Chelsea voters elected Cody Sumners as the city’s next mayor Tuesday, selecting him over challenger Mike Rochester in a municipal election that also decided the only contested City Council seat with it headed to a runoff.
Sumners received 1,403 votes to Rochester’s 411, according to City Clerk Crystal Etheredge. He will take office this fall, succeeding Tony Picklesimer, who did not seek re-election after serving as mayor since 2016.
“I’d like to thank my constituents, my family and my friends for their support and I look forward to serving them and the City of Chelsea for the next four years and continuing to make Chelsea a greater city each and every day,” Sumners said.
The mayoral race came at a key moment for Chelsea, which has grown from fewer than 1,000 residents at incorporation in 1996 to more than 17,000 today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Picklesimer was Chelsea’s second mayor, following Earl Niven, who led the city for 20 years and guided its early development. With Sumners’ election, Chelsea enters its third mayoral era.
In Place 4, Jeff Honea II captured 713 votes, ahead of Arthur Fisher with 643 and Walter Ryan Adams with 439. Honea and Fisher will face off in a run-off on Sept. 23.
Chelsea’s four other council members were certified unopposed at the July 15 City Council meeting:
Johnna Barnes, Place 1
Scott Weygand, Place 2
Chris Grace, Place 3
Casey Morris, Place 5
“We've had unprecedented commercial and residential growth and I think people resonated with my platform of wanting this city to become a more professionally run city. We’ve grown and built so much in the last nine years that now the logical next step is for us to take care of what we've got and take it to that next level by providing city services that we haven't been providing for the last few years,” Sumners said.
Chelsea’s new municipal leaders now face the task of guiding one of Alabama’s fastest-growing cities through its next chapter — focusing on managing growth, enhancing city services and fostering a thriving local economy and community.
