Депутат Грег Смит оштрафован на $12 тыс. за злоупотребление полномочиями

Rep. Greg. Smith to pay $12K for ethics violations Published 5:27 pm Friday, August 14, 2026 The Eastern Oregon Republican state lawmaker agreed in July to pay the penalty SALEM — The Oregon Government Ethics Commission on Friday, Aug. 14, agreed to fine Oregon’s longest-serving state representative $12,000 for abusing his position as a leader of an Eastern Oregon public development authority to raise his salary and approve weeks of paid vacation. The unanimous Aug. 14 vote by seven commissioners marked the second conclusion to an ethics case against Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, this year. It’s the first financial penalty for Smith, who commissioners concluded used his position at the intergovernmental economic development organization for personal gain. Smith, who did not attend the commission’s meeting, agreed to the fine in July without conceding that he intentionally violated state laws. By doing so, he waived his right to a hearing where he could mount a defense. It was up to the commission to finalize the agreement at its Aug. 14 meeting, which it did without discussion. “He (Smith) negotiated the terms, and originally we started out at a higher dollar value because there were more violations that we had alleged. But upon negotiation and the sharing of information, we determined we didn’t have sufficient evidence to pursue those,” Casey Fenstermaker, the agency’s compliance and enforcement coordinator, told commissioners. “So that’s why we are at the amount that we are at.” The ethics investigation centered on Smith’s role as executive director of the Columbia Development Authority, an intergovernmental organization focused on redeveloping the site of a former military chemical depot that receives federal grant funding. A 2024 federal grant application included a $66,000 raise to Smith’s annual $129,000 salary as the authority’s executive director. The authority’s board reversed that raise upon learning about it and ordered Smith to repay the roughly $33,000 he netted, which he has not done, according to the commission’s final report. Smith resigned from the authority in January, about a month after the ethics commission confirmed his efforts to maneuver a raise broke state law. The commission also faulted Smith for using his position to approve his own vacation time without guidelines, including taking nearly 11 weeks of paid time off between December 2024 and August 2025. His vacations cost the authority more than $51,000 over three years, the investigation found. Smith maintains that the development authority’s fiscal agent, the Port of Morrow, never advised him to act differently, and he did not write the language in the development authority’s grant application. According to the commission’s order, Smith was discussing a pay increase for the development authority’s employees, including himself, during the year prior to the federal grant application. As a state representative since 2000, Smith has long supplemented his legislative salary with lucrative consulting contracts and side gigs assisting development in Eastern Oregon. He is a member of House Republican leadership and serves on the powerful budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee. Smith responded to an email, text and phone call from the Capital Chronicle on Aug. 14 with an email directing to his Facebook page. In a three-and-a-half-minute video, Smith said he cooperated fully with the commission — which had to extend the time period for its investigation last year because he delayed an interview with a commission investigator — and said he followed the authority’s policies. “The commission’s conclusions are civil and administrative,” he said. “The commission identified a longstanding structural issue: The CDA Board did not have written personnel policies and it did not have written policies governing hours, leave, compensation or administrative approvals. During my time as executive director, I followed the practices of the CDA and its fiscal agent, the Port of Morrow.” Smith said the order allows him to “move forward with clarity, transparency and accountability,” and he is still waiting for direction from the Port of Morrow about how to proceed with repaying the excess salary he received. “As President Reagan often reminded us, the future is always brighter when we face it together,” he said. “With this issue closed, it’s time to turn our attention back to building a stronger, more resilient and more hopeful place to live.” Smith’s full statement is at the end of the report. More allegations could come from Oregon DOJ A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice previously told the Capital Chronicle that it would review Smith’s case to decide if further investigation or action was appropriate. Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Aug. 11. The state’s Justice Department is suing Morrow County officials and Smith for allegedly conspiring to enrich themselves through a deal with Amazon amid data center growth in their area. While state attorneys allege Smith worked to help local officials to develop a strategy for concealing their work, Smith has denied the allegations and any wrongdoing. The fine Smith faces ranks among the highest penalties issued by the commission throughout its decades-long history. In 2018, the commission agreed to fines of $20,000 for former Gov. John Kitzhaber and $50,000 for his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, over Hayes advising the Democratic governor on climate policy while accepting paid contracts from clean energy groups. That scandal ended Kitzhaber’s fourth term as governor shortly after his reelection. Former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan paid $3,600 for her acceptance of a side gig consulting for a marijuana company that was the subject of an audit her office was conducting on state cannabis regulations that critics said favored the industry. Smith’s case also raised questions about whether leaders in the Oregon Legislature will act to hold him accountable for the violations, such as through reduced committee assignments or removal from leadership positions. As first reported by the Salem Reporter, Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, is the only Republican so far to have publicly called on his colleagues to act upon the ethics violations. In a recent post on social media, he stopped short of saying how exactly legislative leadership should respond. “We should expect high standards from others, but we must hold ourselves to the same standard. This is not about personal attacks. It is about integrity, public trust, and the responsibility that comes with elected office,” Yunker wrote on Facebook. “Leadership sometimes requires difficult conversations with people we respect. Our caucus should have that conversation and ask Rep. Smith to do the right thing.” Friday’s decision was the second time this year that the commission rebuked Smith’s actions as a public official. In January, the commission issued Smith a letter of education, essentially a formal reprimand, for failing to disclose some clients of his private consulting company on his annual economic interest statements. He conceded he violated state law and agreed to a letter of education for that case. Smith’s full statement Below is Smith’s full statement, which he read on his Facebook page and sent in an email on Aug. 14: Over the last 17 months, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission conducted a review of compensation practices at the Columbia Development Authority (CDA). I cooperated fully throughout that process, providing every document and explanation requested. I agreed to the settlement to bring closure and certainty, and that resolution confirms that there was no intentional wrongdoing on my part. The Commission’s conclusions are civil and administrative. The Commission identified a longstanding structural reality: the CDA had no written personnel policies, and the CDA Board had no written policies governing hours, leave, compensation, or administrative approvals. Throughout my tenure as Executive Director, I followed the established practices of the CDA and its fiscal agent, the Port of Morrow. My compensation, timecards, and leave were all managed through the Port, and I relied on the Port’s written policies. The Commission also reviewed the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation grant application that the CDA submits annually. Some of the language in that document, specifically the phrasing that compensation packages had already been approved, was not written by me. The CDA Board received full documentation, discussed the grant publicly, and approved it unanimously. The retroactive nature of the grant was part of the grant design, not a unilateral decision on my part. I have reflected on the procedural issues identified in the final order. I now recognize that when the CDA Board asked my staff and I to draft a budget for the OLDCC grant, I should have advised the Board that developing and approving budgets is their responsibility, not a staff function. I also learned that, as Executive Director, I needed to attach a conflict-of-interest statement to any action as it concerns the budget for CDA. I also recognize that even though I believed I was complying with the Port’s policies as to leave or timecards, that the CDA should have adopted its own written policies. Each missing conflict-of-interest disclosure and timecard submission constituted a separate procedural oversight, not an intentional violation, and I have taken those lessons to heart. I will pay the civil penalty $12,000. Finally, when employed by the CDA, I was willing to return the approved retroactive pay upon direction from the Fiscal Agent. I am awaiting clarification by the Port and the CDA as how they want to proceed in compliance with applicable regulations. My commitment to Eastern Oregon has never wavered. This Commission’s final order allows me to move forward with clarity, transparency, and accountability, and it allows me to refocus on the work that matters most … strengthening families and supporting our rural communities. As President Reagan often reminded us, the future is always brighter when we face it together. With the issue closed, it is time to turn our attention back to building a stronger, more resilient, and more hopeful place to live. Eastern Oregon deserves our full focus, our energy, and our optimism. I remain committed to doing my part. This article was originally published by Oregon Capital Chronicle and used with permission. Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected]. The East Oregonian contributed to this report.