The CDA also faces a bleak financial situation and may not be able to pay employees

BOARDMAN — Unless the Columbia Development Authority takes action during a special meeting Tuesday, April 29, the entity will likely face legal action from at least one fire district in Morrow County.

During the board’s regular meeting April 22, Executive Director Greg Smith relayed a message from the CDA’s lawyer, Elizabeth Howard, saying an action at its February meeting has put the CDA in the position to of facing lawsuits fro either the Irrigon Rural Fire Protection District or the Boardman Fire Rescue District — or possibly both.

The vote in February was for Smith to rescind forwarding letters requesting a decision about annexation of property into each of the two fire districts to Morrow County, at the request of the Port of Morrow. The port’s reasoning was the land on the Morrow County side likely will soon belong to the port, so it would make sense to wait on deciding until after that land transfer goes through. The board passed the motion unanimously.

It’s nearly a guarantee legal action will be taken if the board doesn’t rescind its February decision to rescind, according to Howard via Smith, though it’s possible one of the fire districts will take legal action even with a rescission.

The April 22 vote to rescind failed.

Board members were split 2-2-1. Kim Puzey, board chair and representative of the Port of Umatilla, and Jeff Wenholz with Morrow County, wanted to rescind the February motion per counsel’s recommendation. But Joe Taylor with the Port of Morrow said he couldn’t go against what his board had previously said it wanted to do, and John Shafer with Umatilla County didn’t want to rescind the motion without hearing the audio the original motion referenced, as an audience member wrote in the Zoom chat the minutes the initial rescission was based on were inaccurate. J.D. Tovey, representing the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, abstained.

After going into executive session with Howard to discuss litigation or litigation likely to be filed, the board returned and agreed to set a special meeting to discuss the fire service update, and likely how to move forward regarding the fire districts and February’s vote.

Other updates

Beyond the fire service decision that faced the board, Smith updated the members on clarification about the Base Realignment and Closure Act. He said if any of the member entities or the CDA as a whole receives any economic gain from property sale or lease, that money must be reinvested back into CDA properties for seven years.

Smith said the proceeds would stay with each entity, but would be required to go back into CDA property during the reinvestment period. However, Smith said it’s still unclear when the reinvestment period begins because there still is a parcel of land the government is cleaning up.

“The Army is telling us they believe that seven-year reinvestment period begins after that (finishes),” Smith said.

Smith then offered a grim outlook on the CDA’s financial status. The Port of Morrow is no longer the CDA’s fiscal agent, he said, and the CDA now needs “some form of revenue strength” to come in.

“Our ability to financially stay afloat is limited,” he said. “As of right now, we have just under $9,000 in the checking account that’s not allocated elsewhere.”

Smith said without a stream of income or contributions of some kind, the CDA will be unable to meet its financial obligations to its legal counsel, its engineers and the Port of Morrow. The board made no motions or decisions in response to Smith’s updates.

Because the port is no longer the fiscal agent after the loss of a federal grant, Joe Taylor with the Port of Morrow said the CDA needs to figure out a different agency to pay employees’ salaries.

“CDA staff has been paid through February 18, 2025,” said Taylor, reading from a letter signed by Lisa Mittelsdorf, the port’s executive director. “The port is willing to continue payroll through the next page end date, which is May 2, 2025, but request that other arrangements be made to take over payrolls following that.”

The May 2 deadline gives the CDA about a week and a half to find another entity to take charge of overseeing payroll.