Can grassroots effort save Banco de Sonoma?
A tepid promise to keep Westamerica Bank’s Fiesta Shopping Center branch open is not strong enough for a growing number of Springs residents concerned the location will be permanently closed.
The hours of operation at the former Banco de Sonoma have already been cut. The bank opens weekdays at noon, and closes at 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 6 p.m. on Friday. It is closed Saturday.
A Westamerica official told the Sonoma City Council that the company would maintain its branches 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, manager for the Sonoma market, said. Pressed for a timeline, Coulston said the commitment was only through February of 2011, when the conversion from Sonoma Valley Bank should be complete.
“This is a business decision,” she said. “The branches will stay open based on transactions, foot traffic and on the response of the public.”
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 County Supervisor Valerie Brown was prepared to sign the letter.
Coulston, though, preempted that action with her initially positive announcement. The council has declined to revisit the issue since.
Springs resident Mario Castillo told the council he hoped Westamerica would be as dedicated to the Latino community as its predecessor. The bank saved Latino customers the fee a check-cashing business would charge, he said, and taught them about savings and investing.
“It’s very important to my Spanish speaking constituents,” added Li Booker.
When the Sonoma council declined to pursue the lobbying effort, Councilmembers Laurie Gallian and Ken Brown spoke to the Springs Redevelopment Advisory Committee. They suggested that panel press Westamerica for a longer commitment.
It is unclear how much weight such a letter would carry with the 80-branch bank. Though it is essentially a sub-committee of the County Board of Supervisors, the RAC has no legal authority.
John Haig, the county’s RAC liaison, told The Sun that while the bank is important to the area’s economic vitality, the issue is not within the RAC’s usual purvey.
“Whether (the RAC) will be leading the effort or lending morale support is the question,” he said. The RAC, chaired by Steve Cox, meets again Dec. 9.
Cox also heads The Springs Community Alliance, a group he describes as made of “community members and organizations that work together to identify needs, develop solutions and take action to improve the Springs Community.”
At its last meeting, the SCA said it would send a letter to Westamerica urging that the branch be kept open, and suggested its members and concerned citizens do likewise.
Ralph Hutchinson, a former federal bank regulator, is a voice for the grassroots effort to keep Westamerica branches in the Springs and Glen Ellen open.
“However,” he said, “if these offices cannot demonstrate significant contributions to profits and prove that they are essential locations to the community, they will almost certainly close.”
Hutchinson urges residents to “vote with your dollars” and utilize the branches and services as many times as possible in the coming months.
“Without meaningful transactions being conducted with significant volumes,” he said, “these facilities are doomed.”
6 thoughts on “Can grassroots effort save Banco de Sonoma?”
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Well I’m not sure if its fortunately or unfortunately but I now have Westamerica in violation of The Community Reinvestment Act. By law 12 USC 228.43 states that when an individual asks for a copy of the CRA Public File the bank has 5 business days to respond and give the following items:
= Includes all written comments
= Includes copy of most recent CRA Performance Evaluation
= Includes a list of branches with street addresses and census tract #’s
= Includes a list of branches opened/closed during current yr and each of previous 2 yrs, their addresses and census tract #’s
= Includes a list of services, hrs of operations, loan & deposit products, transaction fees, alternative delivery systems
= Includes description of any differences in offerings based on branch location
= Includes map of assessment area
= Includes CRA Disclosure Statement
= Includes HMDA data provided by FFIEC for 2 prior calendar years
= Includes information that is current as of April 1st each year
= Complete Public File for review delivered to my local branch (Banco de Sonoma)
= Branches capable of providing copies of public file info within 5 calendar days of request
I requested a complete copy of the CRA Public File on Wednesday November 10th approximately 3:00pm.
Time has now expired earlier this afternoon. This will not bode well for Westamerica should we be forced to challenge this case in a hearing with the Federal Regulators. I view it as a win for The Grass Roots and the people of The Springs and Sonoma Valley.
Onward and upward!
I notified the FDIC Ombudsman about the lack of responsiveness to my public file request and sounded the alarm that I challenged the branch reduction in hours and that in my opinion it effectively “closed” the branch rendering it unaccessible to the working class Springs residents. This is in contravention of the Branch Closing Procedures as referenced in the Community Reinvestment Act.
Now they will be aware we are challenging the anticipated branch closing and they can monitor the bank’s activities and try to liaison between The Grass Roots initiative and Westamerica.
They should help explain to Westamerica its much more than “just a business decision.” Its our community speaking our voice. Welcome to Sonoma Valley.
Write your letters of complaint to the Bank for change of hours and potential closure decisions…this is NOT a test…but a “live excercise”
Regulation BB as its known to the Federal Reserve (the author of all Consumer Regulations in Banking regardless of primary Federal Regulator) explains it best at the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank website as follows:
— If you do your banking at a branch office, you can ask to see its CRA file, which contains a copy of the public section of the bank’s most recent CRA performance evaluation and a list of services provided by your branch. Upon request, your branch must also provide for inspection, within five days, all the information in the public file relating to your branch’s assessment area.
Westamerica still has not contacted or provided me the information I requested and its been 8 days (and I was generous interpreting business days).
Thus they now are noncompliant with CRA.
Here is the FRB-Atlanta website for your review:
http://www.frbatlanta.org/pubs/cra/where_you_can_find_your_banks_cra_public_file.cfm?redirected=true
Already 9 days after the initial request, I did receive a phonecall from the CRA Officer at the corporate office. The items are said to be coming to me in the mail albeit well past the 5 days as prescribed by the law. This hardly suggests appropriate response time, awareness and training programs for branch and regional management on The Community Reinvestment Act.
For a company who effectively eliminated access to the Banco de Sonoma branch and the Glen Ellen branch when November 1st they reduced the hours of operation to just noon-4:00pm effectively closing the branch, this hardly demonstrated the posturing of an institution dedicated to servicing its entire community including Low-Moderate income areas sich as are in The Springs.
This pending decision whether to officially close these branches, due out February 1st, 2011 is hardly just another “business decision” based solely on profits and volume. The Springs communities have rights established and protected under Regulation BB namely The Community Reinvestment Act and the swelling Grassroots initiative is preparing to bring these points to Light.
Do your part, join the Grassroots movement and write a letter lodging your disappointment, emails and vocal responses will not be registered.
Westamerica did finally mail a packet of information and a follow up email describing their efforts. They have always had a solid reputation of CRA support which is why I am disturbed at the posturing on the Banco de Sonoma branch. I am still hopeful Westamerica will reverse their direction and rethink the path where things are headed. They can still lead an effort to redevelop The Springs. But their responsiveness to my request was dismal enough to earn them a violation of law and a record on the CRA file with my letters and FDIC complaint…all of which will prove useful if a formal appeal is necessary as we are preparing for.
While Westamerica decides if they wish to honor my requests for CRA Public File information in sufficient detail I am pleased to report there are 4 of the 10 total banks in Sonoma already expressing interest in hearing proposals for CRA projects (The Central Business District “Hub”, a medical facility, an affordable housing project)
It’s good to see interest being generated and if Westamerica is Hellbent on closing the Banco de Sonoma branch, then they are closing themselves out of Sonoma Valley and I suspect very few will retain customer loyalty witnessing treatment like that. They have already disenfranchised much of the Spanish-speaking customer base that banked at Banco de Sonoma by moving Mr. Villasenor downtown to the main branch, allowing about half the bi-lingual staff go either leaving to another bank or elsewhere, and severely limiting the branch hours to just noon-4:00pm virtually impossible to get to by the working class and local merchants.
Perhaps Corporate management will get with the program and rise to a Leadership Role like I know they can and lead The Springs to redevelopment?
Time will tell but the actions say otherwise at the moment.