Arnold Jack Rosenthal

Arnold Jack Rosenthal (May 9, 1923 - Dec. 22, 2010) was a retired businessman, attorney, and politician in Alexandria, Louisiana, who is remembered for his turbulent tenure as his city's last elected commissioner of finance and utilities. Rosenthal served between 1973 and 1977; he then ran unsuccessfully for Alexandria mayor under a new mayor-council system of municipal government.

Early years and family

Rosenthal was born in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in central Louisiana, to Bernie F. Rosenthal, Sr., and the former May Kaffie. His only sibling was a younger brother, Bernie F. Rosenthal, Jr., (1929-2004), a former revenue deputy for the State of Louisiana. Rosenthal and his brother were the former owners of the Joy Theater in Alexandria and several defunct drive-in theaters as well. Additionally, the Rosenthal brothers had business and land interests in Natchitoches Parish, their mother's birthplace. Rosenthal was a member of the Jewish Congregation Gemiluth in Alexandria. Rosenthal, who was divorced, resides in the family home on Albert Street.

Rosenthal graduated from Bolton High School in 1940. He obtained pre-law credentials at Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville across the Red River from Alexandria. He graduated in 1946 from the Tulane University law school in New Orleans and was admitted thereafter to private practice. A medical condition prevented him from entering the military during World War II.

Running for state senator, 1971

Before he first ran for commissioner, Rosenthal entered the 1971 Democratic primary for the Rapides Parish seat in the Louisiana State Senate. This closed primary came four years before Governor Edwin Washington Edwards initiated a change in Louisiana election law through the creation of the multiparty jungle primary. Rosenthal was seeking to unseat incumbent Cecil R. Blair (1916-2001), a veteran member of the anti-Long faction. Also in the race was Floyd W. Smith, Jr., who had been the mayor of Pineville from 1966-1970 and thereafter a Pineville alderman. Smith was related to the Longs and a native of the Long stronghold of Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish. Rosenthal finished a strong third in the race, and Blair then defeated Smith in the Democratic runoff by about 2,000 votes.

Blair's victory was his last; in 1975, he was unseated by State Representative Edward Gordon "Ned" Randolph, Jr. Randolph served two terms in the state Senate, and, in 1986, he was elected to the first of five terms as mayor of Alexandria. Rosenthal and Smith became friends and political allies as a result of the 1971 senatorial primary. Rosenthal, however, said that his failure to win the Senate election was the biggest disappointment of his political career.

Commissioner Rosenthal, 1973-1977

In the spring of 1973, Rosenthal upset incumbent Finance and Utilities Commissioner Carroll E. Lanier in what turned out to have been the last election under the commission form of municipal government. In the sharply-divided campaign, Rosenthal promised voters that he would "lower your utility rates". Alexandria, at the time, drew much of its operating funds from the sale of city-owned water and electric utilities. Once in office, Rosenthal was hampered by his desire to cut the rates because of the automatic "fuel adjustment" charges authorized to compensate for rapid increases in natural gas prices. The city uses natural gas to operate its electric generating plant.

Elected with Rosenthal were his fellow Democrats, (1) Mayor John K. Snyder, who directed the fire, police, and sanitation departments, and (2) Malcolm P. Hebert, Sr.), a mechanical engineering graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Alexandrians joked that the purpose of Hebert's department was to "fix the potholes and to feed the monkeys," a reference to Alexandria's once pot-hole-filled streets and its small but impressive municipal zoo.

In addition to executive duties over each department, the commissioners served as a 3-member legislative body to pass ordinances and resolutions. Under the arrangement, any two of the commissioners could block actions of the third. Rosenthal hired Floyd Smith as his administrative assistant, a decision which troubled Snyder and Hebert. In 1975, Snyder and Hebert joined to dismiss Smith. Rosenthal was outraged that Snyder and Hebert had made it impossible for him to hire his preferred assistant. After the abrupt dismissal of Floyd Smith, Rosenthal hired the African American activist, Charles Frederick Smith, Jr., who would later be elected to the city council under the mayor-council government. (C.F. Smith was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Alexandria mayor in 2006).

Rosenthal retained Miriam Haworth Taylor (1918-2007) as his executive secretary. She had joined the finance and utilities department in 1946 and had served under Commissioner Lanier. After the change in government format, Mrs. Taylor was secretary to several Alexandria mayors.

