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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Following 26 years of faithful service at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Chelsea City Councilmember Cody Sumners has officially retired from law enforcement and set his sights on new ways to improve the city he has called home for 40 years.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office formally recognized Sumners’ years of service during a recent ceremony that took place at the beginning of a Chelsea City Council meeting on Jan. 7 at Chelsea City Hall which saw a number of Sumners’ former colleagues in attendance.

Sheriff John Samaniego spoke of the distinguished career that Sumners completed during his time with the force, showing his appreciation for all that he did in his career.

“Cody, I identified as an administrator real quick, that I could rely on him,” Samaniego said. “You always accepted the responsibilities that you were handed, and you gave it all your efforts. Whatever the assignment was during my tenure, you took it and you ran with it and you did a good job on everything.”

Sumners started his career in September 1998 and got promoted to sergeant in October 2001. He later became a training coordinator in 2003 and established the training program over the course of the next two years at the sheriff’s office.

Following his time in the training department, he moved over to the drug task force in 2005 before being promoted to a lieutenant position in 2007. After a short time in that role, he was given an assistant commander of the administrative division and community outreach, working in that role for two years.

He then became the assistant commander of the jail for two years before becoming the assistant commander of the patrol division.

The number of opportunities that Samaniego provided him allowed him to explore a wide variety of roles during his career, understanding just how important every position was to running a smooth operation.

“When Sheriff (Chris) Curry took office, he really became big on what they call career development, which means as supervisors, you’re not going to stay anywhere too long; they want you to be well-rounded,” Sumners said. “All of the administrative things you learn as far as writing the policies, dealing with policy and discipline issues, administrative investigations and contract law enforcement, it makes you a well-rounded supervisor and administrator.”

While serving for the sheriff’s office, Sumners was also a major advocate for mental health, becoming involved in numerous efforts around his community, county and the state of Alabama. As of the beginning of the new year, Sumners became the president of NAMI Shelby, an organization for those whose lives have been affected by mental illness.

To him, the subject of mental health is one that is close to him, which is a major reason behind why he became so involved in the efforts of raising awareness on the front in Chelsea, especially in his time with law enforcement.

“I wanted to make sure that my shift was aware of what few resources there were in Shelby County,” Sumners said. “Between now and election time, I really want to be busy with the NAMI stuff and trying to mirror what we’ve done with Chelsea because I think it’s been a success so far… Anywhere that’ll listen, I’ll go talk to them.”

While Sumners is retiring from the sheriff’s office, he is now setting his focus on his 2025 mayoral run for Chelsea.

Sumners announces his candidacy for the seat following current Mayor Tony Picklesimer’s announcement that he will not be running for reelection for the first time in nine years.

He stated that his run is backed by his desire to improve the infrastructure, while also trying to do what is best for the citizens in a city that is expanding rapidly.

“I’m going to have a different set of eyes on it and am going to focus on some of the things that we need to catch up on,” Sumners said. “There’s a lot of things where we’re still stuck in the small-town government where we have outgrown that and we need to address those issues and move forward to provide the citizens the services that they expect from a government in one of the fastest growing cities in the state.”

Sumners was elected to the Chelsea City Council in 2016 and has lived in the city since 1985. He was elected alongside Scott Weygand, Tiffany Bittner and Casey Morris.

Over the course of his time on the council, Sumners has been a big proponent for focusing on public safety and the needs of law enforcement, looking to continually improve the city that he grew up in.

Should he be elected, Sumners aims to continue to enforce those efforts, just as he did when he entered office.

“Public safety, in my opinion, is the primary function of government. If the public doesn’t feel safe in their homes and their businesses, then the government has failed,” Sumners said. “I think that everything that I set out to address in 2016, the mayor and council, we’ve done a stellar job of addressing those things.”

The Chelsea municipal election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 26.