Lacey Ekberg, former executive director of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission, was served Monday morning in South Carolina as a defendant in a lawsuit against several current and former city officials in connection with the CAPC.

Ekberg, who has been using a different surname while working as the parks, recreation and community coordinator for Folly Beach, S.C., was added as a defendant in the lawsuit on June 2, by Eureka Springs attorney Tim Parker. Parker represents a group of plaintiffs in the lawsuit that originally was filed in March 2021.

Parker had recently filed a motion in Carroll County Circuit Court asking for additional time to serve Ekberg, writing that he had attempted to have Ekberg served in Tennessee and Florida, but process servers were unable to locate her.

“Lacey Deeds” was introduced at the July 12 meeting of the Folly Beach, S.C., City Council, according to a summary of the meeting on the city’s website. The city website lists Deeds’ email address as lekberg@follybeach.gov, and a “check report” on the website shows that a check for $10.88 was written to Lacey Ekberg on July 14.

Lacey Deeds served for a time as chief executive officer of the Shelbyville-Bedford County Chamber of Commerce in Tennessee but left that position after less than a year, according to sources and published reports.

In a story published online on July 17, 2021, the Shelbyville (Tenn.) Times-Gazette reported that Deeds had been selected for the CEO position with the local chamber.

agent,” the story says.

“I’ve been living out of a suitcase for several years … really tired of that,” the newspaper quotes Deeds as saying.

The report also describes Deeds as “looking for a permanent change.”

“I’m going to see this through,” Deeds is quoted as saying.

A photograph accompanying the report is an image of the same person who worked for the Eureka Springs CAPC as Lacey Ekberg.

Ekberg served as the CAPC’s executive director from August 2019 to February 2020, when the commission voted to shift her role from a full-time city employee to an independent contractor on a 90-day agreement. That decision came after the Lovely County Citizen reported on a number of discrepancies between the resume Ekberg submitted to the CAPC and her actual employment history as described in several published accounts and public documents. Among those discrepancies was Ekberg’s failure to list on her resume a position she held for just over two months in Alachua County, Fla., before being fired. At the time of her employment in Alachua County, Ekberg was on a partially paid leave of absence from a similar position in Switzerland County, Ind., with sources and documentation indicating that neither employer was aware of the other.

In a letter to the CAPC that was included with her resume, Ekberg wrote: “I am not wishing to continue with short term contracts but looking for a long term commitment in a community we love.”

The CAPC voted in April 2020 not to continue Ekberg’s contract and it expired the following month.

Parker filed a civil suit in March 2021 against Mayor Butch Berry, his administrative assistant Kim Stryker and several current and former CAPC commissioners. Parker represents a group of plaintiffs including former CAPC events coordinator Tracy Johnson, former interim director Gina Rambo, former finance director Rick Bright, former group sales coordinator Karen Pryor and former commissioner Greg Moon.

Defendants in the suit are Berry; Stryker; CAPC chairman Jeff Carter; commissioners Patrick Burnett and Carol Wright; former commissioners and current city council members Melissa Greene and Harry Meyer; former commissioner James DeVito; the city; and an insurance company that provides a policy to the city.

Parker filed an amended complaint June 2, adding Ekberg as a defendant.

An email sent by Ekberg to Carter in April 2020 appears to have ultimately triggered a police investigation into alleged computer trespassing involving the CAPC.

In the April 30, 2020, email to Carter, Ekberg refers to sales leads from the CAPC website being directed to three local business people.

“I discovered these in December, and could trace back 3 years,” Ekberg’s email says. “No one took responsibility for doing it. So couldn’t get a reason why. … I’m sure this was a cooperative effort by several people. I just couldn’t nail any of them with it.”

In a deposition taken Feb. 8, 2022, as part of the ongoing lawsuit, Greene told Parker that Carter presented the commission with Ekberg’s email during an executive session on Feb. 24, 2021. Greene said Carter referred to Rambo, who had served as the commission’s interim director since shortly after Ekberg’s role was shifted, in connection with the email.

After the executive session, the CAPC voted 5-1 to fire Rambo.

Greene said she filed a report with the Eureka Springs Police Department after a conversation with Carter. Police chief Brian Young has declined to discuss the investigation or release any documents from the investigative file, saying the investigation remains active. However, a May 25, 2021, email from Young to Amanda LaFever, the Arkansas Municipal League attorney who represents the defendants in the lawsuit, says that Rambo was interviewed by a Eureka Springs detective.

“Rambo was interviewed by Detective Jackson,” Young writes. “He should be back in shortly and I will obtain the video from the interview and send it to you. the others were interviewed by phone and are attached. Rambo’s Miranda is attached as well in the report.”

A list of attachments to the email is redacted in the copy provided by LaFever in response to an open-records request. LaFever also declined to provide the attachments, citing the ongoing police investigation.

In his motion seeking an extension of time to serve Ekberg, Parker writes that he sent copies of the amended complaint, a summons and other paperwork by certified mail to Ekberg’s last known address in Edgewater, Fla., on June 6. Parker later learned that Ekberg had moved to Tennessee and attempted to have her served by a private process server. When the server went to Ekberg’s address in Shelbyville, he discovered an empty condominium and a painter told him that Ekberg had moved to Florida, Parker’s motion says. Parker then attempted to have a process server serve Ekberg at her old address in Florida but was unsuccessful.

“Apparently she no longer lived there,” Parker writes in his motion.

Josh Lynch, president of the Shelbyville- Bedford County Chamber of Commerce, declined to comment, as did Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin.