Much has been said already and there is undoubtedly much more to say about the recent seizure of the Bank of Clark County.
There is a subtle aspect of the loss of this local bank, which unfortunately may serve up consequences for years to come.
Bank of Clark County set a standard for corporate citizenship. Not only through its business practices and the very real estate loans that became its undoing, but in what it saw as a responsibility to give back to the community that had provided the opportunity for it to grow year after year.
Nonprofits from United Way and the Boys and Girls Club to Share and the School of Piano Technology for the Blind benefited from the bank’s staff time and corporate resources.
In a letter to the editor, Sherri McMillan, co-owner of Northwest Personal Training in Vancouver, wrote about the bank this way: “This bank was created with a dream and vision for our community – to help it thrive so we, as the citizens, could benefit and live our individual dreams. It was built by local citizens who have an invested interest in our community – not some number-cruncher who couldn’t care less about whether our community and all of our businesses succeed.”
Sherri went on to discuss her experiences with the bank and the role it played in providing needed funding when apparently none of the other banks would.
Another reader wrote in an email forwarded to us: “The management and directors at BOCC did not set out to fail this bank, nor did they. If mistakes were made – and I say if – the industry is replete with them, and this bank should not have become the Northwest’s whipping post.
“These are good people, and bad things happen to good people and it is not always fair. But they are still good people, and they still deserve our thoughts, prayers and support.”
Even in its failing, it is that heart and the people of the Bank of Clark County that are remembered and valued. The staff, at least in the short term, have been kept on at Umpqua and are going through an interview process. They are pros and we hope they will have work if they want it.
But what about the heart of the bank?
It is the result of the team of people who came together to create something and saw to it that the community benefitted from their successes. This was the team that had a dream and a vision for the community.
Who will step up to provide that leadership? The scrambling has undoubtedly started to win BOCC account holders who are understandably cautious. In all that scrambling, we will be watching to see which of the local financial institutions – all with good hearted people themselves – will scramble to pick up not only those accounts, but the dream for our community.
