Changes

Guin hired Patricia Ann "Patsy" Forcier as his administrative assistant. At the time the wife of Ray Forcier of Shreveport, she has since been married to Billy Clapp of Ocala, [[Florida]]. Her father was the former  state Representative Edgar H. Lancaster, Jr., a Democrat from Tallulah in Madison Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/obits/l/lancaste650nob.txt|title=Edgar H. Lancaster obituary|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|date=October 15, 2009|accessdate=July 24, 2014}}</ref> An  unlikely specialist on sewer matters, Forcier, who was barely thirty when she joined Guin's staff, proved invaluable to his brief tenure at the Shreveport Utilities Department. Forcier's unusual speciality for a young woman attracted national press attention.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57669453/|title=From Cancan to sewer lines|publisher=''San Bernardino County Sun''|author=Bonnie Davis|date=May 19, 1978|page=48|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref>​

Guin hired Patricia Ann "Patsy" Forcier as his administrative assistant. At the time the wife of Ray Forcier of Shreveport, she has since been married to Billy Clapp of Ocala, [[Florida]]. Her father was the former  state Representative Edgar H. Lancaster, Jr., a Democrat from Tallulah in Madison Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/obits/l/lancaste650nob.txt|title=Edgar H. Lancaster obituary|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|date=October 15, 2009|accessdate=July 24, 2014}}</ref> An  unlikely specialist on sewer matters, Forcier, who was barely thirty when she joined Guin's staff, proved invaluable to his brief tenure at the Shreveport Utilities Department. Forcier's unusual speciality for a young woman attracted national press attention.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57669453/|title=From Cancan to sewer lines|publisher=''San Bernardino County Sun''|author=Bonnie Davis|date=May 19, 1978|page=48|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref>​

In 1977, Guin dismissed the municipal water superintendent Alfred Joseph Petrus (1920-2009) for alleged theft of city materials and the improper use of municipal employees. Petrus was first suspended by Commissioner Collins shortly before Collins left office. The suspension carried over into the Guin administration, pending a probe into the charges against Petrus. After a jury found Petrus not guilty of [[felony]] [[theft]], he applied to Guin for reinstatement. Guin, however, changed Petrus' suspension to outright dismissal because Petrus had allegedly used city employees to perform work at his private residence. Despite exoneration by the jury, Petrus failed in further appeals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19791394378So2d1016_11202.xml/PETRUS%20v.%20GUIN|title=Petrus v. Guin|date=December 3, 1979|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=July 24, 2014}}</ref> Petrus thereafter worked in the private sector became heavily involved in veterans and patriotic causes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22370499/alfred-joseph-petrus|title=Alfred Joseph Petrus|publisher=KTBS-TV|date=January 2009|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>Alfred Joseph Petrus was a son-in-law of two sheriffs in Grant Parish, Wyatt Luther Nugent, who was killed in the line of duty in 1936, and Nugent's widow and temporary successor, Lydia Ann Rosier Nugent (1895-1976). The Nugents had eleven children, one of whom, Frances, was married to Petrus until his death in 2009.</ref>​

In 1977, Guin dismissed the municipal water superintendent Alfred Joseph Petrus (1920-2009) for alleged theft of city materials and the improper use of municipal employees. Petrus was first suspended by Commissioner Collins shortly before Collins left office. The suspension carried over into the Guin administration, pending a probe into the charges against Petrus. After a jury found Petrus not guilty of [[felony]] [[theft]], he applied to Guin for reinstatement. Guin, however, changed Petrus' suspension to outright dismissal because Petrus had allegedly used city employees to perform work at his private residence. Despite exoneration by the jury, Petrus failed in further appeals.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/19791394378So2d1016_11202.xml/PETRUS%20v.%20GUIN|title=Petrus v. Guin|date=December 3, 1979|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=July 24, 2014}}</ref> Petrus thereafter worked in the private sector became heavily involved in veterans and patriotic causes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22370499/alfred-joseph-petrus|title=Alfred Joseph Petrus|publisher=KTBS-TV|date=January 2009|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>Alfred Joseph Petrus was a son-in-law of two sheriffs in Grant Parish, Wyatt Luther Nugent, who was killed in the line of duty in 1936, and Nugent's widow and temporary successor, Lydia Ann Rosier Nugent (1895-1976). The Nugents had eleven children, one of whom, Frances, was married to Petrus until his death in 2009.</ref>​

