Former Virginia Alabama commissioner speaks out after being fired by governor

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (WSFA) – After the Alabama Board of Veterans Affairs voted to keep Kent Davis as the state’s commissioner of veterans affairs, Gov. Kay Ivey used her executive powers to replace the board and immediately discontinued his in October.

“I’m no longer the commissioner and my life has been turned upside down, so it’s not going to go away,” said former ADVA commissioner Adm. Kent Davis.

Davis says he is now filing a lawsuit against Ivy.

“I believe that I was defamed publicly. My family suffered from this. I’m still recovering from stage three cancer,” Davis said.

“I laid out in writing to the board in great detail, I think it was seven or eight different allegations,” Ivey said at a Montgomery Kiwanis Club meeting last week.

Davis says he agreed to resign by the end of the year, but that apparently wasn’t enough for the governor.

“I had a resignation agreement from December 31. I didn’t do anything to break it. In fact, I think it’s just the opposite,” he said. “I was released until December 31. If that’s not a violation, I don’t know what is.”

The admiral also denies the governor’s allegations that he mismanaged federal grant funds.

“There were reports that we were sitting on that money for months, the problem was that we were trying to be absolutely ethical because we literally couldn’t spend $7 million on homes for veterans in the state,” Davis said.

Of all the governor’s concerns, Davis says Ivey was most upset by the ethics complaint he said he was required to file with the state.

“I started this ethics complaint with a disclaimer saying, ‘Look, I don’t want to do this.’ I’m not sure that qualifies, but it’s your job to investigate,” he said. “The ethics committee has written in black and white that we appreciate your understanding of your obligation to report this to us.”

Ethics complaints are typically kept confidential, so the nature of the complaint Davis filed has not been made public.

WSFA 12 News has learned the complaint was filed in response to actions taken by the state Department of Mental Health. However, the state ethics commission ultimately found that there was no ethics violation.

WSFA reached out to Ivey’s office for a response to Davis’ planned lawsuit and other concerns. A spokeswoman for the governor said, “Governor Ivey has been very vocal about the case against Mr. Davis, so they have decided not to discuss the concerns further at this time.”

Although Davis said that Ivey did not communicate with him about his removal and that he found out through third parties, Ivey’s office said, “she made many efforts to contact him and keep him at his word, but he did not respond.”

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