Buzz Armfield On The Record On Community One

3/27 Author's Note:  This post has been updated.

One of the things that I'm most grateful for over the last couple of years in my stroll down the yellow-brick-road-from-Hell is my renewed friendship with Buzz ("You may know me - I have my name on a cancer center") Armfield.  He is an honorary knight in the realm of Ya. 

Both homegrown in Asheboro, we both came back home (after getting the educations the mill town kings say they value so much) and we both got burned . . . me by the overpaid liars and thieves running Randolph Hospital, and Buzz by my old neighbor, Mike Miller (who also sat on the Board of Directors at Randolph), at First National Bank. 

Buzz (who, by virtue of the family money, doesn't really have to work, but does anyway because he's a fundamentally down-to-earth, decent, real guy), switched gears and careers and got burned AGAIN by Randolph County.  That's when he decided he'd had enough, and let me "out" him as a friend and reader/commenter on this blog.

There's for damned sure no place like home.  Cue the flying monkeys.

Unlike someone else whose family name adorns a local hospital, Buzz gets it - and that's because he remembers where he came from, and he refuses to turn his back on people who've actually lived the nightmare without the benefit of a prominent name or a bank account to cushion any falls. 

We've ruefully discussed the similarity between Randolph Hospital and Community One in terms of their grand plans to be something that they are not . . . and arguably should not try to be . . . and in their spectacular failures in their respective "missions" . . . because their untouchable "leaders" got too big for their britches and too greedy.

That brings us to the "see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil" act of Asheboro's daily newspaper, the Courier Tribune.

As I alluded in my lastest post expounding on that subject (which a number of people have opined is one of my best), J.D. Walker (who happens to be the reporter who PUT DOWN HER PEN back in 2004 when I appeared before the Asheboro City Council to PLEAD FOR HELP in holding Randolph Hospital executives accountable for their despicable/illegal actions) actually had the imaginary stones to call Buzz this week, and pick his brain about Community One - after a newspaper thirty miles up the road scooped her again.

Both Buzz and I were dumbfounded . . . both by the sheer audacity of the phone call (where the "blog-that-nobody-reads" was clearly the invisible elephant in the conversation), and J.D.'s uber-lame attempts to win Buzz over. 

It's just sooooooo hard to get people to go on the record you see.  Just ask the Greensboro N&R - or the Triad Business Journal.

Well, it's Saturday night and so far as either of us can tell, there's been nary a peep out of the Courier Tribune concerning Community One, so Buzz has given me leave to publish one of his recent e-mails to me.  You could call it going on the record. And it wasn't that hard to get him to talk.

You just have to play fair.  Here's Buzz unedited:

You know, when J.D. Walker called me, and made that comment that they were being accused of covering up the Community One story, I knew that she had been reading comments made on your blog, but I also knew that in my communication to them, I had never made any sort of statement other than to tell they that they "missed" a major story. I never accused them of any cover up, at least not directly.

("Cover-up" . . . "white-wash" . . . "missed"  . . . "over-looked" . . . tomaeto . . . tomahto . .  whatever.)

Today is Saturday, March 26, 2011.  This date was a challenge in my message to the Courier Tribune and that, "if you work hard, maybe you can get out a story by Saturday".  It was tongue-in-cheek humor from a smart-ass-cynic, namely me.  Honestly, I thought that they might run some story on it, albeit a bit late, but a story.  I checked their web site this morning, and if they did publish it, I can't find it.

This is where I will tell you Ms. Walker that you are covering something up, and that I doubt your journalistic integrity, and I am accusing you of be "locally bought and sold".

You, your coworkers, and the newspaper you work for are "owned", and not just by Stephens Media.  You are in someones pocket.   You . . . ALL of you at the Courier Tribune . . . have made that obvious.

Your comment to me that you cannot find anyone the "go on record" with regard to Community One is so much blowing smoke up my backside.  The Greensboro News & Record and The Triad Business Journal were able to give detailed information as to what could be taking place at Community One Bank, and even a local FOX affiliate ran a story, and included a link to the News & Record on their web page.  What's worse is that you have failed to inform your community of news that could impact them.

Your silence in this matter . . .. ROARS.

