U.S. Postal Service: We Deliver? Please!

November 1, 2007
Mr. Bill Almaraz, Manager, Los Angeles District
Mr. James Smith, Postmaster, Los Angeles District
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Gentlemen:

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As I’m sure you know, I’ve work as a Consumer Advocate for over eight years now. During that time I have had occasion to contact you both on serious matters of customer neglect. Mr. Smith, you have generally returned polite responses and assured me that you were going to handle the matter. Mr. Almaraz, I’ve never received any response from you–not even an acknowledgment of receipt.
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Over the years I’ve become increasingly disturbed over some of the hardships that our customer’s have been forced to endure–Cancer patients whose medication has been lost in the mail; elderly people who can’t eat because their Social Security checks are not being received; tenants who have had eviction proceedings initiated against them because their landlords didn’t receive their rent checks; and court documents being delayed or lost due to the improper handling of Certified mail, etc.
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I’ve repeatedly brought these matters to the attention of you or various managers lower in the chain of command, but instead of putting your energies into addressing the problems with the mail, the agency seems to view me as the problem for bring them up.
Mr. Smith, on Wednesday October 31, 2007 I wrote you the following memo:
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Mr. Smith,

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Some of your supervisors don’t recognize the importance of good customer service, or following up on complaints. It’s not only making us look bad, but it’s going to generate congressional complaints. [Name withheld] and I watched one of them standing around talking while she was repeatedly being paged to the window to speak with a customer. She ignored the pages for 15 minutes, until the customer got tired of waiting and left. There’s very little I can do about that kind of irresponsibility, but I would like your permission to put the following notation on issues not being followed up on:
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HOT SHEET

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I have followed up on this matter by adding this complaint to the Postmaster’s Hot Sheet (on red paper to make the complaint immediately conspicuous). A copy has been attached to the carrier case, and I have either given a copy of this complaint directly to the unit supervisor or left a copy on the supervisor’s desk. A copy has also been emailed to the unit supervisor. In addition, I have requested that the customer contact me immediately if the problem should recur, in which case, the matter will be referred to the postmaster for further corrective action.
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Thereafter, if the problem continues, I’d like to refer the matter to Beverly Young to act in your name, if she doesn’t mind. If we don’t do something, Waxman’s going to close this place down.

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Wattree
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Thereafter, all hell broke loose. I didn’t have a problem with that in itself, because as you know, I’ve never had a problem with speaking truth to power, but it did confirm my suspicion that the problems that we’re having with the mail goes much deeper than simple incompetence. It has become abundantly clear that the district is purposely allowing our customers to suffer in order to save money–and I’m not going to allow that to happen.

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As I mentioned to you before, week after week I rant and rave in my column about how congress is sitting on its hands and allowing our country to go down the drain. Now, if I don’t take some kind of action about what this agency is doing to our customers, I’ll be doing the same thing–and I can’t be that kind of hypocrite. So I am respectfully requesting that you take the following actions to improve our customer service:
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1) First of all, Supervisor [name withheld] disregard for our customers has been grossly unconscionable, and I’ve spoken to you about her before. In addition to the latest incident where she ignored the customer in the lobby, she consistently leaves between 12 and 17 routes vacant per day to be thrown up by hook or crook instead of putting them up for opt or calling in additional carriers to cover them. Some routes, along with their business mail, don’t leave the station until after 4:00 pm. This results in routes not being delivered, mis-deliveries, mail not being forwarded, and mail not being held, or delivered when the customer’s return from vacation. She’s been doing this for years, and it constitutes gross negligence and a severe hardship on our customers. This supervisor should be either put up for removal, or at the very least, demoted.

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2). All routes that are open for over 5 business days should be put up for opt, or fully assigned to an employee. And no unit should have over four routes unassigned on any given day. That will ensure the proper processing of the mail.

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3). All accountable mail (including Certified) should be listed and signed for individually. That will ensure proper handling and prevent the loss of important mail.
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4) .All Certified mail should be listed and distributed on a daily basis, to prevent Certified mail from sitting around the station for two to three weeks.

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5). All routes should have a list of all forwards and vacation holds attached to the case, and the lists should be reviewed, and the mail processed, before the route is pulled down for delivery on a daily basis.

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6). No parcel or mail item should be left unprotect in the lobby of any apartment building. If the item can’t be delivered to the recipient or a responsible party (manager or security), a notice should be left, and the item returned to the station.
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7). Every unit should hold a standup (with a signed roster) on the sanctity of the mail at least once a week.

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8). The mishandling or negligent loss of mail should be a zero tolerance matter.
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9). All unit supervisors should be available to address customer complaints for at least 2 hours per day in the afternoon.

