Susan Peters (formerly Miller) is a California native and long time Amador County resident; she was born in Carmichael and moved to Amador County in 1978. While a senior at Amador High School, Susan began working for a local engineering firm and became interested in land use development and environmental planning. After graduation, she attended UC Santa Barbara and received a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in planning, and in 1991 earned a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UCLA. After graduating from UCLA, Susan moved back to Amador County and married her husband Robin, a local engineer. Susan settled into Sutter Creek with Robin and his two children, followed soon by a third child. She is a proud grandmother of two.

After moving back to Amador County, Susan worked for an environmental consulting firm in Sacramento where she was a contributing author on numerous environmental documents, including the Environmental Impact Report for the Auburn Dam and the Environmental Impact Statement for the Sacramento Federal Courthouse. In 1994, Susan began her own consulting practice offering professional planning services to industry and municipalities, and was quickly awarded the City Planner contract for the City of Jackson where she remained as the City Planner until February of 2022. As City Planner, Susan was involved in many significant projects, including siting and development of Sutter Amador Hospital, restoration of the Kennedy Tailing Wheels, a comprehensive update of the City’s Development Code, creation and implementation of the Façade Improvement Program, funding and planning of Mission Boulevard and the Sutter Street signalization projects, commercial development assistance including planning application assistance for Raley’s and Tractor Supply, and representation on the Amador County Transportation Commission Technical Advisory Committee where she successfully advocated for state funding of projects - not just in the City of Jackson, but for all of Amador County.

Susan’s tenure at the City of Jackson included serving as the Interim City Manager for nine months in 2017 during a very difficult time in the City’s history. As the Interim City Manager, she continually demonstrated strong leadership skills through severe flood events, failure of the wastewater treatment plant access road and a significant fire on Main Street. Susan also finalized funding for and management of a $12,000,000 upgrade to the City’s wastewater treatment plant. The upgrade project was completed on schedule and within budget. Susan’s consulting firm continues to thrive, providing professional planning services to the cities of Jackson (now with a focus on long-range planning projects), Ione and Amador City.

Susan has always invested considerable time and energy into community service. From 1991 to 1996, Susan and Robin and another couple leased and operated the historic Knight Foundry complex in Sutter Creek as a commercial operation, the goal of which was to raise money to purchase the site and begin the process of removing it from private ownership. In 2016, when the City of Sutter Creek finally acquired a portion of the Foundry property, Susan again became involved in the non-profit Knight Foundry Alliance’s fundraising efforts to complete the City’s purchase of the property and begin site restoration and educational program development. Susan served on the Sutter Creek Planning Commission from 1992 to 1996 and has been on the City’s Design Review Committee since 2014 after serving as principal author of the City’s Design Standards. Additionally, along with three other women, Susan created FACT – Feed Amador County Today –and organized a series of 5K and 10K “Fun Runs” from 2010 to 2014, raising over $100,000 for the Interfaith Food Bank.

In 2018 Susan was elected to the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors, serving as Board President in 2021, and was re-elected to the Board in 2022. Susan is most proud of her efforts to improve the budget process, making it more transparent, and the adoption and implementation of the Agency’s Master Plan and 20 year capital improvement program. As an Agency Director, she has become well connected with State legislators and grant funding agencies including FEMA and USDA. As a representative of the Water Agency Board of Directors, Susan also serves on the Amador Fire Safe Council and the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association.

As both a professional planner and AWA Director, Susan has developed a proficiency for crafting policies that are tailored to the needs of the community, and then implementing those policies fairly. Her successes as a professional planner and AWA Director are largely due to her ability to listen, rationalize, and negotiate fair and equitable resolutions to conflicts. Susan has also developed a deep understanding of the unique needs of our community and the challenges we face as a result of our small size and limited political clout. Susan’s extensive experience and strong leadership skills enable her to represent Amador County’s residents aggressively at the local, state and federal levels.

Susan’s hobbies include cooking, gardening and hiking, and for the past 12 years she has taught fitness and barre classes, most recently at Motivate Personal Fitness Academy where her clients know her as “Suzy.”