Nicole Laurain, daughter of Van Buren Township Police Captain Greg Laurain, got up at the rowdy June 2 meeting of the VBT board to blast Supervisor Paul White for taking her sign and to announce the Independent no longer would be allowed in “her” bank.
Nichole Laurain is assistant manager at the Charter One bank at 105 Main Street in Belleville. She complained that Supervisor White took her sign that asked people to come to that evening’s “Public Safety Meeting” to support public safety.
She stated that White intimidated the manager when he came in asking to see the manager and, “I would have given you the sign, too, if you intimidated me like that.”
She said right across the lobby from her sign is where the Belleville Independent newspapers are stacked.
“There will be no more signs where I work. There will be no more Independents where I work,” she said, referring to the newspaper as “political propaganda” and addressing Editor Rosemary Otzman, who was reporting on the meeting.
The crowd full of police officers, their wives, and other supporters roared in approval.
“We do support our public safety,” she said of Charter One.
During the board meeting, after Dennis Foley shouted out from the audience that White stole the sign from the bank, White explained.
He said earlier that day a resident brought in a bright yellow recall flyer that he said he had picked up in the Charter One bank, stacked next to a sign that claimed the regular board meeting that evening was a Public Safety meeting. There was nothing regarding public safety on the official agenda.
White said he and Clerk Leon Wright investigated the report and asked to talk to the manager at Charter One.
Manager Mary Ann Mathison reportedly told White and Wright that she didn’t know the sign was out there. She said she had been manager of the branch for just six weeks.
Supervisor White said he asked her if Charter One had a policy of participating in local politics and showed her the recall flyer urging people to recall the Van Buren Township Board.
She said she would throw the sign away and the flyers away, unless the township officials would take them, which they did, White reported. He said the sign and flyers are in his office for anyone to see.
The Independent received a call on June 3 from Sherill Pachuta, regional manager of Charter One, asking how to get a tape of the meeting. She said a man had called to complain about Nicole Laurain and her statements at the meeting.
The Independent told Pachuta how to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the township to get the tape of the meeting for a minimal charge.
She asked the Independent not to leave papers at the bank branch until she can unravel the situation.
On Tuesday, Jacqueline Wiggins, Charter One Bank public affairs director, told the Independent that Laurain was not speaking on behalf of the bank and was acting as a resident.
The Independent and several newspaper employees, who are Charter One customers, said they will be moving the business and personal accounts from the bank because of fears that confidentiality has been breached with Laurain working on a township recall and her publically calling the Independent “political propaganda.”
Wiggins stressed that customer confidentially was paramount at the bank.
A man who had been at the raucous meeting on Tuesday informed the Independent on Thursday that he and several family members are stockholders in Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns Charter One, and he has sent an email to the home office in Scotland complaining about Nicole Laurain and the politics at the bank.
One bank patron, who wished to discuss the matter with Laurain on Friday, was told that Laurain took the day off because she was getting married on Saturday.