Sonny Sanders, a senior transportation planner for Jefferson City, has been tapped as the interim director of the city's Department of Planning and Protective Services.
Sanders, who will celebrate his 10th anniversary as a city employee next month, will succeed Janice McMillan, who formally retires today after 22 years of service.
McMillan will be feted at a farewell party at 2 p.m. today at the Police Annex in the municipal cluster at East McCarty and Monroe streets. The public is welcome to attend the function.
Ward 2 Councilman J. Rick Mihalevich announced Sanders' promotion at a special joint meeting of the City Council and Housing Authority Tuesday night to discuss prioritization of the East Capitol Avenue area urban renewal plan.
Sanders said Wednesday he would serve in the role until a permanent successor to McMillan is announced.
He has been a familiar figure around City Hall and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the regional organization charged with vetting proposals flowing into and through government entities in Holts Summit, Jefferson City, Lake Mykee, St. Martins, Taos, Wardsville, and parts of Cole and Callaway counties.
He holds three professional certifications: American Institute of Certified Planners, Geographic Information Systems Professional and Professional Transportation Planner. He also earned three academic degrees: a 1988 associate of arts from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in engineering technology, specializing in land surveying; a 1990 bachelor of arts in geography and a 1991 master of arts in geography, specializing in geographic information systems (GIS), both from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Sanders worked for the Missouri Department of Transportation throughout his college days and was hired full time by the agency in 1991. He was the founder of MoDOT's GIS technology center.
He and his wife, Diane True, an anthropologist and GIS coordinator at the University of Missouri's Resource Assessment Partnership in Columbia, have two children.