A regional nonprofit coordinating the distribution of COVID-19 relief funds to local businesses has struggled to manage the demands of the crisis — suddenly firing its Whitman County representative, sending confrontational emails to city officials and expressing distrust of partner organizations.
The Clarkston-based Southeast Washington Economic Development Association typically provides businesses in Whitman, Asotin and Garfield counties with networking and recruitment resources. It also serves as the area’s “associate economic development organization” for coordinating with the state and federal Departments of Commerce.
As COVID-19 shuttered businesses in late March, SEWEDA Director Dawn Smith emailed the organization’s board about her efforts to connect business owners with relief funds. The messages, obtained via public records request, include criticism of her own staff, multiple references to “losing it” with partners and abundant gallows humor.
“Going to jump off the bridge soon update!!” Smith wrote March 20. “Am learning a lot here, have done some not very wise things, have lost it a couple times with Commerce, and am doing my very best to help Businesses, am seeing who you can count on and who wants to talk the talk but you can’t get any help from.”
SEWEDA primarily operates on public money, receiving funding from state and federal Commerce programs as well as membership dues and grants from local governments. As an associate economic development organization, or ADO, it has also served as the go-between on state relief funds — collecting applications and coordinating with Commerce on what businesses qualify for funds.
SEWEDA recently made $100,000 of its own reserve funds available for emergency grants to area businesses, but there has been little communication about which businesses received funds or why other businesses were denied.
Pullman city leaders expressed alarm after Smith sent a caps lock- and red text-heavy email on March 26, declaring strict limits on SEWEDA relief funding and preemptively dismissing criticism of the process.
“I am going to make this brief and to the point. I am not looking to [be] politically correct, and if I am offending any of you, get over it!” Smith’s email begins, later adding, “I am not looking for your approval, and you do not want to try to pull one over on me! These funds will have goodwill and blessing tied to them, and I know that.”
Smith fired the organization’s Whitman County representative soon after, raising new concerns. Pullman City Councilman Al Sorensen, who sits on SEWEDA’s regional board, said officials and businesses have had trouble communicating with Smith. She has repeatedly declined offers of assistance.
“I do believe they’re overwhelmed,” he said recently.
Other officials have praised Smith’s hard work and long hours during the crisis. Smith recently declined an interview for this story, saying she didn’t have the time.
“I am swamped with business assistance and a grant program we are administering,” Smith wrote via email. “We are doing great things with business assistance and resources, getting as many as possible help and wish we had more funds to help them all.”
Operating as a sort of regional chamber of commerce, SEWEDA was established in 1985 to help lobby on behalf of business interests in Whitman, Asotin, Garfield and Columbia counties. Counties and cities pay membership dues to fund its three-person staff and expenses. A three-person executive board oversees its work with input from a regional board of directors.
When COVID-19 forced widespread closures, the state Department of Commerce put local ADOs like SEWEDA in charge of collecting and approving business applications for relief grants. ADOs have also served as a critical lifeline for accessing loan and unemployment information.
“We are all in uncharted territory and I am swamped with assisting businesses right now,” Smith wrote the board on March 18. “It is heartbreaking for many businesses that don’t have the resources to make it a few months, help will not come soon enough to save some. If you have a gun and bullets come shoot me! 😊”
Whitman County Commissioner Dean Kinzer, who sits on the executive board, said SEWEDA moved quickly to pull $100,000 from reserve funds to create a critical relief fund for small businesses. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees, along with other specific criteria, could get up to $5,000.
SEWEDA put out a short survey to screen applicants. By late April, Kinzer said about 18 businesses in Whitman County had received relief grants. Money also went to businesses in Asotin and Garfield counties. Kinzer said Smith and SEWEDA rarely get any public recognition for their efforts on behalf of local businesses.
“She’s one of the most efficient and competent go-getters I’ve ever seen,” Kinzer said of Smith. “I wish we could help everybody, but we just don’t have the resources.”
As more than 300 survey responses from increasingly desperate business owners flooded into SEWEDA, Smith’s emails to local officials became critical of her staff, confrontational with partners and frustrated with businesses.
