LIFE GOES ON… and on… (Part 171 j)
I was still not totally aware of
‘body language’ at that stage of my career. However, when you feel you
know someone pretty well and see his demeanor change you know
something’s going to happen. Here I was having just received praise for
supposedly doing well and all of a sudden I see the person who has just
uttered those words lean forward in his big, comfortable chair and put
his hands together on the table and stare right at me. I was across the
table from him and with no one on either side of me knew I was going to
hear some things I really didn’t want to hear. To say I was nervous
would be to put it mildly… and it’s for that reason I use that as the
reason I don’t remember what he said first. Later, when I wrote the
incident up, I had no recollection of anything he opened with. The first
words I do remember were stating an obvious fact…. Jerry was a problem.
For the next 20 or so minutes (maybe longer… I didn’t make note of it) I
heard the story of how it came to be that the bank hired him. It’s been
50 years since then and because I couldn’t take notes at the time I
know a lot of the facts are jumbled and ‘fuzzy’ so please bear with me.
When
the Board of Trustees made the decision to open a branch they had no
idea what was involved. They did know the big city banks were prohibited
from opening branches in the County but knew little to nothing of how
that came to be. I won’t go over that here and suffice it to say,
because of their ignorance they made any number of ‘fumbles’ in pushing
the process through. One of the things it had taken me some time to
fully realize was that with all contracts there is “fine print” and
that has to be read and understood. What the bank had missed in filing
all the paperwork and jumping through the obvious ‘hoops’ was that the
final decision would come from the State Banking Commission following a
number of private meetings held among themselves. The Commission was
made up of State appointed people as well as members of the banking
community itself. One of the banking members was the Chairman of the
Board of his bank and he, not the head of the Commission, was considered
to be not only powerful but also cantankerous. He was opposed to
allowing our bank permission without some additional conditions to be
added. As preposterous as it sounds one of those conditions was that our
bank had to interview a set group of people recommended by members of
the Commission to be not only the branch manager but also to become an
officer of the bank. (Are you getting the picture?) Sitting there
listening to Bert go over this ridiculous proposal I thought back to how
strange the interview process had been. It had not taken place at the
bank itself and how secretive it had seemed to be.
I think (but
am not sure) this is where Bert stopped and in as serious a tone as I’d
ever heard from him, told me that none of what I’d heard or would be
hearing was to be discussed with anyone… and the “anyone” was stressed
more than once. I was told that if word got out about the content that I
would be terminated on the spot. Believe me, I got the message! But, I
was completely baffled as to why he was telling me all of this. When
Bert continued he told me the list our Board was given contained
officers from city banks that had been put forth by members of the
Commission… Jerry included. When it came time for our branch committee
to make the decision on who to hire they chose Jerry because he worked
for the bank the ‘cantankerous’ Commissioner was Chairman of. Bert added
a little ‘aside’ at this point in that he and Hobie had disagreed but
had been overridden. All I did was sit and listen as there was some
discussion between the two of them. The bottom line… that was the reason
I’d been stifled in trying to bring Jerry ‘in line’ and why, unless he
committed some sort of crime, we’d all have to live with him and the
situation. Bert added that with another branch application pending the
bank didn’t want to upset any member of the Banking Commission. With
that said and established, it came time for me to hear about the audit
report.
Again, because I was so nervous I can’t remember the
sequence of what was said and when. An overview (mine) of what Bert
proceeded to cover started with the ‘exit interview that CeeCee, the
head examiner for the State, had with the audit committee. She had cited
the lax conditions at the branch when it came to following standard
operating procedures. When asked by a member of the committee if she’d
observed any of the specifics she’d referenced she said she hadn’t. The
next question was where did she get the information from… and she’d told
them from me. Hearing that, a couple of the Board members ‘jumped’ on
her saying that what she’d referenced was ‘hearsay’ and shouldn’t be a
part of the audit report. Without Bert saying it I immediately got the
answer as to why CeeCee had left so abruptly on that day. The way I
figured it the Trustees had badgered her not to write it up. That part
wasn’t mentioned by Bert so I don’t really know. Moving on… what she did
in writing the branch audit up was to reference that there were some
‘internal memos’ that indicated that the manager of the branch was
“selectively” bypassing “accepted accounting principles” and that needed
to be addressed. From what I gathered she didn’t reference anything
specific. That left me sitting there wondering what was to happen next.
It didn’t take long to find out. Bert sort of excused what I’d done by
handing over my folder of Jerry’s transgressions to CeeCee as an error
of judgement due to my inexperience. He didn’t come right out and say it
this bluntly but, in essence, he said the auditors were the “enemy” and
we, the bank, should not go out of our way to do the job they were paid
to do.
There was a pause while Bert left the room. While he was
gone I took it upon myself to ask Hobie what was I supposed to do going
forward. He told me just to listen to what Bert had to say and that we’d
talk afterwards. When Bert returned he seemed to have softened the
stern position he’d taken over the previous twenty or so minutes. I was
still sitting forward in my chair when he returned. He obviously noticed
and instructed me to sit back and relax. When your body is
involuntarily stiff it’s almost impossible to do. So, I sat there and
listened as he pretty much agreed that Jerry was a “handful” but that
somehow we were going to have to live with the situation while, at the
same time, taking steps to meet the direction as written in the audit
report. Bert then said he’d called Jerry to come to the main office to
meet with him the next day. Hearing that I wanted to be a part of it but
knew there was no chance. He finished up saying he was going to meet
with Hobie after lunch to see what they could come up with and I’d be
advised as to what was decided. That told me I was ‘safe’. I was excused
and headed down the back stairs left to wonder what they could come up
with that hadn’t been tried before.
To be continued…
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