In counties with defined district boundaries, Alabama law requires commissioners to reside within their respective district at all times while in office — a mandate that appears to be in conflict with the current residency of Cullman County Commissioner Garry Marchman.
Marchman was most recently elected to a four-year term as Cullman’s District 2 — defined as the Northwest portion of the county North of U.S. 278 and West of AL Hwy. 31 — representative in November 2022. However, property records indicate Marchman has not owned property within the district since 2021.
In July 2021, Marchman purchased two adjacent properties located on County Road 998, roughly two miles south of U.S. 278, from family members. Within the same month, he sold a piece of property located at 14073 AL Hwy. 157 to his son, Nathan. Marchman listed his address as County Road 998 on the warranty deed agreement between him and his son, but has continued listing his address as Hwy. 157 on campaign finance reports submitted to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office as recently as Dec. 31, 2023.
When reached by phone Tuesday, July 23, Marchman said the Hwy. 157 property was put into his son, Nathan’s, name while he underwent cancer treatment and maintained that the location was his residence, but admitted he “hasn’t been staying there.”
Marchman said at some point — he declined to provide an exact timeline of the events — the house in which he had been living on Hwy. 157 had suffered extreme termite damage and required a complete renovation. Marchman said the walls needed to be taken down to its studs and the floor of the home removed. He said his illness had sidetracked the renovation process and that he had been staying at the property on County Road 998 while the property was uninhabitable.
“I had a lot of termite damage and when we started tearing into the house there was more than I initially thought. We ended up doing a total remodel on the house and I would have been done by now, but I had cancer. I can’t physically work very much when I’m going through treatments,” Marchman said.
He described the move as “temporary,” but declined to disclose the amount of time he had been residing outside District 2 stating, “That’s not any of your business.”
“I don’t guess there is a specific length of time that I could say is temporary. It could be a day, it may be six months, it may be three months. There’s different lengths of temporary, especially when it comes doing something like this,” Marchman said.
Cullman County Revenue Commissioner Barry Willingham confirmed Nathan Marchman listed the property located on Hwy. 157 as his primary residence when he filed for a homestead exemption in July 2022. Alabama defines a homestead as a “single-family, owner-occupied dwelling.” Marchman said the filing must have been an oversight on his son’s part. He said the property contains two separate homes, 14073 he claims as his residence and 14099 where Nathan resides. He said in effort to maintain residency within District 2, a lease agreement was signed with his son allowing Marchman to stay at 14073. As of press time, Marchman has not provided a verifiable copy of the document.
Similar circumstances emerged last year in the case against former Alabama lawmaker David Cole, a Republican from Huntsville, who pleaded guilty to a voter fraud charge after it was discovered that he rented a closet size space in a home to fraudulently run for office in House District 10, where he did not live. Cole plead guilty to voting in an unauthorized location in October 2023 and was sentenced to serve 60 days at the Madison County Jail and placed on probation for the remainder of his 3-year sentence based on the terms of his plea agreement.
Unlike Cole, Marchman has not cast a vote in an unauthorized location, as the polling place for both addresses is listed as the Jones Chapel Fire Department.
Cullman County Commission Chairman, Jeff Clemmons said he was aware several people had voiced concerns over Marchman’s residence “for about the last year or so,” and had received calls as recently as last week. Marchman said he believed some of those concerns had been brought due to his cattle farm being located near the property and the amount of time he spent with his mother there before she died in March 2022.
“When my mom passed away, we started kind of working on the place, fixing bathrooms and fixing stuff that needed repairing. Even before then, when my mom was sick, we stayed down there a lot,” Marchman said. “I just didn’t realize it was such a big issue.”
Marchman said he was unaware of any concerns and said the only person who had questioned him about his residency was current District 4 Commissioner Kelly Duke, who had allegedly received a tip that Marchman was living on County Road 998 ahead of the 2022 primary election. At the time, Duke served as the head of the Cullman County Republican Party and was responsible for qualifying candidates. Duke said he did not recall that specific conversation, but did not dispute that it may have taken place.
“If we did have that conversation, then I would have asked Garry where he was living and just left it at that,” Duke said.
Duke said he has not been aware of any official complaints which have been filed about Marchman’s residence, but said multiple sources have suggested he was possibly living outside the district he was elected to represent. He also said there have been conversations about what course of action would need to be taken if Marchman was found to be in violation of the law.
Clemmons said he had requested the opinion of county attorney Emily Johnson, and that her advice was that Marchman would “need to live where the law says he needs to live.” Johnson said she remembered the conversation, but had been unaware of any evidence of Marchman’s residence until contacted by The Times on Wednesday. She said she would need to evaluate the law further before offering an official legal opinion. On Friday, Johnson reached out to The Times stating she had been out of the office, but would be available Monday.
Alabama statute lacks clarity on the exact definition of residence applied to elected officials, but is defined as “a building or structure having a physical address or street number, that provides shelter in which a person resides,” in other sections of the law. The term “reside” is determined by: spending more than four hours a day at the place on three or more consecutive days, spending more than four hours a day at the place on 10 or more aggregate days during a calendar month or spending any amount of time at the place coupled with statements or actions that indicate an intent to live at the place. The law also states a residence is not determined simply by a person declaring or characterizing a place as such.
Marchman said that he receives mail at both locations and does stay at the property located on Hwy. 157 on occasion, but was unable to say how frequently he has done so.
“I don’t know because I can’t stay there full-time because of the condition of the home that I was living in,” Marchman said. “I don’t keep up with it.”
The Alabama Secretary of State’s office said it was unauthorized to provide any legal clarity and would be unable to comment on the issue. Instead it suggested anyone report potential issues by:
— Submitting a complaint to the SOS via its online portal or with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
— Reporting suspected criminal activity to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s crime hotline.
— Reporting to local police departments or the Cullman County District Attorney.
After speaking with The Times, Marchman reached out the following day to say he would be placing a Winnebago RV on the Hwy. 157 property. He said the Cullman County Electric Cooperative planned to have power turned on and he would begin staying there throughout the week beginning Wednesday, July 24.
“Did I stay away from that property for a little while? I sure did and I had a good reason to why, but that doesn’t mean it was right. So I’m just going to move back over there [to Hwy. 157] because the state legislation says I have to reside at that address, so that’s what I’m gonna do,” Marchman said.