Rosenthal quarrels with other officials

During his tenure of office, Rosenthal frequently quarreled with Snyder and Hebert on matters, both minor and major. When Snyder and Hebert continued to voice 2-1 votes against him, Rosenthal tried to heal the breach for a time, but the troubles continued. Rosenthal also accused the veteran city secretary-treasurer, Ray Robert Allen (born July 5, 1920, in Yell County, Arkansas), of "insubordination" and the failure to submit a balance sheet of the finance department. Rosenthal proposed a "finance coordinator" position to supervise Allen, who enjoyed civil service protection as the secretary-treasurer. The coordinator position was filled by Mrs. Velda Lee. Allen filed a slander suit against the commissioner, but he obtained no judgment. Rosenthal left the council in 1977, and Allen was elevated to the new "finance director" position under the revised form of government. He retired from civil service several years thereafter and still resides in Alexandria. Allen's situation demonstrated how elected officials may come and go but civil service-protected administrators remain, often on their own terms.

Running for mayor, 1977

Rosenthal ran for mayor in 1977, but he never gained traction in the campaign. He finished with only 429 votes out of 13,273 cast, a mere 3 percent. Especially galling to him was the fact that the top two candidates were men with whom he had many political disagreements: Mayor Snyder, who sought reelection, and former Commissioner Lanier, who hoped for a comeback four years after Rosenthal had defeated him. In the general election, Lanier defeated Snyder by a 68-32 percent margin for a term of 5.5 years, 1.5 years longer than the norm because of the transition from the commission to the mayor-council form of city government. The "reformer" Lanier hence became mayor even though he had been viewed as the "insider" four years earlier.

Rosenthal and Snyder were in the same graduating class at Bolton High, but the school was so large that the two never knew each other as teenagers. At the time, all white youngsters in Alexandria and Pineville attended Bolton, which is located in the city's Garden District west of the downtown area.

Opposing Ed Ware and Jock Scott

Thereafter, Rosenthal, still bitten by the political bug, waged an unsuccessful challenge in 1978 to Rapides Parish District Attorney Edwin O. Ware, III. Rosenthal filed for the position with only minutes remaining to submit candidacy papers. Ware, a conservative Democrat, had presumably expected to run unopposed. Rosenthal received more than 40 percent of the vote in the contest. Ware, having first been elected in 1972, decided not to seek a third term as district attorney in 1984. Once again, Rosenthal ran for district attorney in a failed bid to succeed Ware.

Rosenthal thereafter challenged state Representative John Wyeth "Jock" Scott, then a Democrat who was seeking a second term. Scott switched to the Republican Party in 1985. Scott, an attorney and later a college professor, defeated Rosenthal by a large margin in the jungle primary held on October 27, 1979. Scott polled 7,419 votes (76.9 percent) to Rosenthal's 2,229 ballots (23.1 percent). Though a Democrat, Rosenthal had endorsed President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., in the 1976 election in which Scott and Ned Randolph had organized voters for Jimmy Carter.

Legal troubles

In 1983, Rosenthal formed a temporary law partnership with former state Senator George T. Oubre, Sr., of St. James Parish. Oubre had run unsuccessfully, losing to William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr., for attorney general in the 1971 Democratic primary, the same election in which Rosenthal had run for the state Senate. The two obtained a $50,000 loan from the Louisiana National Bank in Baton Rouge, and neither made payments accordingly. When the bank sued, Rosenthal purchased the note for sum $54,000 and then sued Mr. and Mrs. Oubre for repayment. Oubre claimed that he did not owe Rosenthal because Rosenthal owed Oubre half of the original $50,000 as a result of other expenses encountered from their partnership.

Rosenthal encountered other legal problems. He pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud on March 11, 1986, in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. In return, prosecutors dropped the remaining twenty-four counts against him and two business partners from New Orleans, John B. Levy, an attorney, and Harry Caire, a certified public accountant. He agreed to cooperate with the government in its case against Levy and Caire.

Rosenthal was accused of being part of a scheme to deplete the assets of Continental Service Life and Health Insurance Company of Baton Rouge. He headed a holding company in Delaware, which purchased Continental Service. Prosecutors said that Rosenthal, Levy, and Caire sought to substitute disputed mortgages on property belonging to an uncle of Levy in return for Continental Service low-interest municipal bonds. The bonds were sold to make a 60 percent first payment on the company. Prosecutors said that some $3 million was plundered from the company. The company assets became so depleted that Insurance Commissioner Sherman A. Bernard placed the firm in conservatorship. It since went out of business.

Judge Peter H. Beer, a Carter appointee of the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, sentenced Rosenthal to twenty-two months in prison, assessed a $2,000 fine, and three years probation after having completed the incarceration. He was released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons from a facility in Florida on September 4, 1987, after having served a year of the stated sentence.

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