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COLUMBIA -- State Department of Transportation executive director Elizabeth Mabry said Thursday she has no intention of resigning during a news conference to defend the agency's management.

Mabry said she wanted to tell "the rest of the story," and as a group of DOT workers watched, agency officials took issue with critical news stories during the past two years.

"The good things we have done far outweigh any negative news you may read or any negative statements that are made," she said. "Sure we can be criticized. But you have to balance the criticism with the good."

She spoke two weeks before officials are expected to release a yearlong DOT management audit. Mabry said that report will not drive her from the agency.

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"I don't intend to resign at all," she said. "I don't believe that would be in the best interest of the agency."

DOT Chairman Tee Hooper told Mabry during a recent board meeting she should resign for the good of the agency and the taxpayers.

Mabry and board members have seen the Legislative Audit Council report but cannot publicly discuss it until it's released.

Mabry said she did not believe Hooper has the votes to remove her. She said one of her regrets is not having a better relationship with Hooper.

"I don't know Mr. Hooper very well," she said. "I don't think he knows me very well."

Mabry said she is not certain how lawmakers and others will respond to the LAC report.

"It depends on how well people listen," she said.

Legislative leaders have said they support giving DOT more money for roads but only if it is coupled with reforms. Mabry has asked lawmakers to raise the agency's annual funding by $1 billion over the next decade to help counter flat gas tax receipts and rising construction costs.

"The needs are real," she said. "We have done an excellent job in meeting those needs with a very small amount of funds. The real issue is funding."

DOT officials gave short presentations Thursday including slide shows on past news stories about the agency, telling reporters what they thought should be emphasized on each issue and even suggesting headlines that they said more accurately reflected the facts.

Seated during the 70-minute presentation were a group of maintenance workers from the agency's Richland County operation, which Mabry said were there as representatives of the agency's 5,000-member work force.

Agency officials singled out headlines from each of the state's major newspapers, then gave their take on the issues.

They argued DOT already has accountability, addressing criticism from Gov. Mark Sanford that the agency suffers from a lack of accountability and should be placed in the governor's cabinet.

Other subjects discussed included the Briggs-Delaine-Pearson Connector project, consultants' contracts, the agency's logo sign contract, a bicycle and pedestrian conference, the purchase of four Chevrolet Tahoes for agency executives and a 2003 employee survey.

Hooper had complained about the use of the Tahoes and about hundreds of DOT workers attending a beach bicycle conference.

The Greenville News reported in April 2005 that DOT spent $113,663 to buy four Tahoes loaded with options at a time the agency was too strapped to pave the state's secondary roads. The cost of the vehicles, all purchased under state contract, ranged from $26,786 to $29,051, The News reported. Running boards and tinted windows installed by the agency's maintenance shop, added another $2,448.

Officials said Thursday the vehicles were needed to visit construction sites and also for emergency situations.

David Cook, assistant state maintenance engineer, told reporters that since July 2004, 143 vehicles and SUVs have been eliminated from the agency's light vehicle fleet, which now numbers 841.

Kristen Lominack, director of governmental affairs for DOT, said the bike conference was necessary to "change the culture" among agency workers about the need to consider bicyclists' and pedestrians' needs in building roads. She said 263 DOT engineers attended the conference, which was funded by the federal government and sponsors. The agency combined the bike conference with another meeting the following year to save money and now spaces the conferences two years apart.

Clem Watson, deputy state highway engineer, told reporters that two private construction resource management firms hired to work on 90 projects saved the state money in an accelerated construction program that itself saved taxpayers between $3 billion and $8 billion.

The News reported in November 2005 that the agency had agreed to pay $250 million over seven years to the consultant firms for services on 72 road and bridge projects instead of using agency staff to do the work. Officials estimated then they would have needed to hire 500 more workers to handle the projects without the consultants.

Budget records of DOT's engineering staff indicated the addition of 500 workers based upon the average staff salary and taking into account benefits would have totaled $168 million over seven years, The News reported.

Watson said the agency has the lowest number of employees per mile compared to other states. He said officials ran an analysis of four scenarios, including hiring additional staff, and concluded using the CRM firms "was in fact a decision that best served the public." He said officials estimated the agency saved between $21 million and $130 million using the two consultant firms when compared to the other possible scenarios.

He said $250 million "is a lot of money, I grant you that, but when you compare it to a $1.5 billion program that is being managed, that's 16 percent, and it's within reason of the work we do and the work other states do."

He estimated that 40 percent of the agency's total budget may be spent on private consultants.

Rebecca Creighton, preconstruction program manager, addressed a consultant contract for management services questioned earlier this year by some highway commissioners.

The News reported in May that commissioners wondered why the agency had signed a management contract with a private consultant that could stretch for five years and cost up to $23 million instead of using agency managers.

Creighton said the agency had tripled its workload at the time and faced losing 30 percent of its experienced employees within five years due to retirement. She said the consultant produced a state-of-state-art, Web-based project management system.

The actual cost of the first year was $3.4 million, she said, and the agency renewed the contract for a second at a cost not to exceed $2.3 million. There has been no decision to use the consultant for additional years, she said.

Keith Melvin, director of outdoor advertising for the agency, listed a bevy of awards DOT has received, countering a comment by Hooper last month that the agency was in a "mess."

Among the awards, he said, were two from the National Alliance of Highway Beautification agencies, the National Roadway Safety Award for DOT's median cable program and 14 awards for the Arthur Ravenel Bridge project in Charleston.