“I am finding out how many business owners have not one clue on how to run a business,” she wrote, “and I am telling you now, many are going to fail with or without help, because of lack of common sense, and preparedness for any type of downturn.”
Smith told the board she was working more than 12 hours a day to keep up with shifting guidance from state officials and complicated funding restrictions. She described coming “slightly unraveled” with state Commerce staff and Pullman’s “Economic Dev. lady.”
Kinzer and Asotin County Commissioner Brian Shinn, another executive board member, both encouraged Smith to slow down, take care of herself and try to focus on the things they can control.
“Please stay calm and realize you are providing a critical service,” Shinn wrote. “I’m sure it’s hard to remain detached when making these decisions on who you should help financially, but that’s what’s needed while you make these decisions.”
Sarah McKnight, the former Whitman County managing director for SEWEDA, said she worked full-time at the organization for four years before Smith fired her in early April with little explanation. McKnight had been working with local businesses on their surveys and directing them to relief services.
“I felt it was counterproductive to cut me … when I was needed most,” she said recently. “It made me question what was going on at SEWEDA as a whole.”
Smith first cut McKnight to half-time in late March, then fired her a week later. McKnight, who also previously served on the Colfax City Council, said she had spent years building up contacts throughout the county and felt bad about leaving businesses hanging when she was fired.
“I thought I was doing a pretty good job,” she said. “We’re supposed to be a resource to people. It’s sad. It’s a really sad situation.”
Smith wrote in emails that McKnight did not have the business experience or computer skills to keep up with the job. When asked about the firing, Kinzer said he thinks someone should have to run their own business for 10 years to really have the experience to counsel other businesses. Emails indicate the board approved McKnight’s termination.
“We don’t want anybody who is not competent with the skills,” Kinzer said, but he also acknowledged, “It’d be more comfortable with an extra person in Whitman County [at SEWEDA right now].”
McKnight said she was not aware of any concerns about her skills or experience. She said she did not receive any warnings or progressive discipline prior to her termination.
McKnight described Smith as increasingly hostile and controlling in her last days at work. Emails reflect Smith arguing with McKnight about hours and threatening her job over a request for leave. Smith emailed her board that McKnight had asked about time off when her child’s school closed.
“I told her … Crisis Unemployment is backed up and I am unsure if you qualify,” Smith wrote, “so if I was you I would figure out a way to get some work done. I haven’t heard a word about that since. Thankfully!!”
McKnight said the organization has little oversight beyond the executive board. There is no human resources department. The state auditor does not inspect its books. She has explored filing a complaint with Labor & Industries.
“I kind of feel like she was fixing to get rid of me,” McKnight said. “It’s too bad I couldn’t rely more on the executive board. This was completely unnecessary.”
Local officials and business partners lamented losing McKnight amid the ongoing economic crisis. Pullman City Councilman C. Brandon Chapman, who previously served on the regional SEWEDA board, criticized Smith’s handling of its COVID-19 response in a recent statement to Whitman County Watch.
“It’s a shame that during these times, when business is suffering, that was when we lost our rep, seemingly over personality differences,” he wrote. “I have concerns about the money the Department of Commerce sends being funneled through SEWEDA. The emails I have seen from its director to city personnel and others has been antagonistic, combative, and wholly unprofessional.”
Emails between Smith and local officials from mid- March through early April describe a scramble to assess the coming impact on local businesses. Smith forwarded many updates from state officials on to Pullman city leaders and her executive board. She asserted SEWEDA would serve as the primary hub for state funding.
Many early communications seem cordial, but Smith often vented separately to her executive board about SEWEDA staff and community partners making excuses or failing to follow through on outreach efforts.
As SEWEDA started processing business applications for relief funds, Smith sent out a seemingly frantic email to local officials on March 26.
“DO NOT SEND ME EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS!!” she wrote. “I am praying and trusting God for guidance and direction during this time, appreciate all your prayers! If I am offending anyone with this get over it!!!”
Pullman officials responded with confusion and alarm. The city’s Economic Development Manager Jennifer Hackman noted she had not been able to get a response from Smith for several days. City Administrator Adam Lincoln questioned what was going on.
