Chapter 2: Jil Walker

When Steve Russo’s story began, Orange Beach was still finding its footing. By the time he went to prison, the city was finding something else.

Money.

Not because anyone had suddenly discovered a hidden treasure chest buried beneath the beach. The treasure had always been there. It just happened to be made of white sand, waterfront property, and millions of tourists willing to spend their vacations here.

Orange Beach was hopping, to say the least. It was no longer a sleepy fishing town. It was becoming a family destination, and with that transformation came opportunity.

Of course, every new opportunity came with a decision. Every new condominium, every new shopping center, every new subdivision, and every new development proposal eventually landed on someone's desk at City Hall. Who gets approval? Who doesn’t? Who builds? Who waits?

And now with Steve Russo out of the picture, who was ultimately making those determinations?

Tony Kennon Enters Public Office

If you’ve never lived in a fast growing coastal town, all of this probably sounds pretty boring. But stick with me for a minute.

Think about your favorite Netflix or HBO series. The first episode isn’t usually the most exciting unless you’re watching Game of Thrones. Before the twists, before the betrayals, before everything goes sideways, you have to establish the world in which the story is being told. You meet the characters, learn how they’re all connected, and you start to understand what motivates them.

Politics works the same way.

Long before campaign signs go up or ballots are cast, future elected officials are already learning how local government works. They’re serving on boards and commissions, attending council meetings, building relationships, and getting to know the people who will eventually become colleagues, allies, and sometimes opponents.

And that, my dear readers, is exactly where Tony Kennon’s story begins.

Before he was the mayor of Orange Beach, Kennon was simply another resident volunteering his time in local government. He served on the Orange Beach Planning Commission, a board responsible for reviewing development proposals and making recommendations on everything from subdivisions and commercial projects to rezoning requests and variances before many of those proposals ever reached the City Council.

In other words, if someone wanted to reshape a piece of Orange Beach, chances are the Planning Commission saw it first. While the City Council often made the final call, the Planning Commission helped set the stage. In a city growing as quickly as Orange Beach, those recommendations carried weight.

If you’ve never attended a Planning Commission meeting, I promise you’re not alone. They’re not exactly must-see TV. But don’t let the name fool you. In a city growing as quickly as Orange Beach, the Planning Commission wasn’t just reviewing blueprints. It was helping shape what the city would look like for decades to come, making it an important place to be.

By 2004, Kennon decided it was time to take the next step. He ran for Orange Beach City Council.

On paper, there wasn’t anything unusual about it. Residents regularly move from advisory boards into elected office, and Kennon seemed like the kind of candidate many communities gravitate toward: a successful businessman, active in civic affairs, and already familiar with the inner workings of city government.

Voters agreed, because in August of 2004, they elected him to the Orange Beach City Council. It was the beginning of his political career. Or at least, it was supposed to be. Less than a year later, he resigned.

Jil Walker

At this point, you might be wondering what could possibly happen in less than a year that would cause a newly elected councilman to resign.

And that answer isn’t as simple as a single headline. Nor is it very clear.

Just like with Russo, the answer depends on who you ask. Some remember rumors, some remember newspaper headlines, or some remember lawsuits years later. But again, for most folks that are new to Orange Beach, there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of it.

That’s one of the interesting things about local politics. Time has a funny way of sanding down the rough edges. Scandals that once dominated conversations at breakfast counters and bait shops eventually become little more than footnotes, remembered only by the people who lived through them.

But this? Oh no, it was much more than just another political disagreement.

It involved allegations made by another public servant, a resignation from office, a civil lawsuit, and ultimately a taxpayer-funded settlement.

The controversy centered around a Planning Commission member named Jil Walker. Walker, like Kennon, was serving the City of Orange Beach. She was a member of the Planning Commission, meaning the two worked within the same circle of city government during one of the busiest periods of growth in the city’s history.

I’m sure you’ve picked up on the fact that I’ve mentioned the rapid growth many times, and surely you are starting to mark pins on what I’ll call your “brain board.” We’ll add a lot of pins to that board throughout our series, and I’ll tell you when pins are important. This is one of those important pins.

According to Walker’s complaint, members of the Planning Commission traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a commission retreat in the spring of 2005. It was during that trip, Walker alleged, that Kennon solicited her for a sexual relationship, allegedly suggesting that his political influence and business connections could help advance her career. Walker alleged that she rejected those advances and reported Kennon’s conduct to the City of Orange Beach.

