PENDLETON – A public employer of Greg Smith, the longest-serving member of the Oregon House, on Friday revoked his significant pay raise over accusations he manipulated the public agency. The board of the Columbia Development Authority voted in a special meeting in Pendleton to rescind pay raises for Smith and his top assistant that date back to April. Two board members said Smith lied to get the raise. Smith, a Republican state representative from Heppner, was defiant and emotional at the meeting. He admitted that a claim made to the federal government that the board had previously approved his pay raise should not have been made.  “I wish that statement wasn’t in there,” Smith said. “I own it.” The board’s action means Smith’s pay will drop from $195,000 a year back to his earlier pay of $129,000. The board member who proposed the reduction said Smith will be expected to repay the authority. That could force Smith to pay back an estimated $33,000. But the board also rolled back the pay for Smith’s assistant, Debbie Pedro. Her pay had increased by $55,000 to $130,000 a year.  She could owe the public entity $23,500. “We’ve been lied to.” –JD Tovey, Columbia Development Authority board member The action came just days after the Malheur Enterprise reported how Smith earlier this year orchestrated the pay raise. The authority was formed in 2014 to take title to the U.S. Army’s former Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston. Some 9,000 acres were deeded to the agency last year to be used for industrial development and for wildlife range. The development authority operates off federal funding and, until recently, from assessments made to its five local partners. The partners include the ports of Umatilla and Morrow, the counties of Umatilla and Morrow and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Smith has justified taking the pay raise because the CDA board in June voted to approve a federal grant needed to operate the authority. The grant paperwork referred to but did not spell out compensation changes.  He repeated that defense Friday before the board. “You voted on the final grant,” Smith said. JD Tovey, who represents the Confederated Tribes on the board, pointed out that board members were given the grant – which runs to 22 pages – one day before the vote. He said board members were told before their vote that they had to act quickly, that the grant was routine and that there was no significant change from the previous year. “We’ve been lied to,” Tovey said. He said the actions seem “on the edge of malfeasance.” He said there was no board discussion of a pay raise – or making a raise retroactive. Kelly Doherty, representing the Port of Morrow Commission on the authority board, said she did read the grant before the vote. She was new to the position and she said she accepted the grant’s claim that the board had previously approved the pay raises. She learned later there was no such approval. “I’m pretty upset that I was lied to,” Doherty said. Smith parried their questions with explanations of the grant process that in some instances conflicted with the authority’s own documents. Debbie Pedro, an executive of the Columbia Development Authority in Boardman, attends the authority’s board in Pendleton on Friday, Sept. 20. (LES ZAITZ/The Enterprise) He suggested it was unclear how the claims about pay raises got into the document. But authority records show that Smith pressed the board chair in December and again in January to boost his pay by as much as double. In January, the CDA submitted paperwork that falsely reported that “compensation packages have been approved” by the CDA board. Similar language remained in place as the grant application underwent revisions, and records show Smith was copied on the documents. Smith said he hadn’t read the salary description. That left the implication that junior employees working for him had on their own created the account of board approval of major pay raises. Smith didn’t respond to questions about the matter sent to him Saturday. He has said he works “24/7”  for the authority. He told the board that he had recently contacted federal authorities to revise the grant language. But what he shared at the meeting was little changed from what was given those authorities in several drafts from January to June. The language that compensation changes “have been approved” was changed to report that “compensation packages are pending approval” by the CDA Board. But no such compensation package has been presented to the board, board members told the Enterprise. “I am not aware of any pending actions that are awaiting  board approval,” Doherty said in an email Saturday. Smith didn’t respond to questions about that apparent discrepancy. The grant language Smith shared at the Friday meeting still claims in a second place that “the requested compensation reflects a board-approved increase salary adjustment.” “There has been no approved compensation package. The statement is inaccurate,” Doherty said. Federal authorities couldn’t be reached Saturday to determine the impact of the false claim. After the board voted 3-1 to rescind the pay raises, Smith grew hostile with his directors. He accused Tovey of putting on “a show” and falsely claimed Doherty had led a