By JIM BUTLER

C. Ray Lewis Ed.D could have a sense of deja vu after filing his second ethics complaint regarding affairs of the Greater Alexandria Economic Development Authority.

Dr. Lewis is GAEDA vice chairman and contends appointment this Spring of newly elected chairman Greg Upton creates a conflict of interest, as does the City Council majority’s approving the appointment.

Basis for the complaints is Upton’s affiliation with the Gold Weems law firm, which serves as the city’s general counsel.

The Board of Ethics has 11 members, seven of them gubernatorial appointments. One of those seven – Sarah S. Couvillion of the Gold Weems firm, serving a five-year term that began in January 2000.

There is no reason to think she will not recuse from the complaints’ consideration though one can almost hear another Lewis sound bite.

Upton was GAEDA’s attorney at one point. Whether the Gold connection had anything to do with his being let go in favor of Tiffany Sanders was never publicly stated.

Board minutes reflect accepting letters for legal and accounting services the past three years though they reflect no details.

Cost of those services have increased from $57,000 in 2020, according to audits, to $87,000 in 2023.

Those are not broken out from one another and are not necessarily apples to apples. For instance, volume of one service or the other could have increased, rates per hour, like everything else, could have increased, etc.

The most-recent minutes of GAEDA board meetings posted to its web site is a January meeting, coincidentally or not when the entity entered the public stream of thought.

Cursory search of its legal journal’s archive found no minutes publications dating to November 2021, though that could be searcher error.