I generally hate to post entire articles, but this is an interesting follow-up to Farrar’s anti-Town Talk bill:
Bill allowing Rapides governments to use Web sites as official journal dies in committee
BATON ROUGE – After accusing a Town Talk employee of lying and indicating that he didn’t trust the House Municipal Affairs Committee, Rep. Rick Farrar wasn’t surprised that the panel killed his bill seeking to allow Rapides Parish governmental bodies to use their own Web sites to publish legal notices.
State law requires legal notices to be published in an official journal with paid circulation. In Rapides Parish, it’s The Town Talk.
Farrar, D-Pineville, said putting the notices on Web sites would save local governments more than $400,000 in printing costs. He said the governing bodies of Alexandria, Pineville, Ball, Cheneyville, Lecompte and a waterworks district passed resolutions supporting his proposal.
Newspapers oppose changing the law because “it’s about greed,” Farrar told the committee. “It’s me not wanting my citizens paying so much.”
When Jim Smilie, online manager of The Town Talk, and representatives of the Louisiana Press Association contested his figures, Farrar told the committee, “I wish you would swear people in before they testify. … What they just told you is absolutely not the truth. I wish everybody would be honest.”
Farrar said he obtained advertising expenditures from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, Rapides Parish Police Jury, Rapides Parish School Board and the municipal governments of Alexandria and Ball, and the figures were higher than the $250,000 estimate cited by Smilie. Farrar said Alexandria alone spent $106,000 on public notification.
Smilie’s copy of the letter the city sent to Farrar in February shows Alexandria spent $48,330 on legal notices. The total advertising bill was higher, but the bulk of it was not for information required to be published.
Rep. Clara Baudoin, D-Carencro, questioned Farrar about having the support of the city of Pineville. She quoted a letter from Mayor Clarence Fields opposing posting legal notices on the Internet.
“I really don’t believe 75 to 100 years from now citizens will be able to go back and see notices that were posted online,” Fields said in a letter dated May 10.
Committee Chairman Ernest Baylor, D-Shreveport, asked Farrar why he did not respond last summer to the committee’s notice of conducting a hearing on using the Internet for legal notices that was scheduled when Farrar’s legislation from last year was converted to a study.
When the author did not respond, plans for a hearing were canceled.
Farrar said, “It was pretty obvious to me last year and this year, too,” that the proposal would be defeated.
He said he didn’t want a study because “I didn’t have faith and confidence in the Louisiana Press Association to participate in the spirit of cooperation.”
Also, “The Town Talk would have the opportunity to come down here and sway you.”
Jeff David, publisher of the Livingston Parish News, said online publication has its hazards. He said hackers altered news he has posted on the newspaper’s Web site.
“The more I get into this, the more I realize how much the almighty dollar is in involved in this,” Farrar said.
He blasted Gannett Co. Inc., owner of The Town Talk and newspapers in Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe and Opelousas, as being “about one thing, and that’s money.”
Leon Coleman Sr., publisher of the Alexandria News Weekly, said his publication is an auxiliary journal used by local governments to reach a targeted audience, the black community, on specific issues.
Requiring citizens to use the Internet for public notices “would be devastating to our community,” he said. “Many of our residents don’t have access to computers.”
CenLamar 
Farrar is an idiot and only tries to pass a bill when it is to hurt his enemies. Ask Larry Jeane and now the town talk. But he cant even get a LOCAL bill passed. The real story is the chicken shit Clarence Ray Fields. To Farrars face he and his counsel vote to support the bill. Then the Town Talk decides to relieve Bill Sumrall from the Pineville Beat. Sumrall has been writing PR stories supplied to him by Rich “This is my First Job” Dupree since he got to town. Well people were running around waving their hands over there heads in fear at City Hall so what does our Smilin Mayor do???? Flip flops and sends out letters to certain committee members on the LEgislative committee telling them that he DOES NOT support the bill. What a chicken shit politician even if his most recent flip flop was the right one. Big question is whether he even KNOWS he sent the letter or is this yet another DUMAR example of political honesty?
farrar’s house bill 18 in which he is trying to increase the length of time one can sue or be sued from one year to two years deserves to be mentioned in the local press as well. could this be another farrar self serving bill? of course everyone knows that the rickster and his brother todd are both trial lawyers.
Lamar, check out the anti-semitic rant on “We Saw That”. No wonder the Klan has it defenders on this blog.
Lamar, check out the anti-semitic rant on “We Saw That”. No wonder the Klan has it defenders on this blog.