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10). There will be absolutely no reprisals against me for addressing these issues, and I will be made fully whole for the time I’ve lost as a result of the reprisals that have already taken place.
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If we can agree on all of these issues, we can resolve this matter within the district. If not, I will continue up the chain of command, and if need be, to Congressman Waxman’s Committee on Government Reform. I’ve brought each one of these items to management’s attention previously, but to no avail.

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Gentlemen, we owe our customers much more than we’re giving them, and it has become beyond embarrassing. I’m very sorry it had to come to this, but this seems to be the only way to get anyone’s attention.

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Bill Almaraz Date
District Manager


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James Smith Date
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STATEMENT

December 19, 2007

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On December 19, 2007, between 10:40 and 11:10 a.m., a customer called and said she hadn’t received any mail in two days. She said this was very unusual, and wanted to know if her mail was being held at the post office for some reason. She said she was willing to come pick it up. The customer lived in the 90036 zip code so I transferred the call to [Name withheld], the supervisor for that zip code, to answer the customer’s inquiry as to whether or not her mail was being held, and if so, the reason why. Then just a matter of seconds after I transferred the call, Ms. [withheld] paged me over the intercom. She had placed the customer on hold, and told me that the customer was looking for her mail, so she should not have been given the call. She said I should have gone over to the carrier’s route and searched for the customer’s mail.
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I totally disagree with Ms. [Withheld]. If the customer’s mail was not being delivered, it might have been due to a problem at the delivery point–construction, a problem with gaining access to the mailbox, a stray dog, or some other hazard on the route. There could have also been some sort of regulatory problem that prevented the mail from being delivered, or something as simple as a substitute carrier bringing the mail back to the station because he was ordered not to work any overtime, or it got too dark for him to deliver the mail. And in some cases, when they’re short on personnel, they simply don’t send the mail out. Only the carrier, or the carrier’s supervisor can answer those kinds questions. And further, when the mail is not being delivered, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to know where it is located.

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But unfortunately, the three latter reasons are exactly why Ms. [Withheld] avoided speaking with this particular customer, and she makes it a point not to speak with any other customer. She knows that the mail is being mis-managed under her supervision, and therefore, goes to great length to avoid speaking with the customer where she will have to take responsibility for her actions, or lack thereof.
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Everyone, including all of the window clerks are familiar with this situation, and it has been reported to upper management on several occasions, to no avail. So, while I have no problem with serving our customers, I am both tired, and completely stressed out by constantly having to face their wrath due to Ms. [Withheld] disregard and irresponsibility.

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Willie Wilson
Customer Advocate
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October 24, 2008
Postmaster Anderson:
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I wrote you on Monday, October 20, 2008, to advise you of a very serious matter that needed your immediate attention. My action was taken in what I considered to be the very best interest of the Postal Service. But as I write this memo, four days later, you have yet to acknowledge receipt.

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I’ve considered the fact that you may not have responded because you consider me both arrogant and presumptuous for writing you in such a brutally candid manner regarding Manager Connie Brown. If that’s the case, I assure you that I can fully understand your rationale. But I hope you’ll understand that this situation is so long-standing and unconscionable in it’s impact on our customers that corporate decorum was the very last thing on my mind.
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I first broached this matter with your predecessor, James Smith, on October 31st of last year, and while numerous auditors have been roaming the station with clipboards, absolutely nothing has changed. So my intent in contacting you was to try to convey the immediate need to address an agency-threatening matter, and a situation that is causing our customers to sustain needless hardships, in an aggressive and forthright manner.

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I’ve monitored this situation closely over the past year, and instead of addressing the issue, I’ve watched it be carefully managed to subordinate the needs of our customers, and the postal service, to accommodate the bureaucratic sensibilities of various personalities within the agency. At first I thought the problem was inadvertent, but over the past year it’s become increasingly apparent that we’ve developed a corporate culture that’s giving careers and the personal needs of individuals priority over what’s in the best interest of the agency. The tail is wagging the dog. It seems that moving the mail is no longer our primary concern. It’s gotten to the point where moving the mail is looked upon as an unfortunate nuisance that’s interfering with management’s quality of life.
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But when you came to the district, it was rumored that you were of a different breed, so I hoped that the situation would finally be addressed. Like many other employees who have become concerned over the postal service’s image, I was hoping that you would bring some integrity and a sense of mission-first back into the district, and it was with that thought in mind that I wrote you.

