Where was the MnDOT chief?

Applause filled the air recently as state Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau spoke at the opening of a new segment of Hwy. 212 in Chanhassen.

"This means a lot to me," she said, nodding toward the just-finished highway.

Then Molnau and other dignitaries waved small green flags. A state snowplow crashed through a banner stretched across the roadway.

The moment was typical of the ribbon cuttings, construction announcements and small-town speaking engagements that Molnau has regularly shown up for since the Aug. 1 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge.

A Star Tribune review of Molnau's daily work calendar for the three months after the disaster shows that she was more likely to be found at events such as the road-dedication ceremony than at congressional hearings and legislative meetings on the collapse.

Numerous days on her calendar are blank, the review shows, including 16 days in September. A Minnesota Department of Transportation spokeswoman said the calendar covered everything from dental exams to official appointments and meetings in Molnau's roles as lieutenant governor and MnDOT chief.

Molnau declined to be interviewed for this article. A spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty last week referred questions about her visibility to MnDOT.

In a statement, Molnau said: "I was intimately involved in decisions regarding the recovery and subsequent rebuilding of the I-35W bridge. Detailed accounts of how I spent my time seem trivial given the scope and magnitude of this disaster."

But her calendar for the three months ending Nov. 1, which the Star Tribune obtained in mid-November, shows that Molnau was absent at some key moments.

On Aug. 5, four days after the bridge collapse, Molnau's assistant, Bob McFarlin, was the public voice of MnDOT as he addressed questions about recovery operations, reports that the bridge had wobbled in the moments before the collapse and MnDOT's cash-flow problems. Molnau's calendar for the day is blank.

On Sept. 5, when a congressional committee in Washington heard testimony on the bridge collapse, McFarlin represented MnDOT on Capitol Hill. Molnau's calendar for the day is blank.

On Nov. 28, five days before the Hwy. 212 dedication, Molnau did not appear at the State Capitol when legislators pressed for answers following an investigative report on Sonia Morphew Pitt, the MnDOT emergency management director who was subsequently fired. Molnau sent a deputy to testify and issued a written statement.

During these months, Molnau dedicated a new highway maintenance shop in Meeker County, gave a speech to a Chaska Rotary Club, met with a legislator to discuss highway signs and took part in an annual session with a concrete industry trade group. On Sept. 6, the day after the congressional hearing, Molnau's calendar showed she attended a funeral in Moorhead for a Minnesota soldier killed in the Middle East. All of the events took place between Aug. 20 and Sept. 20.

Rep. Bernard Lieder, DFL-Crookston and House Transportation Committee chair, said Molnau has been one of the least visible transportation commissioners he has known. "It seems to be [McFarlin's] the decision-maker, the guy that puts words in her mouth," said Lieder, a legislator for more than two decades.

A flurry, then absence

On Aug. 1, the day the bridge collapsed, killing 13 and injuring more than 100, Molnau was in China at a transportation seminar. She was scheduled to give a speech describing "Minnesota's successes with congestion management."

But she cut short her visit, returned to Minnesota the next evening and, records show, immediately went into a 9 p.m. briefing with Pawlenty.

Molnau then appeared at a news conference with President Bush the next morning. But starting on Aug. 3, her first full day back in Minnesota, her calendar is blank for seven of the next 16 days. A MnDOT spokeswoman said Molnau's calendar reflected "major meetings and events," but was not a "minute-by-minute diary."

On the Monday after the bridge collapse, Molnau's calendar shows, she had a 45-minute meeting with aides to Pawlenty, a news conference in which she vowed not to resign and a session with a top U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official. Later in the week, she met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.

Her calendar for the following work week shows just one three-hour staff meeting. Two days are blocked out for "office time." Two others are blank.

Minneapolis officials, including Mayor R.T. Rybak, said many of their sessions with state officials over the bridge collapse involved everyone from Pawlenty to MnDOT engineers -- but rarely Molnau.

"It was clear to me that the governor's office was calling the shots," said Tina Smith, Rybak's chief of staff. Smith said she worked most closely with Bob Schroeder, a Pawlenty aide.

In the 12 days after the Aug. 7 meeting, Molnau's calendar contains seven entries. Eight days are blank or simply say "office time."

On Aug. 19, the day the body of the 12th bridge collapse victim was found, Molnau was the featured speaker at a tribute and pancake breakfast in Paynesville for Minnesota soldiers who had served in the Middle East.

"We had the lieutenant governor booked for the event before the bridge collapse," said Jeb Johnson, president of the Paynesville area Chamber of Commerce. After the collapse, Johnson said, "We double-checked and triple-checked" to see if she needed to cancel. Molnau, according to a Chamber of Commerce report, showed up two and a half hours before her speech and "mingled with those in attendance."

Another person Molnau set aside time for during that period was Jari Askins, the lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. Molnau's calendar shows that she and Askins met for an hour in mid-September. Askins said in an interview that they discussed the bridge collapse.

"There was such compassion for the people" who died or were injured in the tragedy, Askins said. "I found a woman that was very knowledgeable about the transportation issues."

Later this fall, Molnau's calendar showed a more visible MnDOT leader who toured southern Minnesota to inspect flood damage and attended legislative hearings on the bridge and MnDOT's finances. In October, she attended a meeting between MnDOT and the Metropolitan Council, did interviews with local TV reporters and attended the grand opening of a new transit station.

But in early October, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and the heads of the transportation departments in California and Wisconsin attended a symposium in Minneapolis on how to increase transportation funding on a national level. U.S Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., a critic of MnDOT after the bridge collapse, hosted the session. Organizers said Molnau got an invitation but did not attend. Her calendar for the day is blank.

Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388