A word to the wise: Keep a close eye on every bank statement you get in the mail.

You just can’t be sure everything is on the level with banks and other lending institutions— especially now in this unnerving era of financial turmoil. My experience is that they will nickel and dime the customers to death, unless they’re called on it. The theory, one imagines, is that few acutally do bother to take the time to call them on it. And so, they get away with it.

The problem, though, is trying to figure who “they” are. It’s not the clerks and branch managers working in the neighborhood bank. As far as I can tell, they’re the innocents in this mugging scheme.
But here’s what happened to me.

A couple of years ago, I closed a money market account at a Wachovia branch in Larchmont because the interest rate was so lousy it barely paid for the gas it took to drive there. I also had some certificates of deposit at the bank.

A manager at the bank advised me that by closing the money market, I was opening myself up to monthly service fees for the CDs. To avoid that, she suggested I open a checking account with a minimum balance of $100. I took her up on the suggestion, even though it felt as if I was allowing the bank to hold my money hostage.

Time passed.

Then one day, I received a notice in the mail that indicated that the checking account would be declared “dormant” if I didn’t fill out a form and send it in.

I filled it out and sent it in. All along, I’ve been getting monthly statements listing that silly $100 account I can never use because of the service fee penalty.

Time passed.

Then yesterday, I get a statement in the mail. It says that my checking account is dormant and that $5 has been deducted from the balance. More amazing is that unbeknownst to me, two other $5 service fee deductions had been made, reducing the $100 to $85.

I had received no notice about any change in rules. Nor had there been any deductions mentioned in previous monthly statements .

I called the Larchmont bank and was politely told to call a 1-800 number. I said I did not want to talk to somebody in India or Indiana and demanded to speak to someone there, in the bank, where I do face-to-face people.
A manager did get back to me promptly, and after a short discussion said he would fix the problem. He apologized.

I felt bad for the guy. But I feel worse for the untold numbers of average Americans who may not even be aware that they getting pick pocketed by the great, faceless “They,” who are aided and abetted by the computers and crooked CEOs who love them.

Yesterday’s column in the Journal News took aim at Westchester County Executive Andy Spano’s desire to move the operations of the county Board of Elections to a building at 450 Saw Mill River Road in Ardsley.
As I said in the column, the total cost of the proposed purchase AND renovation of the vacant building is $13.3 million.
Some readers were confused on this point, because I reported later in the piece that the asking price, taken alone, was $5.4 million. So I hope this clears up that confusion.
In any case, the column raised several issues about the dubious nature of the deal—not the least of which is the fact that the owner of the building and the law firm representing the owner are major contributors to Spano’s election campaigns.
The proposed deal is pending before the Board of Legislators, but critics are already calling for it to be placed before the voters in a countywide referendum.
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner has also fired off an e-mail to me, expressing opposition to the sale for a number of practical reasons, not the least of which is that the property would be taken off the tax rolls. The village of Ardsley is in the town of Greenburgh.
Here’s Feiner’s statement in full:

“I am contacting our county lawmakers and will ask that the town get some tax revenue from the county in the event that the Board of Elections moves to Saw Mill River Road. I am of the opinion that this is a bad location for the Bd of Elections – it is not centrally located (the Bd of Elections should be located in White Plains)…it’s not easily acccessible to people around the county. Traffic in Ardsley is horrible – this will generate additional traffic in and around Ardsley. I would prefer that the county locate the Bd of Elections elsewhere. Non profits and county governments do not pay taxes to local governments.”

I’m still recovering from a bout of jet lag after a week away covering the Super Bowl.
But that won’t keep us from going on with the show…”High Noon,” that is.
Today at 12 noon, the subject will be about that other “super” event, Super Tuesday and what’s to come in the presidential sweepstakes.

(Maybe we’ll throw a little bit in about Fat Tuesday, too. How about inventing a new special day—Super Fat Thursday?)

Joining us on the air will be Jeff Binder, a Westchester-based political consultant.
Tune in at 1460 AM or log onto wvox.com.

