RP Chamber Nominates Sally Tomatoes for BEA Best Practices Award
RP Chamber Nominates Jeff Sommers for Award,
Spirit of Sonoma County Honoree
Congratulations goes to Jeff Sommers, a former two-term President of the Rohnert Park Chamber of Commerce. Jeff has been a driving force in Business Development in Rohnert Park for almost 35 years. Most recently, he brought the city and chamber together and established the Core Economic Development Committee. As Chairman, he helped to obtain initial funding from the city amounting to $27,000, which was directed to two bold initiatives: First, an aggressive marketing campaign touting Rohnert Park as an attractive business location. And second, the committee funded a city-wide beautification program highlighted by the planting of 24,000 daffodil bulbs around Rohnert Park. Jeff is now working directly with the commercial property owners to raise more funds in order to continue the committee's promotions efforts to attract new businesses to Rohnert Park.
Jeff graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in accounting; he then moved west arriving in Sonoma County in 1971. In 1976, he found his calling as he earned his real estate license. With his long-time partner, Buck Oates, they opened a brokerage handling commercial and residential real estate. In the last 30-plus years, they have built and developed more than 25 commercial buildings in Rohnert Park and Cotati. These include such landmarks as the Next Level Communications building and Western Business Park. Additionally, Jeff has been involved with construction of more than 40 residential complexes in the area.
Jeff is a graduate from the Chamber's Leadership Rohnert Park program and has also served as President of the 20-30 Club. He has devoted countless hours to youth, including coaching and sponsoring Little League baseball for 12 years and he was co-founder of the Junior Golf Program at Foxtail. Jeff has also been an active member of the Sonoma County Board of Realtors serving on the Political Action Committee. He was one of the founders and board members for the Crane Melon Festival.
