice Chair Mr. Scott Gedling. Those three members expressed to me what they characterized as deep concerns surrounding the actions of various parties who had been involved in the ARPA grant program. I noted to them that if they indeed brought what they asserted were ethics violations to my attention, then as an agency head I was absolutely bound by law to report those concerns to the Ethics Commission. They all acknowledged that fact, urged me to indeed make the report, and I noted that I would send a copy of the resulting complaint for their review. I gathered the facts they had related and talked to additional witnesses they specifically mentioned. Once I had completed the written complaint, I sent the complaint to Mr. Berenotto, Mr. Kilpatrick, and Mr. Gedling for review and called them to remind them both of my obligation to report the matter and of the confidentiality of the issue. All responded affirmatively, and Mr. Gedling even responded on July 31, 2024 with an e-mail that said "[f]ully understand on the confidentiality. We have your back, and you are only doing what's right." My opening comments in that ethics complaint candidly noted my extreme reluctance in filing it, but equally noting my legal obligation to do so lest I be guilty of a misdemeanor under the Code of Alabama," Davis said in the letter. "Of course, someone despicably leaked that ethics complaint to the news media, causing much of the current uproar. Perhaps unfortunately in retrospect, whoever leaked the original complaint did not leak the entire file; they only leaked the original narrative. Ironically, if the entire file had been leaked, the public would have seen several follow-up e-mails that I sent to the Ethics Commission, including one that corrected a factual error in the original narrative (a situation leading at least one news outlet to wrongly describe the entire ethics filing as "inaccurate"). Finally, it is important to note that the Ethics Commission itself, in its letter of late August to me noting that it was dismissing the complaint (which never used the term "frivolous" to describe the complaint), thanked me for understanding my obligation to report the entire issue to them. I can only assume that the Ethics Commission receives many complaints that are eventually dismissed."
Davis also said he wanted "to emphatically state up front that I have had every intention of honoring an agreement I made with the Governor and her staff on September 9, 2024."
"That agreement was arrived at after a very cordial conversation among me, the Governor's Chief of Staff (Ms. Liz Filmore), and the Governor's legal counsel (Mr. Will Parker). My attorney (Mr. John Saxon) joined us by phone for that conversation, which was also witnessed by an Assistant Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA). The Governor herself joined us for a brief moment during that very lengthy conversation. As part of that agreement, I concurred with a revised request that I resign as Commissioner of ADVA effective December 31, 2024 (versus the original requested date of September 30) and agreed that I would not say anything in public that would be considered derogatory toward the Governor (something I had never done)," Davis said. "In return, the Governor's staff agreed that they and the Governor would do nothing to impair my ability to obtain future employment commensurate with my resume. I made a public statement shortly thereafter favorably touting our agreement. I have done nothing to abrogate the terms of that verbal agreement. In fact, even after the SBVA voted unanimously on October 10 to ask me to reconsider my resignation, I made public statements politely declining to do so. For example, Alabama Political Reporter quoted me on October 11 as follows: "Davis said that he stands by his previous public statement and that he and Ivey had come to a 'good agreement.'" It has been insinuated that I should have said something immediately after the SBVA voted unanimously on October 10 to ask me to consider rescinding my previous December 31 resignation agreement. However, this conveniently omits the fact that an SBVA member in that public meeting specifically requested that the SBVA not ask me to make any decisions/statements at the moment on such short notice in light of their vote and in front of so many people, but to reserve my comments until a later time. Thus, immediately after the meeting, I consulted with my attorney (Mr. John Saxon), who advised me that he intended to talk with the Governor's legal counsel (Mr. Will Parker), and asked me to hold off on any further actions until he could engage in those discussions. Mr. Saxon later related that he had indeed spoken to Mr. Parker, who was going to speak with his "client," after which we expected to hear from Mr. Parker. I had fully planned on an additional statement thereafter but of course that was precluded by the Governor's letter released to the news media on the morning of October 18."
In response to Ivey writing that he and ADVA showed a "general lack of cooperation," Davis responded, "I frankly do not know how to specifically respond to that concern as it contains very general allegations."
"The plain truth is that six years ago ADVA had virtually no partnerships or cooperation with any federal, state, or local agency or private sector organization. Five years ago, I formed a completely new Office of Outreach and Engagement (including a first-ever Assistant Commissioner overseeing that new office and a new Director of Intergovernmental Relations to work with elected officials) that collaborates very actively with agencies and organizations around the nation, state, and local communities. Most of you on the SBVA are well aware of the vast improvements we have made in cooperating and outright partnering with all of those entities, which speak for themselves," Davis said.
Davis also said, "I addressed this (ARPA funds issue) in detail during a nearly two-hour meeting of the SBVA Benefits and Services Committee meeting on October 9, conducted under the Open Meetings Act."
"I would be glad to address the entire issue once more in detail and answer any questions raised," Davis said. "Moreover, on May 21, 2024, I received a call from Finance Director Bill Poole in which he clearly expressed that the entire ARPA grant program had been addressed and laid to rest. There were several witnesses to that conversation, but it again suddenly became an issue on September 5 when I was initially asked to resign by the Governor."
Davis said Ivey's failure to comply concern in her letter "notes that the Governor "directed" me after the October 10 SBVA meeting (in which the members voted unanimously) to reaffirm my commitment to resign effective December 31."
"With all due respect, my position reports by law to the entire SBVA as a collective body, not to any one individual on that Board. I assure all of you, as a retired Admiral of the U.S. Navy, that I do not need to reaffirm a commitment I have made, lest of course there is a material change in the entire matter. Moreover, as noted above, I had been advised that the respective attorneys in this entire matter (Mr. Saxon and Mr. Parker) were engaged in good faith discussions and asked to wait on any further action," Davis said in his letter to board members.
On Ivey's general loss of trust and confidence, Davis replied, "That is a subjective feeling that I cannot and should not comment on."
"However, I would respectfully hope that an examination of the facts above, along with a holistic assessment of all of the accomplishments of the ADVA over the past six years, would lead to a different conclusion," he added.
Davis response by Caleb Taylor on Scribd
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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