Background
Lanier was born to M. B. Lanier and the former Effie Sivals in Hamburg in Ashley County in southeastern Arkansas. He outlived his parents, a brother, and three sisters. The family relocated to Alexandria when Carroll was eleven years of age. Lanier joined the United States Navy during World War II prior to his graduation from Bolton High School in Alexandria. An electrical contractor, Lanier was in business with his brother in the company, Lanier Electric.
From 1969 to 1973, he was the Alexandria finance and utilities commissioner, having been elected over the long-term incumbent, fellow Democrat Leroy Wilson (1905–1978). In 1973, however, as consumer electric bills climbed, voters replaced Lanier with businessman and attorney Arnold Jack Rosenthal, a Democrat who had vowed to bring down the utility rates. Alexandria is one of some fourteen Louisiana cities in which the municipal government owns and operates the utility systems. The cities derive a portion of their operations funds from profit in the sale of utilities. Rosenthal was unable to enact major reductions because of steady increases in the fuel adjustment rate brought about by hikes in the price of natural gas, a fuel used to produce electricity.
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