Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon indicated this week he will likely remain silent until he appears before the Alabama Ethics Commission later this year to defend himself against several allegations levied by three members of the City Council.
Kennon declined to comment when asked how he was feeling about the upcoming hearing, and he declined to answer other questions related to the political rift that has consumed City Hall for much of the year.
“I’m done. I’m done,” Kennon said. “I’m going to respect the [Ethics Commission] process.”
Multiple sources speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that Kennon had been served with a 45-day notice of a hearing to discuss the allegations, and that he has been requesting letters of support from local residents. The hearing will likely take place at the commission’s 9:30 a.m. meeting on Oct. 7 in Montgomery.
The Complaint and the Allegations
Councilors Ginger Harrelson, Robert Stuart and Jeff Silvers filed an ethics complaint against Kennon in May. The filing came after months of friction on the seven-member council, much of it tied to a Labor Day 2024 incident at the city’s Coastal Resources Building.
According to the complaint, Kennon directly attempted to block the public release of police body camera footage showing him at the Coastal Resources Building after 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2024, speaking with officers who responded to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance at an office balcony. The complaint also alleges that Kennon threatened political persecution and legal action if the council tried to publicly disclose the footage in an attempt to settle an ongoing federal lawsuit seeking its release.
The filing further claims that several high-ranking city officials knew of the incident within about a day, and that the regular crime reports made to the City Council did not initially reflect the 911 call and police response. Building security footage that could have shown the incident was not preserved, according to the complaint. City Clerk Renee Eberly confirmed in mid-2025 that video footage of that night does not exist.
Kennon has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but has acknowledged he was in the Coastal Resources Building at the time. He has also denied any assault occurred. Both the Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office previously declined to investigate the incident.
According to the complaint, during an executive session in April, Kennon stated he would pursue legal action against individual council members if they voted to authorize release of the body camera footage. Council members who signed the complaint interpreted those statements as threats intended to influence their votes. The complaint asks the commission to investigate whether Kennon’s conduct violated provisions of the Alabama Ethics Act relating to conflicts of interest, use of official position for personal benefit, improper influence over public officials and interference with legislative authority.
How the Ethics Process Works
When the Alabama Ethics Commission reviews the case, it will decide whether the claims warrant a range of potential actions. Those include a recommendation that he be investigated and possibly prosecuted by law enforcement. He could also be absolved of any wrongdoing by the commission.
Under state law, the commission has 180 days from the date an ethics complaint is filed to review the matter and make a recommendation either to the local district attorney’s office or to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. The commission can vote to extend that timeframe by another 180 days “to complete the investigation” at the request of the commission’s director. The original 180-day deadline for the May complaint ends in November; an extension would push a decision to roughly May 2027.
If the commission does not make a recommendation by either deadline, the complaint is dismissed and cannot be refiled based on the same set of facts it originally contained.
State statute is explicit about what happens if the commission finds probable cause: “If the commission finds probable cause that a person covered by this chapter has violated it or that the person covered by the Fair Campaign Practices Act has violated that act, the case and the commission’s findings shall be forwarded to the district attorney for the jurisdiction in which the alleged acts occurred or to the Attorney General. The case, along with the commission’s findings, shall be referred for appropriate legal action.”
The Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office indicated earlier this summer that it may investigate Kennon if the ethics commission recommends it do so.
Kennon may also request a 30-day extension to push the hearing further into the year, likely placing it during the commission’s Dec. 2 meeting — the last time the four-member commission is scheduled to meet this year. It is not yet clear whether Kennon has requested an extension.
A Council Fractured Since Spring
The ethics complaint is only one thread in a broader feud between the mayor and the council. The tensions surfaced publicly in late June and early July, when council members clashed with Kennon over several issues, including the body camera footage and the appointment of a new council member to fill a vacant seat. Kennon moved to appoint a former school board member to the seat; the council voted the appointment down and chose Pat Simpson instead.
During that stretch, the council also pressed for the release of the footage — a step Kennon opposed, citing his own view that the question of whether any body camera footage is a public record should be settled in court. A federal lawsuit filed by a local resident seeking the footage remains pending, and the city has defended its refusal to release what it has deemed investigative materials.
The council’s meetings this week represented the first time Kennon attended an executive session with councilors since June. The topic of the session was land, and it was held following the council’s regular worksession. Kennon had previously said he would not attend executive sessions after the ethics complaint became public.
Later the same evening, the City Council conducted its business meeting without any noticeable political theater — a quiet session by the standards of the past two months.
Kennon’s attendance at the executive session comes nearly a month after he publicly apologized to members of the council for the rift, an olive branch that appears to have lowered the temperature at City Hall even as the ethics case moves forward in Montgomery.
What Comes Next
For now, the matter rests with the commission. If the hearing proceeds as expected on Oct. 7, Kennon will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations before the panel decides whether the case moves to a prosecutor, is dismissed, or remains under investigation. The outcome will shape not only the mayor’s political future but also the working relationship between the mayor’s office and a council that has spent much of 2026 at odds with him.
Either way, the process will play out on a public stage in Montgomery — and, given the attention the dispute has drawn across Baldwin County, likely under close watch from the residents of a resort city unaccustomed to this kind of internecine warfare.