With 2,000 people tuned in to the Facebook livestream and City Hall being nearly full, Orange Beach City Council's meeting July 7 devolved, again, over a year-long battle that has been brewing since the city's elections last fall that derailed Tuesday during public comment.

The meeting was civil through the main agenda, with discussions including ice cream truck regulations and fire truck pricing. During the time allotted for citizens to address council, however, a resident brought up the controversy surrounding police body camera footage from Sept. 2, 2024, of a response to a domestic call at the city's Coastal Resources building. A citizen-filed lawsuit requesting the footage be released, among other claims, is ongoing. Police body camera footage is not currently considered public record under state law.

After Wendy Pickering, an Orange Beach resident and private investigator, addressed council about her opinions against releasing the footage, she accused Councilwoman Ginger Harrelson of “spreading lies” about her on Facebook, which prompted Harrelson's husband, Hunter Harrelson, to make a comment from the crowd. This led to a slew of arguments between Mayor Tony Kennon and the councilwoman, and occasionally Hunter, throughout the remainder of the meeting.

Harrelson, who was elected in 2025, was vocal about wanting the footage, which, according to an anonymously leaked audio recording, alleges the man involved identified himself as Kennon, released. She is one of three council members who have filed an ethics complaint against Kennon for their concerns about whether he overreached in the potential release of records from the 2024 incident. Harrelson, Robert Stuart and Jeff Silvers filed the complaint May 1.

The argument in council was condemned by residents in attendance.

“This arguing in the city council meeting is not the way things should be done," said resident Sharon McFadden.

After an executive session ended after the regular meeting was adjourned, council members Pat Simpson and Harrelson remained optimistic that there is a way to move forward from the tensions among the city's elected leaders.

“It's not going to stay that way. It's going to get better. We just ask for patience,” said Simpson, who was appointed to council last month to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Jerry Johnson.

Simpson earned the seat with a 4-1 vote and Kennon being the only vote against the nomination.

“I want to find a legal way to release the body cam footage,” Harrelson said. “I want the city of Orange Beach to heal and move on, and there's enough public attention and scrutiny over this issue.”

This is a developing story that will be updated later today.