Kay Ivey fires Admiral Davis from the Department of Veterans Affairs

October 22, 2024 – MONTGOMERY, AL - after the State Board of Veterans Affairs refused to vote to remove Kent Davis as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) used what she claims are the "supreme executive power of this state" to immediately remove him from his position.

"For weeks now, I have laid out the case publicly for why new leadership at the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs is necessary, and it is unfortunate it came to forcefully removing this agency head," Gov. Ivey said in a statement. "After what I would now deem as a total failure of leadership at the Department and lack of cooperation, I had to use the mantle of the Governor's Office to make the change. While there is more work to do, I am confident that together as one team, our state government can make Alabama an even better place for veterans to call home."

The legally dubious termination of Commissioner Davis came just hours after the Board of Veteran Affairs rejected Ivey's demand that the board fire Davis. Gov. Ivey called Tuesday's meeting; but then failed to attend her own meeting. Instead Ivey sent a staffer – Casey Rogers, Ivey's Director of External Affairs – in her stead. The vote to remove Davis was defeated in a 2 to 3 vote with 3 members abstaining. Rogers – voting in place of the Governor – was one of the two yes votes.

"We must get past this unfortunate issue," Director Rogers told the Board.

Rogers said that a "Change of leadership is necessary because Commissioner Davis has lost the trust of the governor."

Davis had reached an agreement with Gov. Ivey's staff where he would resign at the end of the year; but Rogers claimed that he was in breach of the agreement, necessitating the extreme action of firing the Commissioner.

Rogers said that the agreement had called for him, "Not say anything derogatory about the Governor<' and not speaking about the American Rescue Plan Act – application for federal funds that had led to the original tiff with the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Davis insisted that he had never breached the agreement and that he only discussed the ARPA matter with the Veterans Board – for whom he works.

This whole matter became an issue when a member of the Board leaked an ethics complaint that Commissioner Davis had written charging that Alabama Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell had violated the ethics law.

Ivey has called the ethics complaint against Commissioner Boswell baseless.

Davis said on Tuesday that he was statutorily obligated to file the complaint and that the members of the board agreed with him.

Davis said that while the complaint is now out in the public domain – "there is a whole file attached to it" that details ethical failings on the part of commissioner Boswell.

Ivey has not called for Commissioner Boswell to resign, has not referred the matter of Boswell's behavior to the Alabama Attorney General's office, and has not called for an independent investigation into Boswell's conduct.

Davis is an attorney and former judge advocate general for both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. He is a retired admiral and a former employee of the Department of Homeland Security.

Commissioner Davis is expected to sue the state for the termination.

The Alabama Gazette spoke with prominent Baldwin County attorney Harry Still III about the matter.

"Everything that she (Gov. Ivey) did violated the process for removing a public official when things didn't go her way," Still told the Gazette. "At minimum he is owed the money that he would have made between now and December 31."

"Additionally, there is that issue that she made a lot of allegations that he violated rules or broke the law," said Still. "I think he is going to get paid. It appears that Admiral Davis is the only one here who followed the rules."

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