Bill Robertson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billy Henry "Bill" Robertson (born 1938) has been the Democratic mayor of the small city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, since his initial election on November 6, 1990. Robertson won his fifth consecutive four-year term on November 7, 2006, by defeating educator Alton Monroe "Al" Hortman, the Republican candidate. Robertson polled 2,054 votes (56 percent) and carried nine of the city's fifteen precincts. Hortman trailed with 1,596 ballots (44 percent) and led in the six other precincts. Robertson declared the election outcome "a delightful victory . . . one [for which] we worked very hard." Hortman said that his defeat was "not failure. Failure is not having run" for public office.

1 Early years and business success
2 Defeat in 1989
3 Toppling Paul Brown, 1990
4 Defeating Benjamin Wright
5 The campaign against Al Hortman
6 Robertson ponders his fifth term
7 References

[edit] Early years and business success

Robertson is a native of Batesville, the seat of Independence County, in northern Arkansas. His parents divorced, and he was reared primarily by his mother, a clerk in a shoe store. He too became a shoe salesman. He and his wife, Barbara G. Robertson, moved to Minden in 1961 from Magnolia, the seat of Columbia County, Arkansas, where he had managed an outlet of the chain shoe store called Talbot's. The Robertson purchased the Minden outlet and renamed it "Robertson's Shoes".

For a time, the couple had two stores in Minden, one in Homer, the seat of Claiborne Parish, and a fourth in Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish in the northwest corner of the state. Robertson put forth a budget for each store based on the past year's sales with growth projected in the totals.

In the meantime, Robertson also became involved in local politics: he was elected to the Webster Parish Police Jury (the governing body of the parish, usually called the county commission in most states), and to the Minden City Council.

[edit] Defeat in 1989

Robertson ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the 1989 special election held to fill the remaining months of the term of his fellow Democrat Noel Eugene "Gene" Byars, Jr. (born 1939). Byars was recalled from the position in a "Yes" or "No" vote after a citizens' audit revealed that he had charged personal expenses to his municipal credit card. Robertson and two preceding Democratic mayors, J.E. "Pat" Patterson (1974-1978) and Jack Batton (1978-1982), contributed money to the recall against Byars. Byars hence left Minden and took a job in educational administration in Beaumont, Texas, the seat of Orange County.

African American City Councilman Robert T. Tobin filled in temporarily after Byars vacated the mayoral office and became Minden's first black mayor since Reconstruction. Tobin was unseated, however, in the November 7, 1989 special election by the Republican newcomer Paul Aaron Brown (1932 - 1996) for the year remaining in Byars' term. Brown had been the chamber-of-commerce executive director in Minden after coming to the city as a counselor to alcoholics. Robertson hence ran unsuccessfully against both Brown and Tobin that year.

In the 2000 census, Minden was declared 52 percent African American in population.

[edit] Toppling Paul Brown, 1990

Robertson entered the race for a full term as mayor in 1990. He and another Minden businessman, Billy Sherman Cost (born 1948) challenged Brown, who was seeking his first full term in the position. Cost and Thomas L. Hathorn (born 1951), another Minden businessman, had led the successful recall of Byars. Brown nearly won in the first round: 2,630 ballots (48 percent) to Robertson's 1,729 (32 percent), and Cost's 1,064 votes (20 percent). Robertson and Brown therefore advanced to the general election.

Before the primary, Brown was seriously injured in an accident on the Minden High School football field -- he was moving the yardage chains. As fears mounted that the disabled Brown could not discharge his duties in a full term, voters handily elected Robertson, 2,529 votes (59 percent) to Brown's 1,758 (41 percent). Brown hence polled 872 fewer votes in the second round of balloting than he had in the first.The 1990 general election launched Robertson into a long career as his city's chief government official.

