After a lengthy runup to one of the biggest local government changes in decades, 2022 was the year the Cullman County Commission expanded, fielding a larger body of elected officials to represent the growing county’s 89,000 residents.

The 2022 election cycle ushered in the change, which saw the county commission shift from a three-member body (composed of one chairman and two full-time associate commissioners) to a five-member one (composed of one chairman and four part-time associates).

The newly formed commission held its first meeting in November, seating a pair of returning incumbent associate commissioners alongside two more newcomers to fill the newly created seats. Under the new system, the meeting of U.S. Highway 31 and U.S. Highway 278 marks the four-way dividing line that separates Cullman County into representative quadrants — each fielding one of the four associate commissioners.

The change came after the Alabama Legislature approved the expansion in its 2020 session, passing the measure on a local bill that Gov. Kay Ivey subsequently signed into law. The bill stipulated that the five-member changeover would take effect beginning with the 2022 election cycle, which filled all four of the associate commissioner seats at once.

Incumbent associate commissioners Kerry Watson (District 1) and Garry Marchman (District 2) kept their seats in 2022, 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.

Although the new format is intended to assure that the commission seats representatives from each of the county’s four corners, each commissioner under the five-member setup serves as an at-large representative; one who’s accountable to the county’s population as a whole. From 2022 onward, that means every Cullman County voter, including those in the City of Cullman, will be eligible to cast a ballot for each of the four associate commissioner seats — no matter which area within the county a voter resides.