Summersett to replace Kellogg at Sonora city
The City of Sonora has hired a replacement for outgoing Community Development Director Rachelle Kellogg, who retires this month after 27 years with the city.
Tyler Summersett, a former county transportation planner and current executive director of the Blue Zones Project - Tuolumne County, announced in an email Sunday that he will take over for Kellogg after she leaves the position.
“While this will be a shift, I’m pleased to share that much of the work of the Blue Zones Project is consistent with goals of the Community Development department — create health and happiness through thoughtful community design, promote pride in one’s community through participation, volunteerism and investment; and facilitate social connection through public spaces and policy,” Summersett stated.
Summersett will remain involved with the Blue Zones Project team through the end of January as part of the transition, he stated.
The Blue Zones Project is a nationwide well-being initiative that aims to help people live longer, healthier lives in communities across the United States.
Adventist Health Sonora, part of a faith-based, nonprofit health care system serving the West Coast and Hawaii, partners with and supports Blue Zones Project - Tuolumne County by providing services and resources intended to keep the community healthy, from routine screening and preventative care to affordable exercise classes.
Summersett, who grew up in Tuolumne County and previously worked for the Tuolumne County Transportation Council as a senior transportation planner and trails coordinator, left his county job to help get the local Blue Zones Project chapter off the ground in 2021.
The city has partnered with the Blue Zone Project on a number of projects in recent years, including the Linoberg Street design project, the weekly free Tai Chi classes at the Sonora Opera Hall, the development of the Gold Rush Trail, and having
the city administrator serve on the initiative’s steering committee, Summersett stated.
“I truly do see this transition not as leaving the BZP, rather supporting in a different way,” Summersett stated in his email announcement.
Mayor Mark Plummer confirmed the city’s hiring of Summersett in a telephone interview Monday.
Though the City Council is not directly involved with hiring employees other than the city administrator, Plummer said that Summersett received a favorable endorsement from Kellogg when he spoke with her about him.
“He’s been very involved with the community for a long time, he has a high level of experience and brings a lot of energy to the position,” Plummer said. “The city went through all the appropriate processes and interviews and believe he’s a great addition to the city.”
Plummer said both he and Kellogg were in favor of hiring a full-time employee for the position as opposed to having it contracted out, which they felt will bring a personal touch that will be helpful as the city embarks on some longrange planning aimed at fostering growth and economic development.
“We are trying to grow the city and put us on a flight plan that is very attractive in the next 20, 40 years, and we need somebody on board who can see the vision and help us get there, and that’s going to take the community development director,” Plummer said.
Kellogg and Summersett have been doing some crossover training ahead of her retirement before the end of the month, though Plummer noted that she will be missed because the institutional knowledge she brought to the position can’t be quickly replaced.
Meanwhile, the council was set to honor Kellogg for her decades of service at its final regularly scheduled public meeting of the year Monday night. She was hired in 1996 as a coordinator and moved up to grants and redevelopment manager two years, before becoming the community development director in 2010.
The Community Development Department is overseen by the director and two full-time employees who handle the city’s building and planning services, in addition to grant-funded programs, projects and special events.
Kellogg was described in a staff report for Monday’s council meeting as the “moving force” behind such projects as the development of the Dragoon Gulch Trail, projects to improve the intersection at the Red Church and add bus stops on Stockton Road, and helping to grow the Historic Downtown Sonora Christmas Parade into one of the city’s premier annual events.