Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon has been served with formal notice that the Alabama Ethics Commission will hold a hearing in October on the complaint three city council members filed against him in May, according to a source familiar with the matter. The hearing sets the stage for the most consequential step yet in a dispute that has consumed the Baldwin County beach city for more than a year.
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Multiple sources speaking on condition of anonymity said Kennon has spent the days since receiving the notice asking residents of the community to submit letters of support on his behalf. Kennon did not respond to several requests for comment.
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What the commission will decide
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When the Alabama Ethics Commission takes up the case at its next meeting, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, it will weigh whether the claims against Kennon warrant any of a range of potential outcomes: civil fines, a recommendation that he be investigated and prosecuted by law enforcement, or absolution. The Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office has indicated it may investigate Kennon if the commission recommends it do so.
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It is a narrow and deliberately slow process by design. Ethics Commission investigators have spent months reviewing allegations levied by three of the city’s council members, and the commission itself does not prosecute. Its findings, however, can trigger referrals to prosecutors, which is what makes the October hearing consequential.
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The complaint and the footage behind it
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The complaint was filed May 1 by Council members Jeff Silvers, Ginger Harrelson and Robert Stuart. Its central allegations circle around Kennon’s handling of police body camera footage showing him inside the city’s Coastal Resources Building after 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2024, as officers investigated a reported domestic violence call at the building.
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According to the complaint, council members saw the footage in a closed session and later floated releasing it publicly to save the city the expense of fighting a federal lawsuit seeking its release. The complaint alleges that when the idea surfaced, Kennon threatened council members with legal and political retaliation. It further claims he used his office for personal gain and inserted himself into legal strategy for the lawsuit, which was filed by local attorney C.C. Dixon Moreno after a records request for the footage was denied.
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The complaint also alleges that several high-ranking city officials knew of the Labor Day incident within about a day, that regular crime reports made to the City Council did not initially reflect the 2024 call and police response, and that building security footage that could have shown the incident was not preserved. The city attorney has said security camera footage at the building is routinely overwritten on a rolling basis after roughly thirty days.
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From a 911 call to an ethics file
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The underlying incident became public in July 2025, when reporting revealed Kennon was inside the Coastal Resources Building when officers responded to a 911 call about a man beating a woman on the balcony of a second-floor office. Body camera footage later reviewed by reporters showed Kennon speaking to officers from behind a closed office door. Kennon initially declined to answer specific questions, then eventually admitted he was in the building at the time. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and no criminal charges were ever filed. His wife, Paula Kennon, has denied any assault took place.
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Kennon addressed the complaint publicly once it became known, saying he valued and respected the Ethics Commission and its process. \”I am willing to just keep my mouth shut and let the process run its course,\” he said in remarks first reported in June, adding that he would comment on any findings later. He has not said he has reviewed the complaint itself.
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What happens at an ethics hearing
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An ethics commission hearing is not a trial. The commission reviews complaints in a process that is largely confidential until findings are made, and its October session will determine whether the case proceeds to a full evidentiary review. Possible outcomes at that stage range from dismissal to findings that support fines or referral for prosecution.
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For Orange Beach, the stakes extend beyond one mayor. The complaint has already reshaped city government: council meetings have been marked by public rifts between the mayor and council, Kennon announced he would stop attending executive sessions after the complaint’s existence was disclosed, and the pending federal records lawsuit continues to move separately through the courts. A fifth-term mayor who won re-election despite the controversy now faces the possibility of a state body formally finding that he violated the state’s ethics law, or clearing his name with the same authority.
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Neither Kennon’s office nor the Ethics Commission has commented publicly on the hearing notice. The letters of support residents have been asked to write are not a formal part of the commission’s process, but sources say they have circulated through the community since the notice arrived earlier this week.
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