Myrin says involvement misunderstood, not as close as portrayed
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The City of Elkhorn alderman accused of getting too close to on-goings regarding the city’s interest in the purchase of the US Bank building for a potential site for City Hall said last Wednesday his involvement might have been blown a bit out of proportion and misunderstood.
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted to no longer pursue the US Bank building in Elkhorn as a potential future site for City Hall in a closed meeting on Oct. 19 after aldermen felt Alderman Tom Myrin, the branch manager at the Elkhorn US Bank branch, got too close for comfort with dealings. Myrin had recused himself from the meeting.
In an interview with Elkhorn Independent staff last Wednesday afternoon, Myrin said when looking at the situation at hand, it’s important to first look at not only the industry he’s working in, but also the particular bank he’s working for.
Myrin said it’s important to note the banking industry is the most regulated industry in the world, something US Bank takes very seriously and the reason why it’s the No. 1 ranked bank in the world.
“So, my honesty, my integrity and my morals are on display every day, all day long, and have never come in to question,” he said.
Furthermore, Myrin further noted his heavy involvement and dedication to the community, volunteering at Oktoberfest, dedicating his time to Boy Scouts and other community events, and getting involved with numerous entities such as the Elkhorn Economic Development Alliance and the Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce.
“My pattern of behavior is I’m a servant,” he said. “That’s what I do at the bank and that’s what I do in the community. I’m a servant.
“All I’ve done is give. Ask people, ask my neighbors … I don’t have to go to all these other meetings, but I go to them because I care and I want to make sure things get done.”
Myrin said when it comes to councilmembers feeling he came to close being both an alderman and the branch manager, at the end of the day, all he did was organize a meeting.
Corporate US Bank
Myrin said the idea of the sale of the Elkhorn branch is not a new idea by any means for US Bank, something they’ve been discussing for several years as the bank needs a remodel and is far larger than what this particular branch needs.
“We have seven teller stations, we need two,” Myrin said. “We don’t need this big place. We need maybe a 2,000-square foot facility where we could run a business more economically.”
Myrin said he has met with several interested buyers in the past, but never anyone who was interested in meeting with those in charge of the actual sale of the bank, that is, until the City of Elkhorn showed interest.
Patrick Swanson with US Bank’s Corporate Communications division said the bank has been working on the sale for many years, and being Myrin is the local branch manager, he was obviously involved.
“In no way, was there any conflict of interest or anything questionable,” he said.
“He’s just involved with the bank because he’s the manager in the market. There’s no benefit for him.”
Swanson said everything was handled by the company’s corporate real estate division and Myrin was simply a go-between, being the local face of the bank.
“It’s natural, he’s local,” he said. “It makes sense no matter what we’re doing in the market to have someone locally involved.”
Furthermore, Swanson noted in deals like this, multiple people are involved, and branch managers, like Myrin, very rarely see much more involvement in dealings than Myrin had already had.
With the city’s broker on the deal, Stu Rosenberg of ICI Commercial, not gaining any traction on the deal, Myrin said it’s honestly not a surprise. Being the fifth largest bank in the country and constantly in the process of remodeling and moving, Myrin said the Elkhorn branch is not even a “blip on the radar screen,” for US Bank because of its size compared to other branches.
“You’ve heard of the squeaky wheel gets the grease, well I had to be the squeaky wheel,” he said.
Myrin said being of importance to the city, he continued the bring the topic up to the company’s corporate real estate division, attempting to get them to simply give some indication of whether or not the sale was something they would be interested in.
“They never shared with me what their plans were,” he said.
Myrin said when he started talking with corporate real estate about the condition of Elkhorn’s City Hall and the city’s interest – noting mold growing behind the wallpaper in the Council Chambers as an example – they began to take notice and other upper level management learned of what the city was trying to accomplish.
“Let’s face it, we’re asking people at City Hall to work at a building that has mold in it,” he said. “How would you feel about it. All we were trying to do is make it a better world.”
Myrin said after a few months of corporate real estate working on several things that would relate to the sale, something which Myrin said he had no involvement in, the company’s corporate real estate division came to Myrin, asking him to set up a meeting with the city.
Myrin said if anything, his regional vice-president was more of the driving force, the “gas in the engine,” looking to get a meeting rolling.
“In my email, that’s why I said with some influential help,” he said. “People who normally don’t take even a minute out of a month to deal with something so small and minute took the time out of their day because they support me in my alderman role, they feel it’s important.”
Myrin said it’s important to note as well that to this point, no discussions had been had between the city and US Bank regarding the sale of the building and the city hadn’t seen any plans, reviewed the facility’s usability or even discussed a price with US Bank.
“All I did was organize a meeting, that’s it, and now we’re at this point,” he said. “No one’s ever questioned my honesty and integrity, ever.”
Myrin said as for any concerns of personal gain, the sale of the bank would not only include a lot of extra work for him on top of his regular day-to-day duties, but would also be a gamble for US Bank as there’s no guarantee moving the Elkhorn branch would prove to be profitable.
“The workload would be horrendous,” he said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of money trying to relocate and then there’s downtime … all kinds of marketing nightmares that come with that.
“It’s a huge gamble and one I’m willing to make for the bank and the city, and then this happens.”
Myrin said things cooled down a bit when US Bank found out the city was interested, though now that any potential deal with the city is off the table, the bank will go back to seeking other interested parties.
Working with the city
Myrin said while city aldermen weren’t aware he was continuing to work on the sale, he said city staff were apprised of the fact that he had no intention of completely separating himself from the situation until an initial meeting was set up between the two entities.
“After that, it’s up to you, I’m out,” he said. “But the only way it’s going to happen is I have to be involved to coordinate this to get them to come to Elkhorn.
“These are a corporate real estate guys that put deals that are worth multi-millions of dollars and we’re trying to sell a facility here that’s a fraction of that.”
Because of this, Myrin said he questions why his involvement was suddenly such a surprise when staff were aware of what he was doing from the moment he first brought the idea to the city.
“I felt it was important to communicate, to say hey listen, I’m not going to let go of this because we have to take care of the employees, we have to take care of City Hall,” he said.
“It’s a bad image, we need to move forward. This could be a solution if the two parties can come together.”
Myrin said he has recused himself from city discussions on the topic and in a meeting several months ago, he was told that everyone thought the city looking into purchasing the bank was a good idea, even though Myrin works as the branch’s manager.
Myrin said once the two parties would have met, he would have recused himself completely to allow alderman, city staff and representatives of US Bank to handle any an all proceedings going forward, regardless of whether either party had continued interest after the initial meeting.
Myrin said after his email first raised concerns among city staff, he was called in to meet with City Attorney Ward Phillips, who after an extensive investigation, told him he had done nothing wrong and there wasn’t anything to be concerned about with proceeding with discussions.
Moving the city forward
Myrin said while he understands some might view being involved on both sides as not being an appropriate action, he doesn’t understand if an alderman has a prominent business that can help the city move forward, why they can’t.
“For the city to move forward not to move forward, that’s just silly,” he said, noting this could have been a potential solution for a real problem for the city.
“To not even have the meeting, it’s just crazy. Maybe we need to look at those processes, because if we can provide a service or a product to the City of Elkhorn for a cheaper price and save the citizens money, we should be able to do that if it’s done correctly.”
Myrin clarified that he’s still a fairly new alderman, only on the council for a year and half thus far, and is still learning how all these processes work, but it’s something he thinks should be looked at.
“I just think we need to do a better of working together,” he said. “This accomplished nothing and I’m really disappointed in how this went.”
