The state's top mental-health official has suddenly resigned.

Karl Brimner, 57, had been in charge of the troubled Western State Hospital, Eastern State Hospital and a community mental-health network since early 2001.

He resigned Wednesday and was gone by the end of the day, officials from the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) confirmed last night.

Brimner is the second senior DSHS manager to leave since Robin Arnold-Williams took the reins of the massive state agency 11 weeks ago.

Uma Ahluwalia, who headed the child-welfare system, resigned last month under pressure from Arnold-Williams.

"I guess I'm not surprised that when you get a new governor and a new DSHS secretary that some of the second- and third-level people will leave," said Randy Revelle, a vice president of the Washington State Hospital Association and a mental-health advocate. "There are going to be some changes."

Revelle added he didn't know details of Brimner's departure.

Brimner was in charge of about 2,500 employees and a $600 million annual budget, said his boss, Tim Brown, who will take over Brimner's duties until a replacement is found.

Brown declined to discuss details of the resignation.

Western State is home to about 800 severely mentally ill people and a turbulent history.

Since Brimner took office, Western State Hospital, in Lakewood, Pierce County, has been at the center of a sexual-harassment scandal and a lawsuit claiming that unstable, mentally ill patients were dumped onto the streets of Tacoma and into other unsafe environments.

Western State employee Barrette Green was fired in November 2003 for what a federal judge later described as a "shocking pattern of physical and verbal harassment" over his 15-year career.

The scandal cost taxpayers nearly $2 million in settlements, investigations and consultants and resulted in Brimner firing the hospital's chief executive officer, C. Jan Gregg.

Administrators at the hospital were accused of turning a blind eye to Green — known to some as "the Green Machine" — to appease the Washington Federation of State Employees union, where Green was an outspoken leader.

Western State has also been battling a 2-year-old patient-dumping lawsuit brought by Pierce County. A tentative agreement was reached in March, but then wasn't funded by the Legislature, leaving the future of the lawsuit uncertain.

In a memo to staff this week, Brown thanked Brimner for his "important contributions to DSHS and the citizens of Washington."

"As you know, he led the division into a time of great change," Brown wrote. "Important legislation that will affect Washington's residents who struggle with mental illness and the people who love them was passed this year. Mental illness is now viewed on an equal basis as physical sickness."

Brown said the agency expects to conduct a quick search and announce a replacement within a month or so.

Brimner was paid about $95,000 a year.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com