Months after Gov. Kay Ivey fired Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis, changes might be coming to the department.

A new bill under consideration by members of the Alabama Legislature would remove the authority of appointing the commissioner from the State Board of Veteran Affairs and give that authority to the governor. 

The bills, HB154 and SB67, are the same, and would also revise the current structure of the board, reducing membership from 11 to nine and placing the board in an advisory position. 

Currently, members of the board are tasked with voting to select the commissioner, and their members are nominated by various veteran service organizations and approved by the governor. Instead of members being nominated from those groups, the bills would change membership on the board to be selected by the governor, speaker of the house and the president pro tempore of the senate. 

In the house, the bill is being sponsored by Rep. Ed. Oliver, R-Dadeville, a former Army helicopter pilot who is a member of The American Legion among other veterans organizations. 

Robert Barrow, the council president for the South Alabama Veterans Council, spoke out against the bills in a public letter on the SAVC’s site.  

Barrow expressed concern in his letter that, if enacted, the bills would open the door for the commission to be “swayed by external political pressures that could introduce bias into funding, programming, or eligibility requirements.”

Barrow also claimed the bills were part of a personal vendetta on the part of Ivey following her public dispute with Davis. 

The dispute between Ivey and Davis dragged on for months during 2024, starting with an ethics complaint made by Davis against Kim Boswell, the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. The complaint was later dismissed. 

In September, Ivey asked Davis for his resignation over what she described as mismanagement of the American Rescue Plan act program. Davis did not resign, but eventually, after a private meeting between the two, Davis agreed to resign at the end of the year. 

On Oct. 10, the board voted to ask Davis to reconsider his end of year resignation. Ivey described this as a violation of their agreement and called a special meeting of the board to remove Davis. The board voted narrowly to keep Davis. Ivey then utilized executive action to remove Davis from his position.

Ivey expressed her support for the new legislation. Gina Maiola, Ivey’s communications director, described the bill as a “positive step forward.”

HB154 will have a public hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 12. 

Alabama top stories in brief

Tarrant has two fire chiefs on payroll, but only one has duties

• The Tarrant City Council has agreed to pay the newly reinstated Jason Rickels back pay and salary through retirement, totalling $368,000.

• While the council will pay Rickels, he is required not to return to the station and will not serve as head of the department, instead allowing his replacement and current fire chief, Patrick Bennett, to continue in his role. 

• The back pay goes back to when Rickel was fired by Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton in April 2021. 

• The council’s decision comes after the Jefferson County Board of Personnel ruled in Rickel’s favor, saying that Newton had improperly fired him by failing to officially notify the council. 

Poarch Band of Creek Indians opens meat processing plant in Atmore Alabama

• After years of work, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians opened the state’s largest meat packing facility, Perdido River Meats, in Atmore. 

• The plant also has a retail operation where locally raised beef can be purchased.

• Perdido River Meats is managed by Perdido River Farms, which is the agricultural arm of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and “manages 2,900 acres of Tribal agricultural properties.”

• The new facility can process 125 heads of cattle per week, and has partnered with at least 15 local ranchers to process their cattle in the facility. 

• While currently the facility only processes beef, plans are already in motion to expand to pork and chicken. A Facebook post from Grateful Garcia Farm indicated that they would soon partner with Perdido River Farms to provide both meats to the new facility. 

Alabama Medicaid plans to request $1.184 billion from the state for 2026

• This represents a $53 million increase in funding for the program, but it is a $229 million increase in state funding since Medicaid is no longer receiving the funds that were distributed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• The costs are largely connected to health care inflation. 

• Medicaid covers about 20% of Alabama’s population, mostly elderly, those with disabilities and children. 

Legislature considers bills to remove phones from classrooms

• Several bills have been introduced in the Alabama Legislature to restrict the use of cell phones by students at schools.

• Three bills have been introduced in the house and one in the senate; HB65, HB81, HB166 and SB92. 

• HB65 and HB81 are very similar bills; both would require the State Board of Education to create a policy restricting the use of cellphones in classrooms, but HB81 would also require fines for students who continually violate the policy. 

• HB166 and SB92 are companion bills, and would ban the use of cellphones, and would also require students to receive education on using social media safely prior to the eighth grade. 

• During a budget hearing on Feb. 5, State Superintendent Eric Mackey spoke in support of limiting students’ cell phone use during the school day.

Legislature focuses attention on passing immigration-related bills

• Last Wednesday, a Senate committee advanced four bills connected to immigration under heavy protest by opponents during a public hearing. 

• Leaders in Alabama’s Legislature have said that they plan on passing a package of up to 10 bills related to immigration this session. 

• One of the bills that was advanced out of committee was SB53, which would make it a Class A misdemeanor to “conceal, harbor, or shield from detection an illegal alien if he or she knows or reasonably should have known that the other individual is an illegal alien.”

• SB53 also would classify transporting an undocumented immigrant into Alabama from another state as human trafficking, provided that they knew or “reasonably should have known that the other individual is an illegal alien.”

Senate approves bill setting strict definition for sexes

• SB79 would declare there are two sexes, which are defined by biological sex at birth, and would require state agencies to define individuals based on those characteristics in statistics. 

• The Alabama senate approved the bill on Feb. 6, in a 26-5 vote. 

• Allison Montgomery, a member of Alabama Trans Rights Action Coalition, said the bill was “one step away from a bathroom bill or a ban on trans people in bathrooms.”

• As introduced, the bill would require that all “correctional facilities, domestic violence shelters, juvenile detention centers, public schools, and public institutions of higher education to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters for the exclusive use of either females or males.” Changes were made prior to the bill’s enrollment, which removed that language. 

• Critics of the bill argued that it would create opportunities for discrimination to occur against trangender Alabamians. 

• In her state of the state address, Gov. Kay Ivey endorsed the bill. 

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