Peter Zieve on Giving Back to His Community and Keeping Mukilteo a Small Town

Peter Zieve, engineer and founder of the company Electroimpact, has promised to preserve the character of Mukilteo, Washington in his upcoming run for city council.

Over the summer, Zieve kicked off his campaign for Mukilteo City Council. At the kickoff, Zieve emphasized his commitment to maintaining an open-door policy throughout his campaign.

“I am a community man with an open-door policy,” he told the Lynnwood Times. “I run my business that way and I will continue that commitment when elected to the council.”

Zieve is running against two other candidates for a seat on the city council. Out of the three candidates only two will advance to the general elections in November.

Zieve’s city council platform heavily focuses on the community and upholding his promise to keep Mukilteo away from plans to urbanize and expand. His platform is adamantly opposing the Housing Action Policy (HAP), which supports the construction of market-rate and affordable housing. However, Zieve states HAP will only bring crime, unwanted traffic congestion and unnecessary urbanization to Mukilteo. He says his priority is keeping Mukilteo a small town for the foreseeable future.

“Early on in my career I would have to travel to big cities like Seattle and I didn’t enjoy the congestion, the noise or the hoards of people everywhere,” says Zieve. “Mukilteo is quiet, peaceful. Everyone knows each other and everyone cares about each other…it would just be nice to keep it that way.”

Zieve, a Miluakee native, moved to the small town of Mukilteo almost 30 years ago with the intention of starting his engineering company, Electroimpact. The company’s headquarters is now based out of Mukilteo, Washington. Zieve takes pride in Electroimpact’s commitment to providing safe products to its customers, as well as creating a safe and healthy workspace for its employees.

Electroimpact’s original focus, according to Zieve, was supplying Boeing Aerospace Company with machine tools. Over the years, however, Electroimpact has expanded overseas in order to act as a main supplier for other prominent aerospace companies such as Israeli Aircraft Industries and Airbus. As of today, he has a plethora of engineers scattered throughout China, Brazil, Japan, and France, as well as a large satellite office located in the UK.

Additionally, one of Zieve’s primary values as a city council member candidate is to give back to his community. Through Electroimpact, Zieve focuses heavily on donating to STEM programs throughout Washington, as well as creating internship and apprenticeship programs for aspiring engineers at Electroimpact.

“We have intensive apprenticeship programs that are focused on teaching engineers how to use machinery they normally wouldn’t have access to,” Zieve says. “We’ll train a lot of these engineering students on subjects like robotics, or we’ll teach them how to use 3D printers and so on.”

Electroimpact also trains machinists. The training program lasts approximately three years. Once completed, machinists are awarded with a certificate of apprenticeship. Zieve created these various apprenticeship programs to create opportunities for the youth in his community.

Although Electroimpact is an engineering company, Zieve says his focus is on giving back to the Mukilteo community as a whole. In the past, he has personally contributed to the establishment of the Boys & Girls Club, as well as the Y.M.C.A in Mukilteo.

During the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, many schools across the world experienced shut downs. In Mukilteo, Zieve cleared out a building on his company’s property and hired a teacher to conduct classes for local children. Additionally, Zieve and his company opened up a baseball court for six days a week and encouraged local children of all ages to use his company’s property to continue practicing athletics.

“I try to find small ways to help the community with my own resources and property,” says Zieve. “At the end of the day, it’s all about helping the community and helping out your neighbors. It’s what makes Mukilteo special and different from big cities like Seattle.”

Peter Zieve has an upcoming debate in October, where he and other city council members will discuss pressing issues in Mukilteo, as well as the HAP implementation plan.

For more information on Peter Zieve, Electroimpact and his campaign, visit his website https://peterzieve.net.