Three Orange Beach council members file ethics complaint against mayor

Three Orange Beach council members file ethics complaint against mayor

Orange Beach City Council members Jeff Silvers, Ginger Harrelson and Robert Stuart have filed an ethics complaint against Mayor Tony Kennon, according a Grant McLaughlin’s reporting in the Mobile based Lagniappe Daily.
The complaint specifically concerns the release of police body camera footage in which Mayor Kennon is seen speaking through a cracked door of the city’s Coastal Resources Building with officers around 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2024. That story was also first reported in Lagniappe.
Police were responding to a domestic violence call about a woman being assaulted on the porch of the building from an employee of an adjacent restaurant.
Mayor Kennon has repeatedly denied assaulting his wife. Most importantly, although she did not speak to responding officers then, his wife also later vigorously denied that any kind of assault occurred.
The three council members are asking the Alabama Ethics Commission to investigate Mayor Kennon for trying to influence the potential release of the police bodycam, interfering with legislative items and sitting in on meetings about a lawsuit that he is personally involved in.
The Council members wanted to release the video. Mayor Kennon did not and he threatened that there would be repercussions if they continued to persue the release, according to the complaint.
Orange Beach based attorney C.C. Dixon-Moreno has been taking legal avenues to have the video released for the past 18 months.
According the complaint reviewed by Lagniappe Daily, “The mayor stopped just short of making a physical threat against Council member (Robert) Stuart, saying, ‘If you weren’t such a feeble old man, I’d . . .’”
“I’ve never seen the complaint. I have no idea what’s in the complaint, because it’s supposed to be confidential,” Mayor Kennon told Lagniappe.
The ethics complaint also alleges certain senior city officials knew about the incident involving Kennon days after it occurred, while the City Council was left in the dark until Lagniappe broke the story during the 2025 election cycle.
“The mayor also stated that he would pursue such claims against council members personally,” the complaint reads. “The mayor also made statements to the effect that he had received approximately 60 (percent) of the vote in the most recent election and suggested that he had the ability to influence the future electoral prospects of council members.”
“The way the Ethics Commission works is they get a complaint; it remains confidential until enough evidence is gathered through an investigation to have a hearing,’’ Mayor Kennon told Lagniappe. “If the investigation turns up nothing, or not enough evidence that they need a hearing, then it’s just dismissed, or it goes to the hearing. So I’ve never seen it, and I’ve never asked to see it, because I respect the process, and it’s just like I respect our city policies, and I’m going to continue to do that, and I’m going to let the ethics process run its course, and then when that’s over, you can bet your a– I’m going to have plenty to say.”