Seattle's parks chief to resign effective May 10

The head of Seattle Parks and Recreation resigned Monday, saying that recent media coverage of his travel expenses overshadowed what he felt was the real story — a budget crisis in the parks department.

Tim Gallagher's resignation, effective May 10, came just as he returned from a trip to Australia where he and another parks official attended a conference in Melbourne called International Healthy Parks, Healthy People Congress 2010.

It cost taxpayers $6,000 for registration for the two, five nights at a hotel and a per diem, said Joelle Hammerstad, spokeswoman for the parks department.

"It seems that the public sometimes think that if you're a public official that there's no need for continuing education," Gallagher said Monday evening. "I disagree."

He said he came to the decision after speaking with his family, and was not pressured into it by anyone.

He added he'll be looking into private-sector jobs, and possibly consulting.

No interim superintendent has been named.

Parks and Recreation faces cuts of more than $10 million and more than 100 full-time positions in 2011, Carol Everson, finance director for the parks system told the parks-levy oversight committee Monday night.

A spokesman for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Aaron Pickus, said that during a meeting between Gallagher and the mayor on Monday, Gallagher offered to submit his resignation, and the mayor accepted.

Gallagher, who earned $166,438 in 2009, was picked for the parks job in 2007 by then-Mayor Greg Nickels. His hiring came three years after retiring from his post as director of the Los Angeles County's Department of Parks and Recreation.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who used to be chairman of the parks committee, said he "had high hopes" for Gallagher.

Among Gallagher's accomplishments, Rasmussen said, were his deft handling of controversy with neighborhood groups over developing Magnuson Park and his ability to navigate between the council and Nickels over the 2008 parks levy, which Nickels didn't support.

Soon, Rasmussen said, he grew "concerned about Gallagher's leadership because he's been gone so much."

Gallagher instituted a ban on smoking in Seattle parks in February. He made the ruling — which received scores of negative comments on seattletimes.com — while on vacation in Oregon and unreachable. (He later backed off in favor of a ban that limits using tobacco only if at least 25 feet away from another patron.)

After that, Gallagher attended three parks conferences in March: one in Palm Springs, Calif., another in Washington, D.C., and a third in Atlanta, according to records from the parks department. His annual travel budget is $10,776 and he's never exceeded that amount since he was hired.

But as the ax fell on city departments and employees took mandated furloughs, some began to question the point of Gallagher's travel, Rasmussen said.

"[Staff] are taking cuts in their salaries, and where is the superintendent?" Rasmussen said. "The superintendent wasn't here. He was traveling."

Gallagher defended the trips, saying that learning from other cities is key to keeping a parks department vital and relevant.

"Whenever I come into a new city, I see things [in that parks system] and think "Why in the world are they still doing that? And then I see other things and think, 'That's brilliant.'"

In his statement Monday, he said the "real story" the press should focus on, is "the upcoming collapse of a truly great park system."

Staff reporters Sanjay Bhatt, Emily Heffter and Justin Mayo contributed to this report. Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546.