The board of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs voted unanimously last Thursday to ask Commissioner Kent Davis to reconsider his plan to resign at the end of the year.
Davis announced his resignation plan at the bequest of Gov Kay Ivey, who had accused him of attempting improperly use American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
Now Ivey is calling on the board to immediately remove Davis for cause, citing the previous reasons as well as claiming that he manipulated the board to ask him to stay.
“We are on the brink of setting us back if we lose this commissioner, so I would ask you all to consider trying to convince him to rescind that statement, even if he don’t want to,” ADVA board member Ken Rollins said during last week’s meeting. “We need Commissioner Davis.”
Ivey called the vote “orchestrated theater” and said she expected Davis to stand by his plan to resign at the end of the year.
In a letter obtained by Alabama Daily News, vice chair Scott Gedling asserted that Davis had pressured the board to vote as it did.
“In truth, Commissioner Davis, along with a few others in the veteran community, orchestrated the outcome of votes by placing extreme pressure on some of you to do and say things that went against your beliefs and the very principles on which this board should stand,” Gedling wrote. “I also now believe that his actions have brought the board itself into disfavor with the governor and the Legislature – elected officials we must always have on our side if we are going to serve our mission.
“For this reason, I am convinced that Commissioner Davis must step aside. I hope you will join me in urging him to do so.”
