MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former head of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Gov. Kay Ivey of wrongful termination and defamation.
W. Kent Davis, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, filed the lawsuit that accuses the governor of illegally firing him last year. The lawsuit contends the dismissal was retaliation for statements and actions that the governor did not like.
Ivey last year said she was using her “supreme executive power of this state” to fire Davis. Ivey’s office hand-delivered the letter to Davis’ lawyer about 45 minutes after the State Board of Veterans Affairs, in a 3-2 vote, rejected Ivey’s request to remove Davis.
A lawyer for Davis said only the board, which hired Davis, had the ability to fire him.
“We think it’s pretty clear that she did not have the authority to fire him. He did not work at the pleasure of the governor,” Kenny Mendelsohn, a lawyer representing Davis, said.
A spokesperson for Ivey indicated the governor stood by the decision.
“We are very confident Governor Ivey’s necessary actions will stand any court test there may be,” spokesperson Gina Maiola wrote in an email.
Davis and Ivey’s office had a public falling out last year that centered on an American Rescue Plan grant. During the dispute, Davis had filed an ethics complaint against the state mental health commissioner, after the Department of Mental Health cancelled a related agreement to administer the grants. The Alabama Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint.
“I don’t think anybody in this room doubts what the real reason here is. This is retaliation for that ethics complaint,” Davis said.
The governor had accused Davis of failing cooperate with her office and other agency heads and of mishandling an American Rescue Plan grant program. Ivey in an Oct. 18 letter to Davis said the ethics complaint was frivolous and a weaponization of the dispute process.
Davis said his office acted properly and the governor’s actions and statements have interfered with his ability to find other employment.