In 1994, Robertson won a second term over his fellow Democrat Douglas "Doug" Frye and the Independent Lydianne Vulliamy Scallorn Hammons (born 1936). Robertson received 2,019 (55 percent) to Frye's 1,285 ballots (35 percent), and 369 votes (10 pecent) for Mrs. Hammons, a former city clerk who had certified the recall petition signatures against former Mayor Byars.

[edit] Defeating Benjamin Wright

In 1998, Robertson overwhelmed the Minden businessman, Benjamin Franklin Wright, Jr. (born 1959), a Claiborne Parish native who ran for mayor as an Independent. Robertson polled 2,697 votes (89 percent) to 331 votes (11 percent) in a low-turnout election.

In 2005, Wright was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment for video voyeurism. He was found to have filmed female customers using the dressing room in his clothing store in Minden. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Shreveport upheld the conviction in June 2006 but vacated the sentence because of error. Wright was also arrested on March 18, 2004, on an allegation of having threatened to murder a child protection agent in connection with a child custody dispute. City police stopped Wright to arrest him for public intimidation. They found videotapes inside his vehicle and later child pornography on Wright's computer disks. He was found guilty on November 14, 2006, of twenty-three of twenty-four counts of possessing child pornography.

As a result of his strong showing in the election of 1998, no opponent filed against Robertson in 2002.

[edit] The campaign against Al Hortman

Robertson faced three challengers in his 2006 reelection bid. Photographer John Edward Quade, a 1966 graduate of Minden High School (born 1947) and a Democrat, was eliminated in the primary. Republican Al Hortman ran sufficiently strong to force Robertson into a general election. Hortman (born 1941) graduated from Minden High School in 1959. He lived away from Minden for many years in Dallas, St. Louis, and Atlanta but returned to care for his ailing mother, Katherine F. Hortman (1909-2003), a former Webster Parish elementary school teacher. Hortman sported an impressive resume: service in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence operative. As part of his training, he attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he completed an intensive eight-month course in the Chinese language. He thereafter earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics, with a minor in Chinese, from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish. He also received a master's degree from Tech in education as well during the time of the mayoral campaign.

Hortman was the president of a concerned group of citizens who drafted the Minden 2020 Visionaries Master Plan, a 20-year proposal for long-range community progress. The plan was developed over a two-year period prior to 2000. Although some 150 Minden citizens worked on the project, it was Hortman who spearheaded the effort.

Hortman said that his work on the Visionaries Plan demonstrated that he understood what the people of Minden want and need. A former peace officer and Methodist pastor, Hortman said that he could work with all aspects of the Minden community. Though Hortman signs dotted the landscape, Robertson emerged a fairly easy winner in a national Democratic year though there was no overt partisan ramifications in the mayoral race. Meanwhile, Hortman teaches math and coaches soccer at Huntington High School in Shreveport.

[edit] Robertson ponders his fifth term

Robertson said that his first step in his pending fifth term will be to "regroup and sit down with the council, the department heads at city hall and lay out our plans for the next four years."

During Robertson’s tenure, some 85 percent of the city streets have been overlaid, and major upgrades were been completed on the electrical, wastewater and water systems. Many of the projects were funded through state and federal grants. Robertson has pledged to keep electrical rates -- the city operates its own power plant -- among the lowest in Louisiana.

Recently, the city partnered with the Minden/South Webster Chamber of Commerce to establish an office to conduct economic development services. A new director has been hired to work on the expansion of local businesses and to attract new employers. Robertson said that the city will seek to attract new industry and entice such new businesses as a movie theatre, skating rink, bowling alley, and new restaurants. At one time, Minden had two sit-down theaters and a drive-in as well. The last theater closed in the 1970s. Studies show that communities which cannot sustain a theater have difficulty with growth and development.

Robertson is active in the Louisiana Municipal Association, having been elected second vice-president at the 2006 LMA convention. As mayor, Robertson is also an ex officio board member of the Louisiana Energy and Power Authority. LEPA was established by the Louisiana legislature in 1979 as an action agency for the eighteen Louisiana cities and towns which maintain their own independent municipal power system.