Kennon has consistently denied those allegations. No criminal charges were ever filed against him, and no court ever determined that the alleged conduct occurred.

If this were the end of the story, it probably wouldn’t have become one of Orange Beach’s most enduring political controversies. But according to Walker’s complaint, the matter didn’t end there.

Rather than immediately filing a lawsuit, Walker, Kennon, and the City entered into a Settlement and Release Agreement in June 2005.

Now, if you're anything like me, you probably read the words Settlement and Release Agreement and immediately thought, Okay...what exactly does that mean?

A Settlement and Release Agreement is essentially a legal contract designed to resolve a dispute without continuing to fight it in court. Instead of asking a judge or jury to decide who's right, the parties agree to certain terms in exchange for putting the matter behind them.

Those terms can vary from case to case. Sometimes one party agrees to pay money. Sometimes both sides agree not to sue each other again over the same issue. Other times, the agreement includes confidentiality provisions, meaning the parties agree not to publicly discuss the dispute, or non-disparagement clauses, meaning they agree not to make public statements that could harm the other's reputation.

Think of it like hitting the reset button. Everyone walks away, agrees to certain rules, and, at least in theory, the dispute is over.

According to records, that’s exactly what happened here. Walker, Kennon, and the City of Orange Beach entered into a Settlement and Release Agreement in June 2005 that included confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions intended to keep the matter private.

Kennon Resigns

In June 2005, less than a year after voters elected him to the Orange Beach City council, Tony Kennon resigned.

Just three years later, Kennon entered the Orange Beach mayoral race, despite his abrupt departure from office amid allegations of sexual harassment.

But Kennon couldn’t easily slide through the race without facing questions about his brief tenure as city councilman. Residents in Orange Beach were talking about the events that had transpired, and some had legitimate questions.

Why did Tony Kennon suddenly resign?

Did the allegations from Walker have anything to do with it?

If the allegations were true, what did that mean to taxpayers? Was this just a personal matter, or something that could affect the pocketbooks of Orange Beach residents eventually?

Kennon denied the allegations from Walker and rejected suggestions that the controversy had anything to do with his resignation. In newspaper interviews after his resignation, Kennon stated publicly his decision to leave office was based on his commitment to a new business venture. When asked directly by the Mobile Press-Register whether the sexual harassment allegations played a role in his decision to step down from the City Council, Kennon responded:

“The answer to that question is there are a lot of people in Orange Beach that do not want to see me win the mayor’s race, they do not want things to change. They will say and do anything to keep me from winning the mayor’s race. For that reason, I’m not going to dignify any rumor with any comment whatsoever. OK?”

But not all residents were happy with that answer. And some were smart enough to use their knowledge of public records laws to get to the bottom of it.

Patrick McIntosh

Orange Beach resident Patrick McIntosh wasn’t content to let the matter remain behind closed doors. On August 14, 2008, he submitted a public records request seeking “any and all public records which the City of Orange Beach has in its possession regarding the allegations of sexual harassment regarding Tony Kennon, the investigation into such allegations, any settlement regarding such allegations and the use of public monies in that regard, and Mr. Kennon’s subsequent resignation.”

The City denied his request. Sounds familiar, huh?

McIntosh responded by filing suit, arguing the records should be released under Alabama’s Open Records Act. After several rounds of legal filings, Baldwin County Circuit Judge Robert Wilters ordered the City to release approximately 100 pages of records related to the Walker matter no later than August 21, 2008, just five days before Orange Beach voters headed to the polls to elect their next mayor.

The 2008 Orange Beach Mayoral Election

Three years had passed since Kennon resigned from the City Council, under what publications later described as “muddy circumstances.” In the meantime, Orange Beach had continued to grow, new developments continued to reshape the city, and voters were preparing to choose their next mayor. This time, Kennon wasn’t running for a council seat. He was asking voters to hand him the keys to City Hall.

But he wasn’t alone.

Kennon faced two opponents in the 2008 municipal election: sitting City Councilman Larry Alexander and former City Councilwoman Iris Ethridge. It was a three-way race, and like most local elections, every vote mattered.

Despite the renewed attention surrounding the Walker matter, Orange Beach voters elected Kennon mayor on August 26, 2008. He defeated Councilman Larry Alexander, who received about 39 percent of the vote, while former Councilwoman Iris Ethridge finished a distant third. Kennon’s victory marked an extraordinary political comeback for someone whose first elected office had ended in a figurative dumpster fire.

