The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 2:

A major shift; one long in the making for the way county residents choose local leaders, at last kicked in this year as the Cullman County Commission expanded from a three-member elected body into a five-member one.

Nov. 16 marked the commission’s first meeting with its new five-member makeup, seating two new associate commissioners to a pair of newly-created seats after the Alabama Legislature two years ago approved the change.

The 2022 election cycle kicked off the start of the county commission’s new era, which transferred its previous makeup (a single full-time chairman and two full-time associate commissioners) into a five-member group led by a full-time chairman and four part-time associates.

Under the new system, the meeting of U.S. Highway 31 and U.S. Highway 278 serves as a dividing line that separates Cullman County into four representative quadrants — each of which fields one of the four associate commissioners.

Though that assures the commission seats elected representatives from all corners of the county, all of them serve as at-large commissioners serving all of the county’s population. In keeping with that statutory at-large function, every voter in Cullman County will remain eligible to vote in each of the four associate commissioner races — no matter where in the county a voter resides.

Incumbent associate commissioners Kerry Watson (District 1) and Garry Marchman (District 2) retained their seats during this year’s election cycle, though the new system transitioned their former full-time positions (and pay) to part-time status and placed them within one of the county’s four new residency quadrants.

The two newly-created associate seats were won by newcomers Kelly Duke (District 3) and Corey Freeman (District 4), with incumbent Jeff Clemons — who’s currently midway through his four-year elected term — continuing in the full-time chairman’s role.