Construction and residential loans have not been kind to The Community Bank of Brockton, leading to a troubled portfolio and censure from regulators in the form of a consent order – essentially a series of shape-up requirements bestowed on troubled banks.

Now, the $352.4 million institution has a new chief in John O’Connor, a former bank CEO with a particular love of community banking. A longtime South Shore banker, O’Connor worked for Rockland Trust Company, Citizens, Bank of Boston and eventually retired as the CEO of South Coastal Bank in early 2009 before heading back to work in Brockton.

John O’Connor

Title: CEO, The Community Bank; Brockton

Age: 64

Experience: 46 years

You worked for a number of banks in your time, including Citizens Bank, but you always worked on a local level. What kind of work did you do there?

[At Citizens] I was responsible for the South Shore, southeastern Massachusetts. I was responsible for commercial lending, I was responsible for small business lending for the state of Massachusetts for Citizens at the end. I was responsible for community affairs, government relations, and I really had override responsibility for the mortgage company in New England, which was headquartered in my building.

That sounds like a fairly wide variety of tasks.

I had that same experience at the [Rockland Trust Co.]. I had been the executive vice president of the corporate bank division and for a number of years the mortgage department reported to me…so I knew both sides of it.

Rockland grew a great deal when you were there.

Rockland was $180 million in 1980, and when I left [in1993] it was at $1.5 billion. Today it’s $3.5 billion.

And you sought out work at a smaller bank after that?

When I left Rockland, I had always had a desire to run a small bank, I wanted to control my own destiny, I wanted to create a culture that I wanted to be in every day. …You have absolute control in a community bank setting, and you have no control when you’re in a large bank setting. You can be derailed by any one of 15 people that you don’t report to on any given day in a big organization like that. And that’s kind of disconcerting. I wanted to be in a situation where I could control the environment I was in.

You’ve come to the bank at a tough time. What’s the first order of business?

We’re focused on five things here. We’re focused on a human resource level, building the right senior management team – we’ve had some departures of late. Secondly, is completely understanding the asset quality risk issues associated with this portfolio. Thirdly, is acquiring the necessary capital to solve those asset quality problems. Fourth is restoring earnings to a traditional level. And lastly, is to get out from underneath the consent order.

Yes, I often write about when regulators issue those consent orders to get banks in shape, but rarely do you hear anybody announcing that one has been lifted.

No one wants to talk about them. Period. If you can get out from underneath them, you just hope it goes away.

How are you intending to acquire capital?

There are a variety of ways a mutual institution can acquire capital. To specifically talk about them wouldn’t be appropriate, because I’d be tipping people off on what I’m doing, and I shouldn’t be doing that until it’s done. But we are not going to go public. That I can tell you. There was an attempted public offering that failed here. We are not going down that road again. We are a mutual institution, and that’s how we’re going to stay.

You obviously have some immediate issues, but do you have any grand long-term scheme for the bank?

I think the grand master plan is you keep it simple. I think what we’re interested in here, we’re interested in the small business customer, both on the deposit and loan side, we’re interested in the residential relationship, somebody who wants a checking account, home equity loan, residential mortgage. Mostly those kinds of things – consistently pure, bread-and butter banking. Simple blocking and tackling.

O’Connor’s Top Five Career Background Facts: 

• Went to work for the Federal Reserve straight out of high schooll in 1964.
• Worked for leasing and finance companies for 15 years prior to joining Rockland Trust Co.
• Spent 35 years in community-oriented banking.
• O’Connor was born in Dorchester, but moved to Milton at age 12 and then to Weymouth, making the South Shore his home turf.
• Began a consulting business for nonprofits and family businesses called Crown Point Management Solutions, but will wind it down now that he has a new job.