IndyMac's effects on Pasadena: bad press

There was some brief discussion on IndyMac on Monday, with Councilman Steve Madison suggesting that the city agendize discussion about the bank's failure at a future meeting, to see if the city has any role to play in its recovery, or perhaps in finding a new tenant if the bank is to pull out of the city.

I called Barney Melekian, the interim city manager, yesterday and asked him about his concerns with the bank. His response: the city will be fine no matter what happens. In fact, he said that if the bank were to actually leave the city, there is so much demand for Pasadena office space that it would be easy for the Planning Department to find a tenant (while also pointing out, of course, that since the property is not owned by the city, it would not have to do so).

Steve Madison, who apparently led the grand opening ceremonies for the bank, was a little less upbeat about the bank's failure. His concern is that the city does not have any power over whether another bank takes over IndyMac, and whether they would want to keep their offices in Pasadena or not.

However, he said the main thing the city could do at this point is to go into public relations mode to try to keep people from associating the bank's takeover with Pasadena. His concern are the many national bank failure stories with Pasadena datelines.

Otherwise, the only other role the city has right now is to provide police officers for the long lines outside IndyMac branches. It charged the FDIC for their presence on Monday and Tuesday, according to Melekian.