Woodland creatures are such swing voters.

Via Cuteoverload.com

Amid all the bad news, it comes as a great relief to Charlotteans, particularly Wachovia employees, that our powerful local leaders intend to do something about the Citigroup buyout mess. In a forceful joint statement that pulled no punches and offered creative solutions, Mayor Pat McCrory, County Commission chair Jennifer Roberts and Charlotte Chamber CEO Bob Morgan announced yesterday that they, uh, "will make the case to the leadership of Citigroup to retain every job that is currently in Charlotte and to encourage them to increase their investment in our community." To which Citigroup honchos in New York will no doubt respond, "Who the hell are you? Do you have an appointment?" It's so gratifying to know that our oh-so-influential, locally elected banking industry puppets, er, leaders, are fighting for all of us. Yep, a warm, fuzzy moment indeed.

The world watches as Wachovia crumbles, but how do people who work for one of Charlotte’s big banks feel?

According to a press release from Wachovia, “Wachovia Corp. will remain headquartered in Charlotte. Wachovia Securities will continue to be headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. Citigroup will headquarter the retail bank in Charlotte and the investment bank in New York. Wachovia’s investment bankers were Goldman Sachs, Perella Weinberg Partners and Wachovia Securities, and its legal advisors are Sullivan & Cromwell and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.”

But for some employees this takeover is unnerving.

“It was tacky,” said an employee who got all of the news of the takeover from the Internet, radio and TV. “Why is it all of a sudden we have to sell today?”

He asked that his name not be used in this report, saying, “I don’t want to give them a reason to can me today.”

“This local economy can’t afford for Wachovia to just go under,” he said. “Wall Street is now trickling down to Charlotte-Mecklenburg. What scares me now because of what happened on Wall Street, it’s going to affect businesses that care about the community.

“I’ll hop my behind over to Best Buy and Wal-Mart and do what I have to do,” he said. “But it’s too early to jump ship.”

Another employee, who spoke with Creative Loafing on the condition of anonymity, said, “Our 401ks are shot. We might as well have a memorial service for it.”

She also learned of the Citigroup takeover through media reports.

“When we came in, everybody was panicking, but it is what it is,” she said.

She doesn’t know if she’s going to have a job but the employees have been in and out of meetings all day.

“Our managers didn’t know,” she said. “They knew we had an option for merging but they didn’t know that it had happened.”

A Wachovia employee who was off today said she hadn’t heard the news. But if she lost her job because of this merger, it wouldn’t be the first time that she lost a position with the bank. The woman said she worked at Wachovia from 2002 to 2006 and was displaced. She’s been in her current position since April.

“Nobody called me,” she said. “Wow. That disturbs me.”

She said she doesn’t have a real back up plan because she didn’t expect this to happen. “I thought Citigroup was just a call center. Now I’m concerned about my job once again.”

If Citigroup offers a relocation package, she said she would take it. “If they offered a moving package and paid all of my fees I would relocate.”

Another male employee said he initially wanted to work at Wachovia because of its strong commitment to community, and he wonders if Citigroup will have the same values as Wachovia.

“They’re telling us that they are trying to have everything ironed out by the end of the year,” he said. “Going into this weekend, we hadn’t heard talk of us being taken over.”

All three employees say they’re trying not to panic, but they are dusting off their resumes just in case their jobs disappear.

Dear MAYOR McCrory:

Newsflash, you are still the mayor of Charlotte, not the governor of North Carolina. Forget Wachovia needing to keep a presence in North Carolina--what about Charlotte?

Have you forgotten that you went out of your way to run for reelection as mayor? While we're running on empty in the Queen City, the city that you've been fighting Raleigh to take care of for 12 LONG years, you're in parades and kissing babies? If this is how you're going to run the state, what's my motivation for voting for you?

What happened to the gas you promised was coming? You're acting more like an irresponsible father--you know the kind who promises to pick his child up but leaves the kid sitting on the stoop--than the mayor of North Carolina's largest city.

Mr. Mayor and Not [yet] Governor, you had one press conference before today and all you did was whip the city into a frenzy that caused longer lines at dried up gas pumps. Is this how you're going to run the state? Are you only going to show up when things get so bad that people are fighting in lines and pulling guns out on each other for a gallon of overpriced gas.

You suspended your campaign a week too late. What about our city? You're treating us like Hurricane Katrina victims and losing your core. I bet Bev Perdue would've stuck around. Hell, Richard Vinroot would've been out front calming the city. You were running for governor when Charlotte ran out of gas. What a shame.

Creative Loafing Inc., the company that owns Creative Loafing Charlotte, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning.

Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason said in a conference call with company management hours ago that the bankruptcy will have no affect on normal Creative Loafing business and that no liquidation or impending sale of the company is on the horizon. And all Creative Loafing employees and vendors will be paid on schedule.

“The term “bankruptcy” conjures up all kinds of images and demons but it is essentially a legal proceeding designed to give an over-leveraged company the time, process and a safe harbor for which to reorganize its finances,” said Eason in a company memo. “Chapter 11 was the natural place for the Company to go to accomplish an orderly reorganization of our finances.”

While business operations won’t change, according to Eason, the reorganization will better allow Creative Loafing — which also owns papers in Atlanta, the Tampa Bay area, Washington, D.C. and Chicago — to increase the company’s online presence.

“This is all about a fresh start,” said Eason.