Governor Kay Ivey announced on Friday that she was making several appointments to the newly re-formed State Board of Veterans Affairs (SBVA), after clearing the legislature earlier this year as one of the most contentious bills of the session.
The board still comprises members of the state’s Veterans Services Organizations (VSOs), the majority of which came out to oppose the legislative overhaul of the SBVA.
Ivey’s new appointments included retired Colonels Larry Vannoy and Walter Kozak from the American Legion, Sergeant Brandi Whitma from Disabled American Veterans, John Burks with the Marine Corps League, Michael Urquhart with thr Military Officers Association of America, Lorenzo Nathan with Military Order of the Purple Heart, Robert Schmidbauer with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Michael Davis with Vietnam Veterans of America and retired Colonel Lori Rasmussen as the at large member for the U.S. Air Force.
“In Alabama, we proudly support the men and women who wore the uniform to fight for our freedoms. We continue to prioritize veteran needs in our state and want to ensure we have every available resource for these men and women who served our country,” Ivey said. “I am proud to assemble a strong and wide-ranging Board of veterans to serve all of their fellow veterans. I look forward to continue working with this group to make Alabama the number one state for veterans.”
The appointments come shortly after lawmakers passed legislation making the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs commissioner a cabinet-level position.
The new law shifts the ADVA commissioner's hiring and firing responsibility to the governor. The role currently answers to the SBVA. The bill also turns the SBVA into an "oversight" board, bearing no real authority. State Sen. Andrew Jones (R-Centre) carried the bill in the Senate, and State Rep. Ed Oliver (R-Dadeville) had it in the House.
Ivey pushed the bill following a public feud between her office and former ADVA commissioner Kent Davis.
In October last year, Ivey removed Davis from office. After the board voted twice to keep Davis and not accept his forced resignation, Ivey exercised her "supreme executive power" to remove him for allegedly mishandling American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Davis has said the bill is "retaliation" for his ethics complaint against a member of Ivey's cabinet last year.
The state's VSOs initially all opposed the bill, claiming it stripped their voice from state veterans issues. However, after the Senate heavily amended the bill, three of the nine eventually supported it, while the remaining did not.
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