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| religion=[[Southern Baptist]]}}

| religion=[[Southern Baptist]]}}

'''Billy James Guin, Sr.''' (November 14, 1927 &ndash; January 28, 2020),<ref name=obit>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=billy-james-guin&pid=195312963|title=Billy James Guin, Sr. obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref> was a [[business]]man and [[engineer]] from [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], who from 1977 to 1978 was his city's last public utilities commissioner under the former commission system of municipal government. In that capacity, he pushed successfully for the flouridation of the municipal water system.<ref>In [[Shreveport]] and in other cities with the commission form of government, the commissioner exercises both legislative and executive duties, on the five-member city council itself and as a department head. This position should not be confused with a county commissioner, most of whom were and still are elected by single-member districts. County commissioners are the "legislators" of a county (called parish in Louisiana), with the county judge normally in the role of the "executive" head of the county. In Louisiana, the executive of the parish can be the police jury president, the president of the parish, or a parish "administrator", depending on the structure of the parish government. City commissioners could not be chosen on a district basis, as their administrative duties affected the entire city. [[African American]]s were not then elected to city government in most parts of the Southern United States. An outcry in the [[civil rights]] movement raised legal challenges to the city commission governments, and many were struck down as unconstitutional, including the Shreveport commission in a 1978 court case.</ref> In 1961, Guin became involved in the development of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]] to majority status in his state. In 1964, he and two others became the first members of their party ever elected to the Caddo Parish School Board and served a single six-year term.<ref name=zoominfo/><ref name=obit/>

'''Billy James Guin, Sr.''' (November 14, 1927 &ndash; January 28, 2020),<ref name=obit>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=billy-james-guin&pid=195312963|title=Billy James Guin, Sr. obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref> was a [[business]]man and [[engineer]] from [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], who from 1977 to 1978 was his city's last public utilities commissioner under the former commission system of municipal government. In that capacity, he pushed successfully for the [[Water fluoridation|flouridation]] of the municipal water system.<ref>In [[Shreveport]] and in other cities with the commission form of government, the commissioner exercises both legislative and executive duties, on the five-member city council itself and as a department head. This position should not be confused with a county commissioner, most of whom were and still are elected by single-member districts. County commissioners are the "legislators" of a county (called parish in Louisiana), with the county judge normally in the role of the "executive" head of the county. In Louisiana, the executive of the parish can be the police jury president, the president of the parish, or a parish "administrator", depending on the structure of the parish government. City commissioners could not be chosen on a district basis, as their administrative duties affected the entire city. [[African American]]s were not then elected to city government in most parts of the Southern United States. An outcry in the [[civil rights]] movement raised legal challenges to the city commission governments, and many were struck down as unconstitutional, including the Shreveport commission in a 1978 court case.</ref> In 1961, Guin became involved in the development of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]] to majority status in his state. In 1964, he and two others became the first members of their party ever elected to the Caddo Parish School Board and served a single six-year term.<ref name=zoominfo/><ref name=obit/>

==Background==

==Background==

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=February 8, 2020}}</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=February 8, 2020}}</ref>​

Under Guin, Shreveport adopted [[fluoridation]] of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial.<ref name=obit/> 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; material no longer on-line}}</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=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808063923/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf||title=The Fluoridation Controversy|publisher=lcweb2.loc.gov|pages=148–151|author=Terry S. Reynolds|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref>​

Under Guin, Shreveport adopted [[fluoridation]] of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial.<ref name=obit/> 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; material no longer on-line}}</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 ended.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808063923/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0100/la0164/data/la0164data.pdf||title=The Fluoridation Controversy|publisher=lcweb2.loc.gov|pages=148–151|author=Terry S. Reynolds|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref>​

===Abolition of the commission government===

===Abolition of the commission government===