But the election did not put the controversy to rest. In fact, it did the opposite. Because just nine days after voters elected Kennon mayor, Jil Walker filed suit.

Jil Walker Files Suit

If you’ve made it this far, you might be thinking, Wait a minute…didn’t you just tell me they already settled this back in 2005?

Yep. I get it, all of this can be very confusing. I’m trying to break it down for you in the best way I know how, but you should also be warned that we are going to take a lot of twists and turns along the way. At times, we will have to give a backstory to a backstory, define some less commonly used terms, and straight up throw some hints if you aren’t quite picking up what I’m putting down.

This is one of those times where I have to give a little extra explanation.

On September 4, 2008, Walker filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Orange Beach, Tony Kennon, and Orange Beach City Councilman Ed Carroll.

Walker wasn’t claiming there had never been a settlement. She was claiming the settlement had been broken.

According to her complaint, the Settlement and Release agreement signed in June 2005 wasn’t just intended to resolve the dispute. It also required the parties to keep the matter confidential and refrain from publicly disparaging one another. Walker alleged those promises were no longer being honored.

Specifically, Walker alleged that during the 2008 mayoral campaign, Kennon and others made public statements denying her allegations, questioning her credibility, and discussing matters she believed were supposed to remain confidential. Those statements, according to Walker, violated the very agreement that had ended the dispute three years earlier.

One of those statements referenced in the complaint involved comments Kennon made to the Mobile Press-Register, where he accused Walker of attempting to bribe him over a major development known as Harbortown and suggested she had “an axe to grind” because he opposed the project. Walker also alleged that Councilman Ed Carroll publicly stated her sexual harassment allegations were untrue. According to the complaint, those statements violated the confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions of the settlement agreement.

Walker’s suit asked the court to determine whether the Settlement and Release Agreement had been breached. If it had, Walker argued that the agreement should no longer protect the defendants from the claims she had previously agreed to release.

Kennon denied the allegations and responded with a counterclaim of his own, setting the stage for more than two years of litigation.

By the time it was over, the case had generated depositions, subpoenas, interrogatories, requests for production, and a scheduled jury trial. Then, just before that trial could begin, the case came to an end.

Not with a verdict. With another settlement.

On September 17, 2010, the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Walker could not file the same claims again. But the settlement contained one provision. At Kennon’s request, Walker signed what was described as a one-paragraph “letter of exoneration.” In it, Walker stated that she exonerated Kennon “of any and all accusations or claims of sexual harassment made against him in connection with the subject matter contained in the complaint.”

According to reporting, the City of Orange Beach agreed to pay Walker $47,500 to resolve the litigation. As is common with civil settlements, the agreement did not constitute an admission of liability by the defendants.

But even with the letter of exoneration, Walker stated she “did not swear falsely in this lawsuit.” Walker’s attorney, Stephen Legg, told a local reporter that the letter was “meaningless” and said his client agreed to the settlement because she wanted to “let bygones be bygones and move on.”

Kennon publicly celebrated the letter, telling reporters, “I want the world to know I was telling the truth. I think I have completely exonerated and cleared my name.”

Perhaps that was the end of the saga. And maybe Kennon was telling the truth. I can’t tell you that for sure.

But what I can tell you is this.

During his 2008 mayoral campaign, Kennon offered a very different explanation for why he resigned from the City Council in 2005. It had nothing to do with Jil Walker and it differed from the explanation he had originally given.

When he resigned, Kennon publicly stated he was stepping away because a new business venture demanded more of his time. Three years later, he told the Mobile Press-Register that the real story involved then-Mayor Steve Russo and City Attorney Larry Sutley. Kennon alleged the two men pressured him over his opposition to the proposed Harbortown development, threatened him politically, and created such stress that it ultimately led to his resignation.

If true, that would paint a very different picture of what was happening behind the scenes at City Hall in 2005. But once again, we’re left with competing narratives.

Walker maintained she had not testified falsely. Kennon maintained he had been completely exonerated. And later, Kennon argued his resignation wasn’t really about the Walker controversy or a new business venture at all, but about pressure from Russo and Sutley surrounding a controversial development project.

Twenty years later, there still isn’t a jury verdict answering any of those questions. There are only allegations, denials, settlements, and a paper trail.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned investigating Orange Beach politics, it’s that paper trails usually lead somewhere.

And boy, did they.