Westamerica: ‘satellite branches will stay open’
Westamerica Bank will keep open its locations in the Springs and Glen Ellen, both former Sonoma Valley Bank locations, at least through February.
“The two satellite branches will stay open,” Christine Coulston, the West America manager for the Sonoma market, told the city council.
The idea of addressing a letter to bank CEO David Payne urging that the two outlying branches stay open was put on the agenda by Councilmember Ken Brown. He said Supervisor Valerie Brown was prepared to sign the letter. Coulston, though, preempted that action with her October 6 announcement.
“This is wonderful news,” said Li Booker. “It’s very important to my Spanish speaking constituents.”
When asked for a timeline commitment, Coulston qualified her answer. “This is a business decision,” she said. “The branches will stay open based on transactions, foot traffic and on the response of the public.”
Coulston said Westamerica told government regulators that the satellite branches will remain open at least through the complete conversion from SVB. Colson said the process “will take a great deal of time. It’s my understanding that it will be at least through February, and probably much further.”
Springs resident Mario Castillo said he hoped Westamerica would be as dedicated a community partner as its predecessor, which went so far as to dub the Fiesta Shopping Center location Banco de Sonoma. The bank saved Latino customers the fee a check-cashing business would charge, he said, and taught them about savings and investing.
6 thoughts on “Westamerica: ‘satellite branches will stay open’”
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Great news and nice work Mr Brown (City Council) and Ms Brown (County Supervisor)! Much work is yet to be done and the Springs and Glen Ellen consumer and commercial residents need to commit to the branches and transact meaningful business between now and February, 2011.
A group of concerned citizens, and public groups are working feverishly behind the scenes to better assess needs of The Springs, and reconcile County Plans drafted under the 2007 Designation of a Redevelopment Zone with Sonoma County. Banks are being introduced to these plans and efforts are underway to formulate Banking consortiums (hopefully led my Chairman/President David Payne and Westamerica) or an Economic Development entity where banks invest funds earmarked for The Springs specific plans.
A Bank is paramount as the hub of The Springs under the new Plans and Westamerica has a real chance to take what was started by failed SVB management and become a leader by taking re-development efforts up and over the top in the years to come. Westamerica has a record of leading in these areas and I am hopeful they will grab ahold of The Springs.
I anticipate this will be an agenda item on City Council quite a number of times between now and February 2011 and the RAC community meetings as well.
Anyone interested in assisting please contact Myself.
One very important thing to remember is although Westamerica may think “this is a business decision” there are significant factors that must be considered under The Community Reinvestment Act. The Springs is located in a predominatly low-moderate income census tract area and is designated a County Redevelopment Zone. The Bank will need to seriously consider banking credit needs and services offered to these citizens and if they leave what impact will that have in the area with? Since they are the only banking facility between the City of Sonoma and Santa Rosa there will be immense pressure on them from Regulators to ensure needs of this community are met.
There are formal appeals for branch closures which are being evaluated at the present time. But an informal arrangement to maintain the branches and services with Westamerica is the best alternative and to allow the Bank to shine as a leader as they have proven in other markets they are capable.
First, thank you to the Sun for bringing us this good news.
Second, thank you to our local politicians for recognizing the importance of keeping these branches open and available to this underserved segment of our community.
This was the very issue I was concerned about when SVB’s
problems first surfaced, as I commented at the time. Disappearing branches lead to shrinking credit in the neighborhoods affected.
Third, many thanks to Ralph Hutchinson who’s unfiltered expert insights have led to a greater understanding of the processes that surround the failure of Sonoma Valley Bank. It is now fairly clear this story is not over.
Consequently, it appears the competition across the street
is busy removing stories and/or comments about certain
bank executives that were recently posted.
I say you must be near paydirt when your words are removed especially for the benefit of what is now a pay only audience.
The value of a free press is obvious here.
Shopping at Sun advertised businesses.
Does the cross-town paper really think removing blog commentary and/or taking down online news articles will keep the truth from coming out? I’m not sure sometimes what story is better…the cross-town newspaper that covers up the truth, or the truth behind the bank failure itself?
It wasn’t the Big Bad Regulators, nor the economy, but the failed policy, decision to go out of area, bet the bank on one partnership (110% of capital base), and uncontrolled compensation programs that incented growth at any cost without regard for credit underwriting, quality, or nonperforming status. Bonuses and exhorbitant compensation went on being paid to the top 3-5 Executives until just a couple months before the franchise was seized by the DFI and handed over to the FDIC. Nice consolation too little too late.
Anyway, I’m for picking up the pieces in the wake of the failure and ensuring our Valley has banking services and an effort to revitalize The Springs, and serve Glen Ellen. Carry on! The truth shall set you free…and Justice will prevail. It’s the American way.
I can’t understand why the competition took down the whole story.
Were there errors ?
Has new information come to light ?
Printing stories only to remove them a few days later lends credibility to the notion that there is something to hide. Or was the story just erroneous?
Again, I ask who is more important, hundreds of small town shareholders’ interest in the truth or the reputations
of a few bankers who should have known better?
My guess is the conflicts of interest between former advertisers (the bank, the Board Members’ businesses and affiliations and relationships from years of partying together) and the cross town newspaper Editors/Ownership/Management proved too much and the truth is taking a back seat? Perhaps they are shareholders as well?
They just don’t know how to handle the flow of blogging and truths as they (The Bank Executive Management and Board) has had so many years of dominant control and “rubber stamp” backing from their cronies including the newspaper, they really don’t know how to maintain control with Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech so they did the only thing they could, take the entire article down. They figured it already was printed in hard copy and if anybody decides to write Letters to the Editor they can merely decide not to print them as they have in the past. This modern computer blog system has proven a challenge even for a “Pay only” subscriber list.
There aren’t any errors in the blogging, but we’ve proven to undermine significant parts of all the IT Journalism going far deeper and outing the truth using public documents from the County Recorders, Court records, Secretary of State databases, and citing other FDIC and regulator publications, as well as Napa and Reno newspaper articles.
My guess is they haven’t had anything else new come to light but I assure you that is yet to come when the letters from the FDIC attorney are issued to former SVB Executive Management, Directors and other ongoing investigations unfold.
The thread has been pulled by the bloggers and their stories will soon be unraveled. The Light is shining into the crevasses for all to see.
I was always taught…”the good of the many outweigh the good of the few” and Tyranny is not a part of the America I know and love. Those days….are OVER!