UPDATE: Here’s the podcast of today’s show:

Download:

GLENDALE, ARIZ.—Elaine Scruggs, the mayor of this city, said she has no rooting in this game. But she did hint that the babbits who run the chamber of commerce were happy that the New York Giants made it to the Super Bowl, rather than the Greenbay Packers.
The reason?
“I’m told that New Yorkers travel better and spend more money,” Scruggs said.

GLENDALE, ARIZ.—I have just sat down in Press Box Seat 91 at the University of Phoenix Stadium and it is still more than two hours away from game time. Fans are trickling in.
The view is great.
We’re high up, sitting behind glass, looking out from the corner of the end zone on the New England Patriots side of the field.
This part of the country gets about nine inches of precipitation a year, about a fifth the average amount of rain in Westchester. Well, whaddya know? There’s a threat of rain today, of all days.

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For the sports beat writers, this is an intense day. These guys hit the ground running, but for me it’s a skate. I am an interloper in this faternity. I brought along my Giants hat, a bad move. The sports guys are supposed to be objective and none of them wear team regalia of any kind. I promised Journal News beat writer Ernie Palladino that I wouldn’t wear the hat in the press booth.
I’ve never seen security like this anywhere—and I’ve covered presidential conventions. To get here, we went through four or five sets of security checks, inclluding a light frisking and a pass through a metal detector. Laptops got the once over from a bomb-sniffing labrador retriever.

******************
This whole day has been a first-class affair. This morning, back at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Phoenix, the press were treated to a lavish brunch, which included blood-rare, roast beef. Everyone who went got a complimentary Super Bowl hat.
The free stuff keeps on coming. They’ve given away Super Bowl XLII pens, notebads, small transistor radios to listen to the game, game programs, lunches packed in commemorative bags, and seat cushions.

I just got my press pass for Sunday’ Super Bowl. And a handsome item it is.
Hmm…I wonder how much I could sell it for?
Don’t ask. Just kidding.

PHOENIX, ARIZ. That old trouper.
Andy Rooney must be pushing 90, but there was the familiar curmudgeon walking (tottering, actually) through the media complex set up at the city’s busy convention center.
I stopped and said hello. The last time I saw Rooney was in Tuscon a few years ago. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists gave him an award there. We also gave him a bottle of booze, which was probably a better prize than the plaque. He didn’t hang around after dinner. He took the bottle to his room and didn’t come out.

Obviously, he’s here to do one of his nutty, short segments for “60 Minutes.”
“Good to see ya,” he said.

PHOENIX, ARIZ.—Today’s column centers on a used-car transaction my brother, Pete, supposedly had many years ago with the one-and-only Tom Petty, who, with his band, The Heartbreakers, will supply the half-time entertainment at Sunday’s Super Bowl.

According to Pete, a guy, whom he insists was Petty, wanted to buy a beatup 1966 Corvair Pete was selling for $200. This was on Staten Island in 1972, years before the world had any clue who Tom Petty was.

Pete claims “Petty” got into a minor accident during a test drive and still owes him money for the damage done to another car.

So yesterday, I got a hold of Petty at a pre-Super Bowl press conference and asked him about it.

Petty said my brother was either a liar, or someone was impersonating him. Of course, the question is who on earth would impersonate Tom Petty BEFORE he was famous.

In any case, Pete was sticking to the story this morning. He sent me this e-mail:

“Someone called me today and said Tom Petty called me a liar. Tell that pop eyed freak I’ll fight him any time… and he owes me $100 plus interest from 1972.”

And here’s the latest from Petty rep Kristen Foster:
“Tom grew up in Gainesville Florida and moved to Los Angeles thereafter,” she said today. “All of which is documented in his documentary “Runnin Down A Dream.”

I’ve just gotten word of a strange story out of upstate New York that has an even stranger Westchester County angle. (This has nothing to do with the Super bowl, incidentally.)
The story has to do with the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old child from Greenwich, N.Y. named Jaliek Rainwater. Rainwater was last seen on Nov. 1, and police have been frustrated in their investigation.
But now, according to the Albany Times-Union, police have a clue, an anonymous letter with a Westchester postmark that says, “Jaliek is still alive.”
For more, click onto the “Times-Union”:http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=660001&category=&BCColink.