Vancouver’s deputy city manager Lenda Crawford died earlier this week.
A member of Crawford’s family told city spokeswoman Carol Bua that Crawford had died after a stay in the hospital.
“It is devastating and a big loss for all of us here at the city,” Bua said.
Crawford’s death was not linked to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
In an email to the city council, City Manager Eric Holmes wrote that Crawford’s death was caused by a head injury linked to an accidental fall in her apartment. She died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
“Treatment of this injury complicated underlying medical conditions, and after two weeks of intensive care, Lenda passed,” Holmes wrote.
“Lenda’s passing is a major personal and professional loss for me, the leadership team and the city organization as a whole. The fact that it happened so suddenly and in the midst of our emergency response to the pandemic makes it even more difficult to process.”
Crawford, 61, was hired by the city in 2016. She had previously served as an administrator in municipalities across the state — she’d worked as the finance director of Redmond, the deputy director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, the deputy county executive in Snohomish County and the chief administrative officer of Seattle nonprofit Thrive By Five Washington.
Crawford ran internal operations at Vancouver City Hall, overseeing human resources, information technology and risk management.
“We lost a significant member of the team,” Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle wrote in a Facebook post Thursday evening.