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With respect to my attitude towards Connie Brown, I want to assure you that I have every respect for the effort that goes into obtaining a position of responsibility in this agency, but at the same time, I must also recognize that while the agency can confer titles and areas of responsibility, it cannot confer character, insight, integrity, or sense of mission. While there are those who take the position that one should respect the title and never bad-mouth one’s manager (generally held by managers), I don’t subscribe to that philosophy. I respect excellence, not titles, symbols, or any other accoutrement of authority. When an individual commands authority, they don’t need symbols to prove it. On the other hand, if an individual is irresponsible, all of the titles and symbols that man can confer won’t make them so. Our president is a prime example of that.
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In closing, I’d like to request, once again, some kind of response from you. My request is not a matter of vanity, but an honest attempt to mitigate this matter at its lowest level.
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Eric L. Wattree

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Statement

My name is Eric L. Wattree. I’m an African American male, and I’ve worked for the postal service for 27 years. For eight of those years I worked as a customer advocate at both Palms and Bicentennial Stations, and also as a Consumer Affairs Specialist at the District office.

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I worked with Ms. Lily Pamanian while a Customer Advocate at Bicentennial Station for one year, and at Palms Station for approximately two years, and during that time I have always considered her to be one of the most professional, efficient, and customer oriented supervisors with whom I have ever worked. What’s most immediately striking about Ms. Pamanian is her character. She lives by a very strong and unwavering moral code. Unfortunately, however, I’m virtually certain that it is that very quality that has led to her having to stand before you.
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When I first became aware of the blatantly disparate action taken against Ms. Pamanian, I was literally astonished, and both embarrassed and angered at the level of disparity that’s being meted out upon her. I am personally privy to facts that will show that she’s being treated differently than either African American or Hispanic personnel under either similar, and far worse conditions.

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As a customer advocate I have personal and direct knowledge of the postal service’s irresponsibly lackadaisical and laissez faire attitude towards what can only be considered the criminal malfeasance of at lest one African American manager, Ms. Connie Brown, and an Hispanic Area Manager, Ms. Marcie Luna. In fact, I have waged an ongoing battle against the postal service in that regard–and since I am also a journalist who has always been dedicated to the cause of government accountability, I just happen to have documentation of their customer abuse, which I’ve been compiling for a book.
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Ms. Pamanian has been under the gun for years for no reason other than the fact that she’s culturally predisposed to going by the book and doing things properly, as opposed to hiding deliverable mail, underpaying employees who are gainfully employed, and "cooking the books" in order to enhance, or protect, the careers of her superiors. Unfortunately, those activities are an insidious and throughly pervasive part of the post office culture–they are expected as part of the job description of all managers and supervisors. As a direct result, instead of rewarding Ms. Pamanian for her integrity and the conscientious manner in which she carries out her assignment, she’s looked upon as different-- "uppity", and something less than a "team player."

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In 2007 Bicentennial Station, under Manager Connie Brown (African American female), and Area Manager Marcie Luna (Hispanic female) was trying to save money by attempting to run the station with a skeleton crew. By trying to run the station with less than a full complement of clerks to process and distribute the mail, they failed to cover vacant routes when the regular carriers were either out sick, on their rotating day off, or on annual leave. This often led to up to seventeen (17) routes being unmanned in just one unit (the station has two units).
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As a result of their failing to ensure a full complement of clerks, Certified mail wasn’t being individually listed and accounted for, leading to the loss of our customer’s valuable accountable mail (legal documents, rent payments, medical documents, etc.). In addition, accountable mail was also being delayed, customer box mail was being hidden instead of delivered to the customers’ p.o. boxes, and mail was being distributed to the carriers in an untimely manner, leading to many customers, including businesses, not receiving deliveries on a daily basis.

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As a result of failing to cover delivery routes, routes were being thrown up in a haphazard manner and carried by personnel who were unfamiliar with the routes. That in turn, led to mail being both mis-cased and mis-delivered, and mail that should have been forwarded would be delivered to the old address, which were often vacant apartment buildings. That meant that the customer who had moved would never see that mail, because the mail would languish in boxes stuffed with mis-delivered mail for up to a year or more. Of course, part of the carriers’ job was to check those boxes and return that mail to the station, but management would have them so much under the gun to get back and save time, that it was rarely, if ever done.
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But when carriers were forced to bring back mail because it was return directly to them by customers as mis-delivered or forwardable, it was never redirected to the proper address or forwarded on. It was simply thrown in a tub and set in the back of the station to be returned to sender as "Addressee Unknown"–and that mail was left in the station to languish, sometimes for up to a year (see attached pictures). I’ve seen, and took pictures, of medical x-rays for Cedar Sinai Hospital marked as "Address Unknown" to be returned to sender (How can they not find Cedar Sinai Hospital?!).

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Of course, the customers were in an uproar over this, but when they would call or come to the station, the supervisors would refuse to come to the phone or go to the window, because they didn’t want the customers to have their name when they filed a formal complaint or wrote their congressman, so they’d send an employee to speak to the customer and take the brunt of the customers’ wrath.
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Eventually the employees got tired of that, so at the beginning of 2008 one or two employees reported the situation to both Congressman Waxman’s office, and the Inspector General. Then on the morning of February 1, 2008, a team of postal officials arrived at the station at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. They found the mail, including about 14 feet of Certified mail that had been delayed up to six(6) weeks. They then did an audit of the station and Connie Brown got 16% out of a possible 100, and she failed several audits thereafter. She should have been fired, forthwith. But they still didn’t mete out the disciplinary action that they’ve taken against Ms. Pamanian.

