Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Congressman, report question post office plan

Rep. C.W. Bill Young wants more data on potential savings and service changes. Mayor Rick Baker points to an audit critical of the plan.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published June 22, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — A powerful local congressman and a critical government audit are pressuring the Postal Service to re-examine its plan to eliminate the city postmark and consolidate the area’s mail sorting in Tampa.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young on Thursday echoed city leaders questioning the rationale behind the proposal to eliminate 19 jobs in St. Petersburg and reroute incoming first-class mail to Tampa.

The city, local postal employees and many residents object to the plan, saying it will slow delivery times and tear at the city’s identity by replacing the St. Petersburg postmark with a Tampa one.

Young, a Republican from Indian Shores, sent a three-page letter to Postmaster General John Potter asking the Postal Service to provide detailed information about cost savings and service impact for the proposed consolidation.

Young had yet to receive a response on Thursday, but he said he expects one.

“There are a lot of legitimate questions that haven’t been answered yet,” Young said in between votes on Capitol Hill.

Mayor Rick Baker, meanwhile, has uncovered a 2005 government audit that raises doubts about whether post office consolidation would save money or improve efficiency at all.

The 89-page report prepared by the Government Accountability Office says the Postal Service’s strategy for realigning mail processing facilities “lacks clarity, criteria, and accountability.” It recommended the service create a more clear-cut, open system for evaluating potential closures.

The report “says everything we’ve already been saying,” Baker said.

Postal Service officials have said the closing of St. Petersburg’s mail processing facility would save $1.3-million a year and that delivery times would not be affected.

A St. Petersburg postmark would still be available by special request, and the service would consider creating a more generic postmark, like Greater Tampa Bay.

Postal officials did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.

The Postal Service wants to realign several mail sorting facilities across the country, but the idea is being met with resistance at most every turn, according to published reports.

Proposed realignments in Aberdeen, S.D., and Sioux City, Iowa, are being fought by U.S. senators.
And closures in Pendleton, Ore., and St. Paul, Minn., were either scuttled or delayed after protests mounted there.

Young, in his letter to the Postal Service, asked officials to delay any decision locally until more information is provided.

Two facilities in the Tampa Bay area, for instance, could be critical if a hurricane hit the area, Young said.

And where is the proof mail delivery times won’t change if mail is trucked back and forth between Tampa and St. Petersburg? Young asked.

And what is the basis for the cost savings?

“There are a lot of questions right now,” Young said. “But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of answers.”

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 22:22:42]