Oregon’s longest-serving state representative likely broke state ethics laws when he tried to secure a $66,000 raise, according to a report from the state’s government ethics watchdog, but investigators need more time to gather information.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted during a special meeting Tuesday to extend for 30 days its investigation into whether Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, violated state laws about conflicts of interest and using a public position for financial gain. The commission could decide whether to move forward with a case against Smith, a state legislator since 2000, as early as Friday, Dec. 12, or at a January meeting.
Smith has long supplemented his legislative salary with lucrative consulting contracts and side gigs leading economic development efforts in eastern Oregon. The current investigation revolves around his work as executive director of the Columbia Development Authority, a Boardman-based intergovernmental agency in charge of redeveloping a former military base.
The investigation aimed to answer two questions. First, did Smith violate state law by not disclosing he had a conflict of interest when he negotiated with a federal office to increase his salary as director of the agency? And second, did he abuse his position as a public official to secure a sizable raise?
The Columbia Development Authority is an intergovernmental organization consisting of the Port of Umatilla, Umatilla County, Port of Morrow, Morrow County and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. It has received federal grant funding from the Office of Local Defense and Community Cooperation, though the U.S. Defense Department revoked its most recent $800,000 grant in February after investigating Smith’s salary and working hours.
In late 2023, Smith made $129,000 annually to run the agency. He sought to increase that salary to $238,000, according to a letter he sent to the Columbia Development Authority board’s chair in December 2023, but ethics commission investigators found no indication that the board considered or approved such a raise.
But a 2024 grant application the development authority submitted to the federal office included references to “a significant board-approved increase salary adjustment to prior grant period’s existing salaries beginning April 1, 2024.”
“The CDA board is in agreement that compensation for the top two employees, through research of other like positions in the Pacific Northwest, is approved and will bring those salaries to the correct levels in accordance with management and other local and state comparable salaries,” the application continued.
That grant application called for a new salary for Smith of $195,000, the highest allowed under an Office of Local Defense and Community Cooperation salary cap. The federal government was to pay $123,350 and the local agency would pay $71,650.
The federal office approved that grant application in May 2024 and the development authority’s board saw the approved grant budget during its June 2024 meeting. The budget called for Smith’s pay to increase, and that it be paid retroactively to April 1, 2024.
The development authority’s board revoked Smith’s raise in September 2024 and directed him to pay back the extra salary he had received.
The ethics commission is still investigating how the raise and retroactive pay boost made it into the grant application. In March of this year, the commission received a complaint about Smith’s efforts to secure the raise.
Casey Fenstermaker, a compliance and enforcement coordinator with the commission, reviewed documents and conducted a number of interviews, but she wasn’t able to complete interviews with Smith and Columbia Development Authority board member J.D. Tovey until Monday.
Those interviews aren’t included in the 25-page report prepared Monday for commissioners to review, and Fenstermaker wrote that she’ll need further interviews with the Port of Morrow’s chief financial officer and executive director to confirm or clarify information that arose from those interviews. The Port of Morrow served as fiscal agent for the Columbia Development Authority and handled payroll and other funding.
“Commission staff has requested various documents and conducted various interviews, which have generated, honestly, more questions than answers at this point,” Fenstermaker told commissioners Tuesday.
The ethics commissioners spent much of their hour-long Tuesday meeting debating the timing of a subsequent meeting to decide what to do with the investigation into Smith. A 30-day extension would mean they’d have to decide by Jan. 8, the day before their regularly scheduled January meeting.
The commission has opened four investigations into Smith this year. He received a letter of education in March for failing to list Harney County as a source of income on the annual economic interest statement he must file as an elected official.
The commission began an investigation in August over whether he broke state law on reporting income sources. Another investigation launched in October concerns whether the Columbia Development Authority paid him for days he was working as a legislator or for other agencies. Another complaint is in its preliminary review period, commission staff confirmed Tuesday, and no details will be available until that review is complete and the commission decides whether to investigate or dismiss it.
In response to a 2024 ethics investigation, Smith reported that his household’s gross annual income was more than $1 million. That includes his salary from the Columbia Development Authority, his legislative stipend, his wife’s salary as his legislative assistant and income from his business.
Neither Smith nor his attorney, Amanda Gamblin, attended the meeting, and Smith did not respond to an email, text or phone call from the Capital Chronicle on Tuesday. Shortly after the meeting began, a House Republican spokeswoman sent a press release on Smith’s behalf announcing that he received an award from the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association at its weekend conference.
By Julia Shumway of news partner Oregon Capital Chronicle
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