“Can you please fill me in as to why the [SEWEDA] director is sending such inflammatory emails?” Lincoln emailed a board member. “I am not clear how this is helpful to businesses if the director is behaving this way.”
Chapman, with the Pullman City Council, emailed a complaint to the state Department of Commerce about Smith’s professionalism. He said later that Commerce never responded.
“This is the kind of email we’re getting from our SEWEDA head?” he wrote March 26. “Terrible tone… unapologetically abrasive… unnecessary references to deity… the list goes on and on. If I were, in my everyday job, to craft an email like this, I would be fired.”
In emails and interviews, Pullman officials increasingly described difficulty reaching Smith or getting complete answers to their questions. When asked about the communications, Kinzer acknowledged a lot of stress and emotional investment in the funding process.
“Dawn was wearing her heart on her sleeve,” he said. “People took what she said wrong, … [but] it probably could have been worded a little better.”
As far as the gallows humor, jumping off bridges or asking to be shot, Kinzer said he understands some people might find it “alarming.”
“That is Dawn’s humor,” he said. “It used to be everybody used that kind of humor.”
Sorensen said city officials had a hard time getting information out of SEWEDA as they hustled to connect with hard-hit businesses. Several businesses told them SEWEDA had denied their funding application without explaining why. Hackman asked Smith for a list of the businesses SEWEDA had already approved for funding or directed to other resources.
“There are denials going out and businesses do not know why they were rejected,” Hackman wrote. “I think it’s important that the process is transparent.”
After arguing against releasing confidential business information, Smith emailed Hackman at least 35 survey responses, but did not indicate which had been contacted. Read about those survey responses here. Hackman emphasized she had not asked for confidential information and still needed clarification on what help businesses had or had not received.
“I didn’t receive that information,” she said recently. “I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Pullman city officials took some of their concerns to Kinzer in early April, explaining that while they appreciated Smith’s hard work, the breakdown in communication had hamstrung their efforts to help Pullman businesses. Smith responded that Pullman officials could do their own outreach to connect with businesses.
“I am not looking for approval or a pat on the back from any of you,” she wrote. “We are doing a great job, doing the best we can do. … Yes we are making mistakes, as you all do, and learning from them, once again, we are appreciated by the many businesses we are helping.”
Whitman County Watch sent a brief description of these issues to the state Department of Commerce, inquiring about assistance and accountability for ADOs. Spokeswoman Penny Thomas provided a statement explaining Commerce offers small grants to help ADOs with handling this emergency grant funding. She stated they check in with ADOs weekly to assist with the reviewing and scoring of local business applications, but did not address specific issues.
“There is no question that the COVID crisis and need for rapid assistance to thousands of small businesses has been an extraordinary challenge for all of us,” Thomas wrote. “ADOs are going above and beyond normal activities, and we value their partnership in meeting the needs of the business communities we serve.”
Chapman continues to question why SEWEDA’s executive board has not moved to address the recent concerns and lack of cooperation with community partners, apparently writing off Smith’s behavior as “being really stressed.”
“If this can’t change, then the Department of Commerce should choose another ADO,” he wrote. “However, I have hope that, moving forward, the SEWEDA board overseeing these things will fulfill its obligations, its personnel oversight, and help mend this relationship.”
Whitman County commissioners earlier this week briefly discussed partnering with SEWEDA on future applications for CARES Act and other funding. Commissioner Michael Largent said both SEWEDA and the county could benefit from sharing resources.
“Poor Dawn looks overwhelmed,” he noted.
Kinzer said he expected another $460,000 in relief funding might soon become available. He could touch based with Smith about how to approach that distribution.
“I don’t know what the capacity is for Dawn right now,” he said.
In interviews, Pullman officials emphasized their interest in working with SEWEDA to provide the best available help to local businesses. Sorensen said he expects the regional board will want to discuss some of these conflicts at its next meeting. Kinzer said the executive board had not made any immediate changes, but would review the matter.
“After the dust settles a little bit,” he said, “we’ll probably take steps to work together better.”