Charles T. Royer Departmental Correspondence

Series

Identifier: 5274-01

Scope and Contents note

Correspondence with city departments regarding departmental activities and programs. Records document ongoing operations as well as specific issues and events. A large portion of the records relate to the Department of Community Development and document the city's work on urban renewal, housing, neighborhood improvement, and historic preservation. Records relating to City Light deal with issues ranging from nuclear power to rates to discrimination against female and minority employees. Department of Construction and Land Use records cover zoning, permits, and displacement. Fort Lawton, the aquarium, and the zoo are all addressed in correspondence from the Parks Department. Other departments heavily represented in the records include Engineering, Police, Human Resources (social services), Personnel, and the Office of Management and Budget. Arranged alphabetically for each year.

Dates

Creation: 1978-1989

Creator

Seattle (Wash.). City Clerk (Organization)
Royer, Charles, 1939- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access note

Records are open to the public.

Biographical Note

See more See less

Born in 1939 in Medford, Oregon, Charles Royer briefly attended Portland State University before being drafted by the Army in 1961. Upon being discharged from the military, he went to the University of Oregon and studied journalism. He worked as a news reporter for television stations in Eugene, Portland, and Seattle for about ten years before running for Seattle mayor in 1977. He won election, taking office in 1978 and serving three terms before stepping down at the end of 1989. Major issues Royer worked on during his tenure included public housing, the downtown bus tunnel, pollution, the High Ross Dam, the convention center, downtown development, and public health. He served as president of the National League of Cities in the early 1980s. After leaving office, Royer was the director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics at Harvard for five years before returning to Seattle to work for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative. He later founded the nonprofit Institute for Community Change and worked as a consultant.