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And finally, Ms. Pamanian was awarded a bid to another area on December 23, 2006, so she shouldn’t have even been in this area when they took this unwarranted action against her. So it is clearly apparent that they deprived her of her right to assume a lawful bid for no other reason than to take this grossly unwarranted and discriminatory action against her.

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Eric L. Wattree
Bicentennial Station
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[President Supervisor's Union]
From the Presidents Desk
Damon Leopold

Los Angeles Has No Integrity

This has been the buzz around the Pacific Area since the new Pacific Area Vice President came aboard. Webster’s dictionary defines integrity as "possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards, honesty." Wow, if you are like me, you take this personally. All of the hard working EAS employees in Los Angeles are all dishonest and have no moral principles. Even David Stowe and his good ole boy network had the audacity to write in their Pacific Area reviews (audits) that the employees in Los Angeles would rather lie and cheat than to tell the truth. Where are they getting these outrageous claims? I thought long and hard to find an answer.
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The answer to that question took me back to the early 1990’s. When I was a PTF carrier still on probation. I returned from the route after my ten hours was up and was informed by the clerk supervisor that I could not hit the clock because I was in penalty overtime and that the supervisor would take care of my time. Not knowing what penalty overtime was (and still on probation) I did not hit the clock. There was the defining moment on how Los Angeles operates. The leadership of the cluster had us all so brain washed that penalty overtime is wrong and if you use it, you will be disciplined. Isn’t penalty overtime part of the contract? Coming up through the ranks, I quickly learned that penalty overtime was a taboo. In Los Angeles, the carriers and the union were trained that we did not pay penalty overtime. After they had reached 56 hours in a week, they knew the supervisor would come up with an ingenious plan to pay you another day. This was just the culture in Los Angeles, that is, until the Long Beach consolidation.
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When Long Beach merged with Los Angeles, came the tale of two cultures. We would daily sit on a tele-con for hours and listen while the Associate Offices had 1000’s of hours of penalty overtime and the city had zero. Were we that much better than the AO’s or was it something else to this picture? Later on we found that it was the latter of the two. The leadership in Los Angeles had breaded a culture of lying and deceit that would not come to light until after the Long Beach consolidation.
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After some offices were investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for alleged clock ring manipulation, the penalty overtime in the city went up astronomically. Was this a mere coincidence or part of that lack of integrity on the part of the employee’s in Los Angeles? After countless EAS employee’s in the district were put up for removal for manipulating clock rings did our fearless leaders step up and draw the line in the sand. Do not mess with employee’s clock rings. Well my question is why is it a problem now? The leadership created this monster, but when the OIG comes in they claim no knowledge of what has been going on. How many times have you heard on a tele-con "I don’t want any penalty overtime this week." This is a clear violation of the contract, but where is the union at? It all boils down to my theory that the Union is aware and part of that culture that the leadership created. Think long and hard, when was the last time (prior to consolidation) did you have a grievance for penalty overtime? They were pretty much unheard of in the old Los Angeles.
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In the beginning of this article I wrote that Los Angeles lost their integrity in the early 90’s, well that was some 15 plus years ago. It is going to take that long for us to regain that back. We have veteran mangers and supervisors that feel like PTF’s all over again. We are learning to do things the right and legal way. Who would have thought just a few years ago when we were the best in the country that one day our integrity would be questioned? Who knew that it was okay to pay an employee penalty overtime if in fact they had worked it? The only way we will regain our integrity is if the membership steps up and do the right things. The next time you are given an instruction from the leadership that is a clear violation of the contract, ELM, MOU etc. I urge each and every one of you to follow the instruction but insist that it is in writing. That one little piece of paper may just be the thing that will save your job when the overzealous OIG agent wants to investigate you about something illegal you did, following the instruction of the leadership. Always remember that once you lose your integrity to this organization, you have sold your soul to the devil.
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In closing, I would like to thank each of you for allowing me to serve as your president for a second term. During my term as president, I have increased the membership of the branch and doubled the number of members that attend the branch meetings. But, we are still a long ways away from where we need to be as a branch. I urge all of you to attend the branch meetings and become active in the organization. There is strength in numbers. United we stand and divided we fall.
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Solidarity,
Damon Leopold
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Well, that’s your United States Postal Service, folks–an organization that makes the Bush administration look like a sterling example of efficiency, integrity, and concern.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com

A moderate is one who embraces truth over ideology, and reason over conflict.

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