OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire searched the nation for a new transportation chief and decided the best person is already on the job.
On Monday, the governor appointed Paula Hammond as transportation secretary, making the department veteran the first woman in the state’s history to hold the position.
“I looked for a can-do person and I found that person,” Gregoire said. “She will put her stamp on the agency.”
Gregoire said 29 people applied and Hammond emerged as the overwhelming top choice of a panel composed of leaders from business, labor and environmental groups and local government.
Hammond pledged to work with “a personal passion” to make the state’s transportation system reliable and effective and “the safest” for those relying on it each day.
“I want them to come home safely from every trip on our highways,” she said.
Hammond, 50, had been serving as interim transportation secretary since Aug. 1 following the retirement of Doug MacDonald. She assumes control of an agency with 7,000 employees and a $6 billion budget for the 2007-09 biennium. Her annual salary will be $163,500.
A professional engineer, Hammond is in her 29th year — and 10th job — with the Department of Transportation.
State legislators who run the Senate and House of Representatives transportation committees urged Gregoire to select Hammond.
“Every time I saw her, I told her so,” said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.
“Paula is just an extraordinary woman. She’s been the one person you could go to and feel you were going to get a straight answer,” Haugen said. “She’s not the flamboyant person that Doug was. She’s the kind of person who will get the projects done.”
Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, said she was “thrilled” with the decision.
“I have no hesitation in thinking she will be a very strong leader,” she said. “What’s important to me is we have someone who is not afraid to make changes. I think she can do it.”
Hammond’s tenure begins at a time of unprecedented construction and daunting political and financial challenges.
Washington is working on billions of dollars in road and other improvements statewide with revenues from gas-tax hikes approved in 2003 and 2005. Ninety-two projects are done and 91 more will be started this year, Hammond said.
Yet the ubiquitous sight of orange cones is not quelling public frustration with the effects of congestion. Action is slow in coming on two mega-projects — replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Highway 520 bridge over Lake Washington — due to differences among political figures.
And with the possibility gas-tax revenues will not be as much as predicted, the state ferry system may end up with a $500 million hole in its budget, she said.
That means lawmakers must consider whether to build four new 144-car vessels as they ordered a few years back. There is still a need for dollars to find replacements for the aging Steel Electric vessels used on the Kingston-Port Townsend run, she said.
Hammond acknowledged the tasks with an upbeat response: “There is nothing better than a good challenge.”
Hammond is a native of Klamath Falls, Ore., and graduate of Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.
Her husband Alan is a professional land surveyor and they have three children.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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