Commissioner Guin became involved in another legal dispute when R. W. Calhoun, the superintendent of the Cross Lake Patrol, which fell within the jurisdiction of the utilities department, testified that he had issued about fifty permits for construction of piers and boathouses extending into the lake. Calhoun said that he attempted to "accommodate everybody on the lake - depending upon the shape of his lot." Because numerous lake lots had had curved boundaries, Calhoun said that the city was compelled to guarantee equal access from all lots regardless of shape. Guin stood with Calhoun: "The criteria that I used, and the concept of this design, was to try to create equity [among] the owners of the adjacent lots around that cove. Each one should have access to the water, whereby he could build a pier." When a lot owner sued to block a neighbor from constructing a pier and boathouse, the court two years after Guin had left office stood with the city's method of issuing the permits.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19801224388So2d836_11074.xml/LIEBER%20v.%20RUST|title=''Lieber v. Rust''|date=1980|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref>​

Commissioner Guin became involved in another legal dispute when R. W. Calhoun, the superintendent of the Cross Lake Patrol, which fell within the jurisdiction of the utilities department, testified that he had issued about fifty permits for construction of piers and boathouses extending into the lake. Calhoun said that he attempted to "accommodate everybody on the lake - depending upon the shape of his lot." Because numerous lake lots had had curved boundaries, Calhoun said that the city was compelled to guarantee equal access from all lots regardless of shape. Guin stood with Calhoun: "The criteria that I used, and the concept of this design, was to try to create equity [among] the owners of the adjacent lots around that cove. Each one should have access to the water, whereby he could build a pier." When a lot owner sued to block a neighbor from constructing a pier and boathouse, the court two years after Guin had left office stood with the city's method of issuing the permits.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/19801224388So2d836_11074.xml/LIEBER%20v.%20RUST|title=''Lieber v. Rust''|date=1980|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref>​

Under Guin, Shreveport adopted [[fluoridation]] of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial. The [[John Birch Society]] called it a "form of government mass medication of citizens in violation of their individual right to choose which medicines they ingest."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jbs.org/about-jbs/myths-vs-facts|title=Myth: The JBS considers public water fluoridation part of a Communist mind-control plot|publisher=jbs.org|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref> Opponents claimed that fluoridation creates more long-term health risks than the immediate advantages gained from decreased tooth decay. Hence the issue had been bypassed for more than twenty years by Shreveport municipal officials though adopted in many other cities.  In 1977, however, the [[Chamber of Commerce]] and both daily newspapers, ''The Shreveport Times''  and the former ''[[Shreveport Journal]]'', last published by Charles T. Beaird, strongly endorsed fluoridation. Guin sought a $10,000 request from the city council for an engineering study to move toward fluoridation. When his colleagues balked, he pursued a  [[referendum]] on the issue. On November 22, 1977, with a 28.3 percent turnout, 12,037 voters (53.6 percent) opposed a ban on fluoridation of the drinking water. Another 10,413 (46.4 percent) favored a ban. Though fluoridation was approved in a back-handed method—one had to vote "No" to approve of fluoridation—the physical process of actually placing the chemicals in the water supply, was not completed until the middle 1980s, long after Guin's tenure as utilities commissioner had expired.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf|title=The Fluoridation Controversy|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=lcweb2.loc.gov|pages=148–151|author=Terry S. Reynolds|accessdate=July 25, 2014|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808063923/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf|archivedate=August 8, 2014|df=}}</ref>​

Under Guin, Shreveport adopted [[fluoridation]] of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial. The [[John Birch Society]] called it a "form of government mass medication of citizens in violation of their individual right to choose which medicines they ingest."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jbs.org/about-jbs/myths-vs-facts|title=Myth: The JBS considers public water fluoridation part of a Communist mind-control plot|publisher=jbs.org|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref> Opponents claimed that fluoridation creates more long-term health risks than the immediate advantages gained from decreased tooth decay. Hence the issue had been bypassed for more than twenty years by Shreveport municipal officials though adopted in many other cities.  In 1977, however, the [[Chamber of Commerce]] and both daily newspapers, ''The Shreveport Times''  and the former ''[[Shreveport Journal]]'', last published by Charles T. Beaird, strongly endorsed fluoridation. Guin sought a $10,000 request from the city council for an engineering study to move toward fluoridation. When his colleagues balked, he pursued a  [[referendum]] on the issue. On November 22, 1977, with a 28.3 percent turnout, 12,037 voters (53.6 percent) opposed a ban on fluoridation of the drinking water. Another 10,413 (46.4 percent) favored a ban. Though fluoridation was approved in a back-handed method—one had to vote "No" to approve of fluoridation—the physical process of actually placing the chemicals in the water supply, was not completed until the middle 1980s, long after Guin's tenure as utilities commissioner had expired.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf|title=The Fluoridation Controversy|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=lcweb2.loc.gov|pages=148–151|author=Terry S. Reynolds|accessdate=July 25, 2014|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808063923/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf|archivedate=August 8, 2014|df=}}</ref>​