Greg Smith, executive director of the Columbia Development Authority, listens Sept. 20, 2024, at the Nixyaawii Governance Center, Mission, as members of his board critique the way he included salary increases for himself and other CDA staff in a grant application. The Port of Morrow, which administers the grant to fund the CDA, learned Feb. 21, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense was pulling funding for the grant.

THE STORY: Columbia Development Authority Executive Director Greg Smith in September received criticism from his board of directors over a grant application the board approved in June.

The CDA for nearly a decade has employed Smith, who works as an economic consultant and as a state representative for House District 57. The federal grant application inaccurately said the CDA board had approved a large salary increase of $66,000 for Smith and $47,000 for another employee. Still, the board did approve the grant application, with the inaccuracy, at the time.

After the Malheur Enterprise revealed the error and the associated pay increases, board members critiqued Smith’s work and tension boiled over during a Sept. 20, 2024, meeting. The board decided to create and complete an evaluation of Smith’s performance.

THE LATEST: More than three months after the board meeting to discuss the inaccurate grant application, the board has not completed a performance evaluation of Smith. Instead, board members continue to disagree about the land allocation across board entities — an unrelated but ongoing conflict.

Additionally, the board seems to expect some form of litigation from employees, as it unanimously approved hiring Barran Liebman, a law firm specializing in employment issues, during its Dec. 11 board meeting. The firm will be the second the board has retained. The CDA’s next meeting is Jan. 15, starting at 1 p.m.