Yet another case of fake CSR

There have been numerous articles, recently lauding Ocean National Bank and its president Danny O'Brien  for their community service.  Their site has all kinds of links to community minded activities. The problem is that his actions and the action of the bank clearly show that this is yet another example of typical PR window dressing -- handing out a check to get the good publicity. The problem is that they are ignoring the "community" part of community relations, and allowing internal policies to destroy local institutions and family farms, most recently mine.
After a fire destroyed my house in 1999, I rebuilt my house with the premise that it would  be "the capital of social capital" -- a place where I could easily host benefits, fund-raisers and networking events for my community in New Hampshire. Since I moved in in 2000, I have, at no cost, donated my house and the surrounding 55 acres of family farm land, to Governor John Lynch, The Piscataqua Maritime Society, The Gundalow Company, Durham Public Library, the Granite State Opera, Rock My Soul, and just about anyone else who has asked. Now it seems that Ocean Bank wants to put an end to all that. As the owner of a small but growing business, cash flow is always tight, but I was in the process of selling a house on the farm that would bring my taxes and everything else up to date. As it happened, the day after my neighbor, Betsy Sandberg, successfully blocked at the ZBA the subdivision that would enable the sale to go forward, Ocean announced to the world that my family farm would be up for auction on June 15th.  Even though we had already sent them a payment, they returned the check and started placing ads in The Boston Globe for the auction. Since then, according to my lawyer, he has never encountered a more intractable bank nor one more unwilling to work out a solution.

I should have know that they weren't into having a "conversation" since their web site offers no opportunity to do so. Repeated attempts to contact them have yielded  nothing but intransigence from their lawyers and more ads for the auction -- and a lot of talk in the community about how difficult Ocean is to deal with. As it turns out, I'm not the only one who has encountered this sort of treatment.

So the next time you see Danny O'Brien or someone else at a big community check giving ceremony, ask him where the money came from. Ask them what's more important, building social capital in the community or short term hikes in the stock price? Ask them how much of that money they're donating is made by forcing the foreclosure of family farms? As the developer vultures circle my farm in anticipation of the auction, I keep wondering how many of them have ties to Ocean?

And, just to set the record straight, my farm will not be going up for auction on June 15th, thanks to the generosity of my friends, neighbors and supporters who will NOT let Shankhassick Farm die! And if you want a good alternative to Ocean, try The Provident Bank in Portsmouth. That's where the "Save Shankhassick" fund is.

 

Comments

[Holly Hunter]

Katie,
I am so sorry for your troubles and will be happy to donate. You have support from Dan and I both, let us know how else we may help?
Holly Hunter

[JosephSHaas athotmaildotcom]

That's great that Ocean National let's you be 1 yr. behind in your taxes, especially when the state-wide school tax has been declared un-constitutional in the Londonderry case on appeal to the Supremes yet to rule July 1st when the General Court shirks its duty to provide a "General" Tax as in that 1992 case decided by Wm.R.Johnson, Judge retired, that I've highlighted in my case #2006-0935 there. So the bank MAKES you pay an unlawful tax!? Extortion! I think the Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth ought to put his foot down on this Ocean National to stop their waves of corruption! The tide is turning with your case I hope. Good luck! -- Joe P.S. See also Rose & Milton Friedman's best-selling book: "Free to Choose", Ch. 5 on this subject to subsidize only the "poor" people. 55NH503@505(1875) He won the Nobel Prize in Economics, and we listen to the zombies at the Legislature!? footnote: to file a claim against Blatsos' bond, Dept. of Revenue for not being the check-and-balance on this for you and all of us. Details in my court case for anybody to read.

[KDPaine]

Jon, in answer to your comment, no I have not successfully refinanced, though I find it amusing that Google has put refinancing ads next to this posting. We're current on the mortgage and on year's worth of taxes. Still have another year's worth of taxes to go to be current. Apparently the terms do allow for immediate calling of the note if you don't pay your taxes, which I agree is draconian, but what do you want from a big corporate conglomerate that's the result of about a dozen different mergers.
And yes, the developers are calling day and night.. it's a pretty ugly.

[Jon Leer]

Family Farm and Ocean Bank:

Does this mean that you have successfully refinanced the mortgage with another bank?
Did the terms of your Ocean mortgage allow immediate calling in of the loan? Sounds rather Draconian to me!
How willing is your town to assisting you? Particularly if you arrange a payment schedule for your back taxes? Got several more civic events scheduled at the manor over the next year, say Gov. Lynch, the Mayor's Ball, other celebrities? I would think the town would be standing by you to ensure the good PR to reflect on them.

In the mean time, I can just imagine the developers licking their chops, encircling the farm like a bunch of NH turkey vultures.

[Jack Krupansky]

Oops... you have a broken link where it says "As the owner of a small but growing business, cash flow is always tight"

The link under "business" is:

http://kdpaine.blogs.com/www.measuresofsuccess.%20com

that should be:

http://www.measuresofsuccess.com

-- Jack Krupansky