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Clarence Ray Fields Sr. (born November 7, 1955), is an American politician who has been since December 14, 1999, the mayor of Pineville, Louisiana, the sister city separated by the Red River from the larger Alexandria, both in Rapides Parish.[1]
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town.
Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is located across the Red River from the larger Alexandria. Pineville is hence part of the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,555 at the 2010 census. It had been 13,829 in 2000; population hence grew by 5 percent over the preceding decade.
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.
Fields was born at the former Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville, a state charity hospital which operated from 1939 to 2014. Officials are seeking to have the structure, under the original name of Huey P. Long Memorial Hospital, placed into the National Register of Historic Places.[2] Fields graduated c. 1973 from the former J. S. Slocum High School at 901 Crepe Myrtle Street in Pineville, now the J. S. Slocum Learning Center. He was formerly employed for twenty-two years by the Pineville-based Central Louisiana Electric Company (CLECO). He and his wife, the former Rosa Ceasar, have two children, Clarence Jr., and Bethany Fields, and one grandchild. The family is actively involved in the First United Methodist Church of Pineville.[citation needed]
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a mainline Protestant denomination and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces both liturgical and evangelical elements.
Career
Prior to becoming mayor, Fields served on the Rapides Area Planning Commission and the board of directors of Rapides Senior Citizens.[citation needed] He became mayor when Leo Deslatte, a Republican elected in 1998, proved unable to work with the city council and resigned after less than two years into his term. Deslatte said that the political pressure was too much to make the job worth keeping. The council then appointed Fields, one of its five members, as the interim mayor.[3] Fields was then elected to a partial term in October 2000.[4] Unseated by Deslatte, former Mayor Fred Baden announced that he would challenge Fields for the partial term but subsequently withdrew from consideration,[3] and George E. Hearn, a Louisiana Collegepsychologyprofessor and former city council member, ran for mayor. Fields received 2,228 votes (65.7 percent) to Hearn's 1,102 (32.5 percent).[4]
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.
Frederick Herman Baden, Sr., known as Fred Baden, was a Democratic mayor of Pineville, a small city across the Red River from Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Baden served in the executive position from 1970 until his defeat in 1998 by the Republican Leo Deslatte.
Louisiana College (LC) is a private Baptist college in Pineville, Louisiana. Approximately 1,300 students are enrolled. Although the college is affiliated with a group of Southern Baptist churches, which make up the membership of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, students need not be a member of that denomination to attend.
In 2002, Fields defeated fellow Democrat Irving Wainwright, III, 2,373 votes (78.9 percent) to 636 (21.2 percent) for his first full term in office.[5] Fields was elected without opposition in 2006, 2010, and 2014. [6]
In 2003, Pineville won the state "Cleanest City" award for municipalities between 8,000 and 16,000 in population, an early highlight of the Fields administration.[7] From 2000 to 2003, Fields and then Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph joined with the Evangelical Pastor's Fellowship to host a "Minister's and Mayor's Prayer Breakfast".[8] In 2007, Fields was elected president of the Louisiana Municipal Association by his fellow mayors, the first Pineville mayor to hold that position.[citation needed] He was succeeded by the first vice president, the late Bill Robertson, then the mayor of Minden.[9] Fields remains a current member of the LMA board of directors.[10] He is vice chairman of the Municipal Employees Retirement Board.[citation needed]
Edward Gordon "Ned" Randolph, Jr., was an American Democratic politician who served as the mayor of Alexandria in central Louisiana from 1986 to 2006. Randolph was also a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1976 and the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1984. In 1982 and 1992, Randolph was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives, having lost to the incumbents Gillis William Long of Alexandria and Richard H. Baker of Baton Rouge, respectively.
Billy Henry Robertson, known as Bill Robertson, was the Former mayor of the small city of Minden, the parish seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States. He was first elected on November 6, 1990 and served for as mayor from January 1, 1991 until his death. With 22.5 years in office, Robertson was the longest-serving Minden mayor; the second longest-serving mayor, John T. David, held the position from 1946 to 1955.
Minden is a small city in and the parish seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States. It is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport in Caddo Parish. The population has been relatively stable since 1960, when it was 12,786. Minden is 51.7 percent African American.
In 2010, the city council approved Fields' choice of Donald "Don" Weatherford to succeed the retiring Terral Paul as the Pineville police chief. A veteran of the Alexandria Police Department, Weatherford reached the rank there of executive officer of criminal investigations.[11]
Until a special election held on October 19, 2013, Pineville had long been a fully dry city, with no alcohol available legally in the community. Voters in the 1980s maintained that stance in a referendum. Mayor Baden was particularly known for his opposition to liquor sales. Mayor Fields pushed for another referendum to permit the sale of liquor in restaurants. Nearly four years after Baden's death, the measure was roundly approved by voters in the special election, 1,849 (78 percent) to 515 (22 percent).[12]
Liquor became available in restaurants in January 2014.[13] Fields claimed that allowing limited liquor sales, requested by area developers, would boost economic development, particularly along the riverfront.[13] According to Fields, members of the clergy, including city council member Nathan Martin of the Christian Challenge Worship Center in Pineville, joined the call for liquor sales: "We've had a lot of conversations with our religious community, and all of the ministers I have spoken with are favorable.".[14]
Fields said that his success as an African American in the politics of predominantly white Pineville was the continued outgrowth from the election in 1974 of Lemon "Billy" Coleman Jr. (1935-2015), a Rapides Parish black educator who won a seat on the Pineville City Council from a heavily white district. Coleman sat on the council for twenty-four years and served a stint too as mayor pro tem. Fields said that the manner in which Coleman "carried himself, his character, his diplomacy, in a lot of ways, it gave me [the] opportunity [to serve as well]."[15] The Curtis-Coleman Memorial Bridge, the replacement for the O.K. Allen Bridge, is named for Lemon Coleman and the late State RepresentativeIsrael "Bo" Curtis, another African-American Democrat.
On April 25, 2016, in his "State of the City" address, Mayor Fields confirmed that Revolution Aluminum has purchased property for a plant in Pineville. He added that a railroad and an ammonia facility will locate at the former site of the International Paper Company mill. In setting up their operations, the three companies are expected to spend more than $1.5 billion and employ more than one thousand persons. Fields said that two new businesses will open on U.S. Highway 165 near the Cottingham Expressway, a second site of the Alexandria restaurant, Quebedeaux's, and a Holiday Inn Express.[16]
Related Research Articles
Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Its neighboring city is Pineville. In 2010, the population was 47,723, an increase of 3 percent from the 2000 census.
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Cecil Ray Blair was a Rapides Parish farmer and business who was a Democratic member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1952 to 1956. His service in the Louisiana State Senate came in two segments, 1960–1964 and 1966-1976.
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