local recall effort. Later in the meeting, Doherty asked Smith to say out loud what she said he had mouthed to her: “I hope you have a good lawyer.” Smith said “I don’t recall” saying that. “I saw it,” Tovey said. Smith told the board that a reporter from the Enterprise was stalking him and falsely said the reporter had emailed personal questions to Smith’s wife. Smith said the “dysfunctional” board was interfering with his CDA work. “I’m sitting here dinking around” on pay issues instead of working on development projects, Smith said. Tovey reported that he recently met with a CEO of a company looking to invest $800 million in a project. He said the executive told him the company wouldn’t come to the region in part because of Smith. “Your name came up,” Tovey said. Tovey questioned Smith about reporting in the Enterprise that he was claiming hours worked for the CDA when he was engaged in other activities, such as touring the U.S. border as a legislator. Smith replied that he had an arrangement with those who hired him at the CDA in 2015. “They understood I had other agreements,” Smith said. He said that wasn’t in writing. Smith didn’t explain whether his hiring conditions allowed him to collect CDA pay while working on his other contracts. Smith, 55, has made himself wealthy with salaries and contracts with public bodies across eastern Oregon. He has been a state representative since 2001, is a leader in the House Republican caucus and holds a leadership post on the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee. He used his position and power there to steer state money to those who employed him directly or as a contractor. The Columbia Development Authority was one of those agencies. The Enterprise investigation of Smith’s conduct at the CDA found that: •Smith claimed to work eight-hour days for the authority at times when he wasn’t on duty in Boardman, the authority’s home base. For May 2, for example, he claimed eight hours of pay on a day his Facebook page showed he was in Arizona, recording a border video as a state legislator. •Smith sought in December to double his pay from the authority with an unorthodox formula. He compared the number of acres managed at another former military base with his, calculating what his pay should be per acre. He claimed he managed 19,000 acres when the development authority in fact held title to 9,511. •He proposed a different salary figure a month later, saying his job was on par with others in the Northwest and he deserved equal pay. Smith manages two employees and a budget of just under $1 million. He compared himself to managers such as the executive director of the Port of Pasco in Washington state. Smith didn’t reveal that the executive manages 46 employees with a $106 million budget. Smith has simultaneously held several posts while holding down the full-time job in Boardman. Eastern Oregon University in La Grande has retained him as director of its small business development center. Smith’s contract pays his company, Gregory Smith & Associates, $138,000 a year. Smith recently advised the Enterprise on Sept. 18 that he was “winding down” his contract though it runs until December 2025. He made the statement as the Enterprise continued its investigation of his performance there. University officials have refused to discuss the matter and have imposed on the Enterprise thousands of dollars in fees for records concerning Smith’s tenure. Smith’s company also has a contract to operate a business resource center for Umatilla Electric Cooperative in Hermiston. The utility’s website lists Smith as “executive adviser” for the resource center. The company in the past has been silent about how much it pays Smith’s firm. He also is on the board of the Morrow Development Corp., based in Hermiston. The nonprofit’s federal tax return for the year ending June 30, 2023, reports the “average hours per week” for Smith at 20. The tax return also shows that Smith’s company is paid to administer a loan program run by the corporation. Morrow Development paid Smith’s company $100,000 in the last tax year. The nonprofit’s total income that year was reported at $106,354. Board members of the Columbia Development Authority and others listen as executive director Greg Smith speaks at a special meeting in Pendleton on Friday, Sept. 20. From right on JD Tovey, representing the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, David Sykes, a Morrow County commissioner, and Kelly Doherty, representing the Port of Morrow Commission. (LES ZAITZ/The Enterprise) Greg Smith, executive director of the Columbia Development Authority, at the authority’s board in Pendleton on Friday, Sept. 20. The board voted to rescind a major pay raise for Smith. (LES ZAITZ/The Enterprise) PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Greg Smith exaggerates his duty to engineer major pay raise from struggling public agency Contact Editor Les Zaitz: [email protected]. SUPPORT INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING This story is provided at no charge as a public service of the Enterprise. Help cover costs for such local journalism by contributing to its News Fund. The post Public official loses pay increase, faces salary repayment as board probes conduct appeared first on Salem Reporter.