AUBURN — Richard “Rick” Whiting has announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 City Council seat.

Richard Whiting retired in 2019 after 40 years with the Auburn Housing Authority. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

He serves on the board of the PAL Center, on the advisory committee of Healthy Androscoggin, and is vice president of Maine Preservation, a statewide historic preservation organization working on a plan to revitalize historic Strathglass Park in Rumford, among many other initiatives throughout the state.

Whiting strongly supports the measures taken over the past 100-plus years to protect Lake Auburn, as well as those taken by the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission to protect this vital regional water supply. He believes in a balanced approach to development, with a healthy mix of commercial and residential development, and a well-reasoned, thoughtfully considered, incremental approach to planning and zoning issues.

After graduating from Edward Little High School and cum laude from Harvard College and working two years for Depositors Trust, Whiting served many years as executive director of the Auburn Housing Authority.

With the guidance and assistance of Healthy Androscoggin, and Auburn Housing’s Board of Commissioners, he helped begin a nationwide movement to create smoke-free housing. He has lived or worked in every ward in the city, and has served on Auburn’s Zoning Board of Appeals, the Planning Board, the Auburn Public Library board of trustees, the Auburn Water District board of trustees and boards of Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and Auburn Housing Development Corp.

He is married to Bridget Cullen Whiting and has a son, Cullen, who lives in Portland.