Embattled Seattle transportation chief to resign

Grace Crunican, the embattled director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, announced Monday she will step down to start her own consulting company.

Mayor-elect Mike McGinn said he has asked Crunican — who came under fire for her handling of last December's snowstorms — to stay on until he has selected a new director. That appointment will be subject to City Council confirmation.

McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus declined to say whether McGinn asked Crunican to resign. McGinn takes office Monday.

Crunican said she was not asked to leave. "This was all on me."

Asked if she got the sense she could have stayed, Crunican said, "We hadn't had any of those conversations."

Crunican, who has spent eight years as transportation director, moved to Seattle from Oregon, where she headed the state Department of Transportation. This month, she was a finalist to become county administrator in Clackamas County, Ore. The interim administrator got the job.

Crunican, 54, said Monday she "had a great time with the city. We did a lot of great things."

But over the past year, the focus has been on what many viewed as a botched response to the snowstorms. Icy, rutted streets left much of the city paralyzed. A City Council review said mismanagement and a lack of preparedness led to the city's poor performance.

Crunican took a hit, as did Mayor Greg Nickels, who stood by her even as his chances for re-election dimmed.

Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan repeatedly used the snowstorm to bash Nickels and said the mayor — who notoriously gave the city a "B" for its performance — should have let her go.

McGinn generally kept quiet about whether Crunican should stay or go. But in July, after hesitating to answer, he said, "I don't see keeping Grace Crunican." The snow response was part of the reason, but McGinn — known for his opposition to the tunnel set to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct — added that the city needed a new approach to transportation.

Nickels' support for his transportation director continued unabated Monday. In a statement, the mayor said he considers Crunican "the finest local transportation director in the nation."

During Crunican's tenure, the city reached an agreement with the state on the tunnel; opened the South Lake Union streetcar; approved the Bicycle Master Plan, adding more miles of bike lanes; and began implementing the voter-approved Bridging the Gap program, which officials say has so far delivered, among other things, 97 lane-miles of repaved roads and 54 blocks of new sidewalks.

Nickels' statement credited Crunican for work on those projects, adding that she "made sure pedestrians and bicyclists had an equal voice in all our transportation decisions and filled almost half a million potholes!"

Crunican said that after eight years of work, "it seemed like a good time to go."

A Department of Transportation news release Monday included the high points. But it concluded with this: "Though the department did not meet the public's expectations during the two weeks of snow and ice in December 2008, a new winter weather response plan and Street Maintenance division director are ready for the cold weather season, and have already been tested by icy streets this month."

Staff reporter Linda Shaw contributed to this report, and information from Seattle Times archives was included.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com.