Back when I worked for the predecessor for Community One, they, and by that I mean the management of the bank, and including the same Mike Miller whom you alluded to as being "strange" in our telephone conversation, pushed hard to sell annuities to senior citizens.  They would charter a bus and take a large group out to lunch at some place such as Snyder Farms Restaurant near Randleman, and then bring them back for a tour of the bank.  During the bank tour was when they took the opportunity for a hard sale of the annuity which they were hawking at that time.  I never did like that, but it wasn't my department, and I kept my mouth shut.  Annuities aren't my choice for a conservative investment, at least not the quality of the ones that the then First National Bank was pushing.  I clearly recalled at the time that this wasn't a new trick for a bank to sell other than FDIC insured products to the elderly, it had been done years earlier.  Ever hear of man named Charles Keating?  Go and do a Wikipedia search on him, you'll get a wealth of information on how not to run a bank.

Too bad that Mike Miller doesn't read.

I had pushed all of that back into the dark corners of my mind, until I had a telephone conversation with a local Asheboro businessman.  This man is doing his best to make the local elderly aware of the trouble at Community One Bank.  He knows that the elderly in your community don't tend to read the out of town newspapers, nor are they users of the Internet.  He is spreading the news by word of mouth, one person at a time. 

What struck me, and motivated me, was his tale of an older man, whom he had informed of the issues with Community One, and who being a depositor took it upon himself to visit his local Community One branch and make direct inquiries.  This man was "assured" by the local branch employee that "yes, they've had some problems, but things are better now".

No, it ain't.  This older bank customer went back to the local businessman's establishment to report what he'd been told at Community One.  The businessman was able to produce a copy of the News & Record article that indicated otherwise. The older man left again, and headed back to his local bank in a less than pleasant mood.

The FDIC insures bank accounts, yes we all know that.  Even up to $250,000.  But, do you really want to be in a position where the bank in which you've deposited your money goes belly up?

I've never been in such a situation, nor have I experienced one, and I hope I never do.  From what I can learn on the Internet is that the FDIC has been paying depositor claims within "a few days", but I've also been told by personal contacts in the financial services industry is that there is a potential for the depositor claim to take months for settlement, and then with the forfeiture of all accrued interest.

Community One Bank brought with it a lot of older customers from the former First National Bank. Being elderly, and in a more rural community, they aren't what could be described as well informed, or astute investors.  They prefer to put their hard earned cash in a bank, and know that it will draw interest for them.  They use the interest as a source of investment income, perhaps in conjunction with a pension, or Social Security.  It's always worked that way for them.  The FDIC is so much a life raft, or a fire extinguisher.  Good to have on hand, but do you really want to see if it works?

I'll put it all in perspective.....would you want your grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, or friends, who use the interest income from a bank certificate of deposit, money market account, or savings, to endure an FDIC takeover of their bank and the mess that it would entail?  Could these people financially survive without access to their money for an indeterminate period of time?  Can they afford to lose all accrued interest on their investment? 

How could the Courier Tribune NOT run a story?  Each and every one of those who claim that they report news for the Courier Tribune should be ashamed for that they have "done" by not "doing anything".

I hope that the employee pension fund for the Courier Tribune was invested heavily in FNB United Corporation stock.  That would be justice.

Of course, I know, all too well that the Courier Tribune is positively gifted at not doing anything . . .

. . . and that their reporters, editor & publishers have no shame . . .

. . . and that there's no such thing as justice for some people in Randolph County.

Sunday Morning (March 27) Update:

My minions with local newspaper subscriptions inform me that the Courier has a story on the sad/sorry state of Community One on the front page.  I'm told some of the on-the-record commentary really pees in the cornflakes of the Bonnie Renfro types . . . many of whom need to be prayed off their stages.  In the grand game of covering tail, I did anticipate that a Sunday story would be the CT's move. 

They could no longer treat the story like "throw-away" news (i.e. publish it on a Friday or Saturday).  A story on Sunday (a high ciruculation day) reaches more readers - and the crowd at the Courier will spin it, "See, look, we ARE covering the story!

Of course, in terms of informing the local populace of what the rest of the world already knows, they're winning no prizes.

As of a few minutes ago, there's still nothing online at the Courier (so much for the argument that their website is cutting edge), so I can't offer commentary on their commentary at this time.