Don A. DeGraff exemplifies what may be a vanishing breed-the banker/politician.
Mr. DeGraff is the executive vice president of First Savings and Loan Association in South Holland, Ill. He is also mayor of South Holland, a Dutch settlement that over time has become a bedroom community of Chicago.
"I'm a local boy, and I feel it's my job to help the community," he said on recent day as he left the thrift at lunchtime to attend to municipal business.
An understanding employer and a detailed time management plan help him juggle banking and public service, Mr. Holland said.
For decades community bankers like Mr. DeGraff have served as local elected officials, alternating between town budgets and bank balance sheets.
Though there are no data to prove it, observers say fewer bankers now find time to hold public office. And as the industry has consolidated, the population of community bankers has shrunk.
Meanwhile the political world has become more demanding and intrusive.
Running for office "has the potential to be very damaging to your bank," said Charles T. Doyle, chairman of Texas Independent Bancshares and mayor of Texas City, Tex. "You're going to be tested, and if you don't come off as Cool Hand Luke you'd better stay behind your desk at the bank."
Banker participation in local politics seems to have dropped the most where community banks have been acquired by larger banks.
That's what has happened in Indiana; when it's time to make up a school board or city council ballot, there are fewer established community bankers to choose from.
"Now you have a 28-year-old branch manager instead of a 55-year-old bank president to draw on," said Joe DeHaven, executive director of the Community Bankers Association of Indiana.
Industry observers agree that people who work for large regional banks are less likely to be involved in local politics, probably because strong ties to the community aren't a big part of a large bank's philosophy.
Also, community bankers face a more competitive industry.
"Back before deregulation, banking was a pretty easy business to be in," Mr. DeHaven said. "People didn't have to worry about CRA, Reg DD, and Reg A, or how much they should spend on technology. Investments were easier too.
"It's just so much more complicated now."
Stephen Y. Scurlock, executive vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas, agreed.
"Banking has become more of a science than an art," he said. "A lot of people are spending more time in the bank than at demanding civic activities."
Community bankers who still find time for politics acknowledge that it is draining, and sometimes eats into bank business.
Mr. DeGraff said he spends as much as 25 hours a week serving as mayor of South Holland. To save time for his family he tries to limit evening meetings, he said, but that adds to his daytime schedule.
"I keep a detailed calendar of what is taking place when, because I don't want to spend my whole day running back and forth to the Village Hall," he said.
Though the bankers said they try to keep their political lives from affecting their employers, it is sometimes difficult.
Larry D. Marik, a senior vice president at First National Bank and Trust, Columbus, Neb., was running for a second mayoral term in 1988 when the bank was bought by Omaha-based First National of Nebraska Inc. Mr. Marik said he had to make sure the new boss would go along with his public- service activities.
First National of Nebraska agreed, but Mr. Marik said he was especially careful not to do anything "stupid" as mayor that would embarrass his new employer.
Though he has been out of politics since 1992, Mr. Marik said he was recently asked to run for governor in Nebraska. But he didn't want to put himself, his family, or the bank through a yearlong campaign.
"During a one-year campaign I would never see a dance recital," he said. "And if you sneezed wrong in 1942, it's going to come back to haunt you. I'm starting to see that at the local level."
Mr. DeGraff and Mr. Marik said their political activities never cost their banks business, but a third banker-politician described some close calls.
Ralph E. Mowen, a vice president at Farmers First Bank in Lititz, Pa., and mayor of nearby Ephrata, said that on occasion constituents have asked the bank to force his hand.
"Over the years in Ephrata, situations would arise where people would call the bank and say, 'If you don't make him do this, we're going to close our accounts,'" Mr. Mowen said. "Of course the bank never did anything."
Despite the risks, many community banks still encourage political activity. Sometimes it is a matter of seeing civic involvement as part of marketing strategy. Sometimes the idea is just that what's good for the community is good for the bank.
About a half dozen of Mr. Mowen's co-workers at Farmers First are also local politicians. And in Kansas, where there hasn't been much consolidation among small banks, "almost every community banker has taken a turn as treasurer of something," said Sue Anderson, executive director of the Independent Bankers Association of Kansas.
Nearly all Kansas community bankers still regularly serve on school boards and town councils, she said.
Even where fewer community bankers are seeking public office, the drop may be only temporary. In many states where consolidation has winnowed out community banks, new one are beginning to surface. That could mean a new wave of banker/politicians.
