Oversight of Postal Service includes multiple layers

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith said he is advocating for the U.S. Post Office to improve services for his constituents in Southeast Missouri.

But it's unclear exactly how much power Smith, or any single representative, has in improving postal delivery as the USPS continues to slash expenses to reduce its annual shortfall while also enduring employee shortages.

USPS employees, including a union representative, told the Southeast Missourian last week that as many as eight routes in the Cape Girardeau area are not delivered daily because of scarce personnel. The Scott City and Kelso post offices, in particular, are left unmanned when the single post office employees at those locations take time off. Business managers and individuals say mail in the Scott City area can arrive days late. Several local resident have written to the Southeast Missourian expressing frequent occurrences of receiving no mail.

Meanwhile, employees said last week that 11 "standby" employees are being fully compensated to do nothing, but managers are refusing to put these employees to work to fill in the employment gaps. The employees surmise the standby employees are not being worked so USPS management can justify eliminating the positions once the union-protected employees eventually drop off the payroll.

Some of those issues may be changing, according to American Postal Workers Union representative Mark Davidson. He said management is now open to using standby clerks on a "limited basis". He said upper management did not know Scott City and Kelso offices were being closed early or not opening at all in certain circumstances.

But he said management has also stated that two window clerk positions in Cape Girardeau will be eliminated next month.

"There's no way that's going to work," Davidson said. "We will have some help from the standby clerks until Feb. 24, but then it will be worse for us than it has been."

Davidson has advised customers to contact their government representatives when they have problems.

Smith's office, in response to several questions from the Southeast Missourian, said the congressman wrote a letter this week to postmaster general Louis DeJoy to pause any additional postal facility consolidation. In responses to the Southeast Missourian, Smith's office didn't specifically address the local issue of delayed mail or of standby employees not being scheduled to help get the mail delivered. Smith's office acknowledged, however, it received "numerous" complaints and has worked with "dozens of constituents" on USPS issues this year.

The congressman and staff "regularly push the Postal Service to correct problems that constituents make them aware of, such as persistent mail delays, lack of adequate postal facilities or inadequate service".

Norma Parker, a Cape Girardeau resident who lives on Lynwood Hills Drive, said she called Smith's office several months ago, complaining that mail would not be delivered every day. She said she and her neighbors compared notes and were all experiencing the same mail delays. She said she's seen carriers delivering mail as late as 9 p.m. One of her neighbors noted seeing a carrier drive up their street and back without delivering a single piece of mail.

When Smith's office returned her call, she said, they explained that rural carriers were limited by a certain number of hours, and they couldn't work beyond that. Parker said nothing was mentioned of the issues recently reported by the Southeast Missourian.

"I'm not the only one," she said. "Our whole neighborhood has been fussing about this for six months or longer. None of this is making any sense."

The problems affecting mail delivery extend beyond deployment of standby employees. They also have roots in financial issues.

According to an executive summary of the USPS integrated financial plan, the USPS had a net loss of $56 billion in fiscal year 2022, but a change in the law that eliminated the requirement to prefund retiree benefits, adjusted the net loss to $4 billion, an improvement from 2021. The USPS expected a net loss of $4.5 billion in 2023, even with an expected surge in revenue from consumer behaviors following the COVID-19 pandemic. Total revenue for FY2023 was $81.2 billion. The USPS claimed in its integrated financial plan that the biggest chunk of its expected $1.4 billion in increased expenses would be tied to compensation and benefits to employees "despite a planned decrease of 32 million work hours".

The integrated financial plan calls for "ambitious efforts to invest in infrastructure, streamline operations and create a more efficient, service-oriented network". In its integrated financial plan summary, the USPS boasted that its work hours decreased by 10 million compared to the previous year, the biggest such decrease since 2014. It also expected to move 120.9 billion pieces of mail in 2023, down from 127.3 billion the year before.

Oversight

Oversight and accountability for the USPS involves two branches of the U.S. government. The USPS is an independent entity, but does not use tax revenue for its operations. It is considered an extension of the executive branch. The post office operates with funds it derives from its services. The formation of the post office was baked into the U.S. Constitution. Layers of "oversight" are built through Congress and the presidency.

The White House administration appoints nine people, who are approved by the Senate, to the USPS Board of Governors, and they work in tandem with the postmaster general and the deputy postmaster general, who make the board 11 members strong. In addition to the Board of Governors, the U.S. House of Representatives appoints members to its Oversight and Reform Committee, which currently consists of 27 Republicans and 20 Democrats.

Cori Bush, a U.S. Representative from the district that includes St. Louis, is Missouri's only member of the Oversight and Reform Committee. She did not respond to multiple messages to her local and Washington D.C. offices seeking comment about post office operations. In the past, Bush has been vocal about the lack of diversity on the USPS Board of Governors.

Other government agencies can add layers of oversight. Davidson, the union representative, said he made a complaint to the U.S. Inspector General Office, which is a division under the U.S. Department of Justice. The IG office investigates allegations of fraud and abuse. Davidson estimated up to $2 million has been wasted in management's refusal to put the local standby employees to work. In addition to wasted wages for employees to sit in the breakroom and do nothing, Davidson said many hours of overtime per week could be reduced as well. He said he has not heard back from the inspector general's office.

Davidson also said he made complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), regarding safety concerns in local facilities. He said four maintenance standby employees could have addressed the issues, but management instead sought outside help for the fixes. However, those workers couldn't get to the problems right away. Davidson said OSHA addressed the issues.

The USPS has routed all media inquiries through its Kansas City, Missouri, spokesperson. The spokesperson did not respond to a message seeking to interview local leadership. The local postmaster said in a text to the Southeast Missourian last week that he was not authorized to speak to the problems of the local post office and directed inquiries to the spokesperson. According to the Board of Governors bylaws, the board holds the authority to approve "official statements adopting major policy positions or departing from established major policy positions". The board also approves the Postal Service's strategic plan.

Davidson said late last week, that a new policy will affect the arrival times of Express mail to several zip codes. Davidson said the policy affects mail truck arrival. As of Friday, trucks were not allowed to go out late to the carriers, an attempt to eliminate fees associated with late truck arrivals.

"So now, they will cut off the sorting in order to get the trucks out on time," he said. "This means they will leave much of the mail here for the next day. That mail will be 24 hours late. There is a truck that used to come down from St. Louis in the late morning to deliver Priority Express mail. That is one- to two-day mail with a money-back guarantee. We (before the policy was instituted) pay out a late fee every day for a few hours. To eliminate that late fee, we are not working up the Express Mail in time to make the contractual deadline. All that mail on a daily basis will sit here for hours."

This means, Davidson said, USPS will be refunding thousands of dollars worth of Express postage to customers. Davidson said Express mail going to zip codes starting with 636, 638 and 639 will be late.

These issues of mail being delivered to rural areas might be exacerbated by a recent announcement from UPS, a private delivery company, which is limiting its delivery to rural areas.

UPS, in an issued statement, said the company is consolidating delivery to certain rural zip codes to "more efficiently serve our customers," adding contents will spend an additional day in transit. UPS said these delays will not include "critical" health care deliveries. A spokesman for UPS said she could not share specific zip codes of affected customers in Southeast Missouri, though a local employee familiar with the policy said areas of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties will be affected.