Biography
Richard J. McIver, is a fifth-generation Seattleite, having started at Horace Mann Elementary School, and graduated from Garfield High School. He was first appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Council in early 1997, and was subsequently elected to full four-year terms in November, 1997, 2001, and 2005.
Councilmember McIver currently chairs the City Council’s Housing & Economic Development Committee. He is vice-chair of the Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee and is a member of the Transportation Committee. He is an alternate member of the Energy & Technology Committee. (From 2004 through 2007 he was the chair of the Council’s Budget & Finance Committee.)
He also serves on the board of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, a quasi governmental agency working to increase housing affordability and access through the promotion of homeownership and the development of non-profit low income housing.
Councilmember McIver served on the Sound Transit Board for eleven years (1997-2007), including service as vice chair of the agency’s Finance Committee. Over the years he made recommendations on annual capital and operating budgets, financial plans, and monitored the progress of the adopted budgets and investments.
For the two year period of 2003-2004, Councilmember McIver served as President of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) (www.psrc.org), an association of cities, counties, ports, and state agencies from King, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties working collaboratively to develop policies and make decisions regarding regional growth, economic development, and transportation issues.
Prior to his tenure on the Seattle City Council, Mr. McIver gained extensive public and private sector experience in community and economic development programs at both the local and national levels. As a senior level consultant, he managed and evaluated rehabilitation of affordable housing, urban renewal, neighborhood development, and historic preservation efforts.
Immediately prior to his 1997 appointment to the Council, Mr. McIver served as the Executive Director of the Washington Association for Community Economic Development (WACED), a statewide association of community-based non-profit organizations committed to revitalization of disadvantaged communities. WACED provided technical assistance and training to its members. Mr. McIver also served as Development Director for the Tacoma Housing Authority, where he was responsible for acquisition, rehabilitation, development, and construction of affordable housing projects.
Other positions previously held by Mr. McIver included his ownership of Comprehensive Planning & Development, a private management consulting business; Director of the Community & Economic Development Assistance Center at A.L. Nellum & Associates, where he administered a HUD funded effort to provide technical assistance in community and economic development to 21 communities with significant minority populations in 20 states; and as Field Director and Project Manager for the Rehabilitation Advisory Services at the National League of Cities.
Beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. McIver worked for the City of Seattle in the Departments of City Planning, Office of Urban Renewal, and the Department of Community Development. He has served as a board member and officer of a number of community organizations, including the Washington Community Development Loan Fund, Cascadia Revolving Loan Fund, University of Washington Business & Economic Development Program Advisory Committee, the local Big Brothers & Sisters, Center for Urban Studies, and Neighborhood House.
He is a graduate of Western Washington University, Fairhaven College, with an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in Community Development, with majors in Urban Planning & Finance. In 2003, he was named “Distinguished Alumnus” by the Western Washington University Alumni Association.
Councilmember McIver is married to Marlaina Kiner-McIver, is the father of Mimi McIver, and the grandfather of Michael McIver. He is a resident of the Lakewood neighborhood in Southeast Seattle.
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