Current and former members of Marion’s city government have received affidavits in recent days asking them to swear, before a notary, that the city council was aware of and supported placing the city clerk in a part-time municipal court position.
A former council member who received one of the affidavits said it was sent by Mayor Dexter Hinton.
The two-page document is titled “Affidavit – General Governing Body Awareness” and carries the heading “Ethics Commission Case Matter 2025-057.” It is written for a current or former Marion council member to sign and swear that its contents are true.
The affidavit asks the signer to attest that during 2025, the council discussed the municipal court, magistrate clerk duties, court reporting, and court collections in open public meetings.
It states that the council approved a budget for a part-time magistrate following an executive session on Jan. 6, 2025, and that the position was considered urgent because it had been empty for months and was causing disruptions.
It also asks signers to swear to what was discussed in that closed session.
According to the document, council members and the mayor discussed, citing “good name and character” reasons, why certain unnamed members of the city staff should not be the part-time magistrate clerk.
The document states that no decisions or votes were made in the session, but that the council was supportive of Laura Hinton, the city’s clerk and treasurer and the mayor’s sister-in-law, serving in the role until someone could be hired.
The affidavit further states that the council voted on Feb. 18, 2025, to add Laura Hinton to the court bank account as magistrate clerk, and that she afterward made statements in public meetings about court collections, reporting, operations, and complaints.
It asks the signer to swear that, to the best of their knowledge, they do not recall the council taking any formal vote to remove Hinton from magistrate-related duties.
Nowhere does the affidavit describe a council vote appointing Hinton to the magistrate clerk position.
It recites two formal council actions—the budget approval and the addition of her name to the court bank account—neither of which is an appointment. How Hinton came to hold the role has been the subject of this newspaper’s reporting and of open records requests the city has not fulfilled.
The affidavit appears intended to establish, through the sworn statements of individual officials, a record that the council was aware of and supported Hinton’s appointment as magistrate clerk, in place of the contemporaneous documentation that would ordinarily show how a city employee was placed in the position.
The same form, labeled a template and containing identical statements, is being circulated to multiple current and former members for signature.
It does not ask signers to confirm that the council voted to appoint Hinton. Instead, it asks them to swear that they do not recall a vote to remove her, which shifts the question from whether her placement was ever formally authorized to whether it was ever formally undone.
The document is presented as connected to a matter before the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Under Alabama’s ethics law, a complaint filed with the commission, together with any statements, evidence, or information gathered in response to it, is confidential and protected under the same secrecy provisions that govern grand jury proceedings. Unlawful disclosure of that information is a Class C felony.
The commission does not make a complaint public unless and until a case reaches final disposition, and a person who is the subject of a complaint is not provided a copy unless the case proceeds to a hearing.
Nothing in the commission’s published complaint procedures provides for the commission to prepare or distribute affidavits for witnesses or subjects to sign.
Because such matters are confidential, the existence of a case numbered 2025-057 could not be confirmed with the commission.
The municipal court magistrate clerk position has been vacant or contested since longtime clerk Kristi Milner left in October 2024 to become Perry County’s E-911 director.
Hinton took an oath as acting court clerk in April 2025, according to records from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts.
The Times-Standard-Herald has reported that it found no record of a council vote appointing her.
On Dec. 2, 2025, the Times-Standard-Herald submitted open records requests seeking documentation of how Hinton was appointed, any minutes reflecting council action, and her compensation.
The city acknowledged the requests on Dec. 19 but has produced no records.
After the newspaper reported on the situation, the council voted on Jan. 20, 2026, to advertise the magistrate and prosecutor positions, voting again on Feb. 2 to publish notices of the open positions in the Times-Standard-Herald.
No advertisement was submitted to the newspaper, but the openings were posted on the city’s Facebook page.
In April, Helen L. McRand of Grove Hill was sworn in as acting municipal court clerk.
The affidavit states that it is provided voluntarily and is based on the signer’s personal knowledge and recollection.
It carries a blank signature line and space for notarization, dated 2026.