Dude, he’s posted the letter written by the President of Iran to G.W. Bush. Did you read it? It’s interesting to think that this is one way our world leaders communicate with one another.
The guy probably could have gotten a better translator.
ITs time to relegate this idiot to the true calling. A loan shark like his equally big headed bully father…
Does it NOT say anything about MAyor Fields that he talked out of both sides of his mouth on this bill? This is just like how he tells poeple privately that he is going to get alcohol sales passed in pineville and then publically says he is against it. …….WHY do worship people like this.??? HE is FOR Farrar when it helps him and against him other times…he is either a LIAR like he has been on past taxes or just not real smart OR he relies on Mr Dupree who more and more people are learning is a CONFIRMED liar. Time will tell…
This is typical legislator/lawyer behavior for many years. They write laws to perpetuate their sorry profession. Once they get voted out of office they still have the benefits of their writings while they occupied seats in the legislature.
yeah lamar you summed it up thanks – being (sometimes) good southern baptists: president ahmadinejad’s letter with all its religious references appealed to us on a spiritual level. so we responded in kind.
ps looks like comments on blog*spot are playing up today. looks like some comments arent going through or at least not timely. we dont know if our original comment or this one will show up or not.
Lamar, during our recent email exchanges I told you I enjoyed reading your blog but didn’t think I would offer any comments. However I do feel a clarification is important.
On April 11 the Pineville City Council passed a resolution in support of HB-8 by a vote of 4-1 (Van Mol opposed). During the meeting Mayor Fields spoke in opposition to the bill and has continued to voice his personal opposition.
I have a copy of Mayor Fields’ letter to the House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs where he stated his opposition to HB-8. (It is a public record and could be acquired from the Mayor’s office simply by requesting it.) In the letter he states, “…I was very vocal during our [City Council] meeting and remain so today, that this is not a well thought out bill.”
I do not intend to get into debates with anonymous commentors but felt it was important to set the record straight. The mayor and I disagree over this issue but he has been steadfast from the beginning in his opposition to this bill. Best wished on your blogging experiment.
Sincerely,
Nathan
Thank you, Nathan, for setting the record straight. Please continue to contribute, because the blogs sometimes lack real fact-checkers.
No Lamar. The letter from the Iranian is far less scarey than the “reply” from We Saw That. Take another look!
lmao booo :[
Thanks Dumar. Does the Mayor still have a VETO in Pineville? Or would that disrupt the Bobbing heads? Nice Photo. BTW when did you become a Farrar supporter? I have see and heard for years your total opposition to this guy.
Thanks Dumar. Does the Mayor still have a VETO in Pineville? Or would that disrupt the Bobbing heads? Nice Photo. BTW when did you become a Farrar supporter? I have see and heard for years your total opposition to this guy.
So NATHAN, if what you say is true we wonder why your lapdog Bill Sumrall did not report that when he covered the issue for the Town Talk when you cast that bold vote? Nevermind most of us already know why.
Hey anonymous, some of us are new to the blogosphere, so would you elaborate on what exactly “most of us already know.”
Because is has ALWAYS written What he was told to write by the Administration. Thus the neverending PR puff stories on COP actually its NOT a city but a town . But yes, Sumrall has always written very biased stories that had NO objective substance and always had the Mayors mouthpiece slant. They do stories on City of Alexandria that talks about raises and money and personal trips taken by elected officials etc etc. Any stories about elected officials in Pineville not living in Pinveille? Or stories about elected officials voting themeselves a raise or any controversy about the New NON PINEVILLE ball park contractors or any stories about any conflicts of intersts In Pineville ?Naaaaa…Sumrall covers the spoon fed story of the announcement of the location of a little hotel that was NOT even in the city limits and which will be the source of a problem if the mayor doesnt make right on his promise of alcohol. BUT do you think Sumrall will cover that? No so no real surprise that he would not report any disagreement that the Mayor might have with his counsil. However, in all likely hood unless the Town talk makes good on its coffee shop promise of putting Robert Morgan over in Pineville for good you wont see any difference……But maybe .just maybe…we might see stories from Morgan about such things as…The Bike track or the personal property acquisition or the conflicts of interest of counsilmen etc etc??….Maybe…but we aint holdin our breath. You up to speed now?
All of that that is true. It will be interesting to see if the Town Talk really will give Pinveville at least a cursory as compared to complementary coverage in its stories.
It would be very nice to see some responsible reporting of the Pineville Politics. We only get the GARDEN CLUB, Clean City BS reports…
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