Truckin’ Mail to South Central May Give Developers a Sweet
Deal
By Jan
Book
If your zip code is 90291 or
90292, get ready to mail those birthday and anniversary cards, as well as your
rent, mortgage and credit card payments, a few days earlier. Why? Because unless
we act NOW, all of our outgoing mail (and incoming mail), which used to be
processed at and distributed from the center here in the Marina, will soon be
trucked to South Central L.A. for processing and distribution. Window service
will continue, at least for the time being.
On January 11, the US Postal Service
decided to close down the westside processing and distribution center, even
though the center was on budget and very efficient. I have reviewed the
documents supporting the 'business decision' to close down this center, and the
decision is based on faulty reasoning, and possibly, back room
dealing.
Unless we campaign the US
Postal Service to reverse their decision, we will not only have slower outgoing
and incoming mail service, but there will soon be more housing, more retail
and/or more office space to increase our current traffic problems. Oh, and don't
forget the future increase in our
postage!
How does the current system
work and will the change improve our mail
service?
Currently, all mail with the
above zip codes is first delivered to the Marina Processing and Distribution
(P&D) Center located on Jefferson Blvd., near Lincoln Blvd. At the Marina
P&D Center, the mail is re-sorted by zip codes, trucked to smaller
processing centers in our neighborhoods, and delivered to us by our mail
carrier. For outgoing mail, the process is just the
reverse.
Under the new plan, the Marina
P&D Center will be closed and the land sold. Our Venice mail will be trucked
to South Central L.A., sorted, bagged and reloaded onto a truck to then travel
back to the westside for delivery or to LAX for out-of-town mail.
And for incoming mail, the trucks will
be loaded at LAX, driven to South Central L.A., sorted, bagged and reloaded onto
trucks to travel back to the westside for delivery. In addition to the travel
time required to drive this distance, just think of the increase in traffic on
our roads caused by all those Postal trucks traveling to and from the westside
to South Central L.A.
According to Bill
Almaraz, USPS Los Angeles District Manager, “the change will have no
negative effect on service.”
Why
would the Postal Service sell a well performing and efficient
facility?
On February 22 at a briefing
on the closure of the Marina P&D Center, I was given a packet of information
which contained letters and financial information pertaining to the
consolidation. In a letter to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the President of the
American Postal Workers Union, John Driver, wrote, “Mr. Almaraz
unequivocally stated that the Marina P&DC was a very efficient
facility.” And John Holden, Senior Manager at the Marina P&D Center,
“stated that the facility was operating within budget and at an
appreciable level of efficiency,” however, the decision to close the
Center “was a business decision, not an efficiency decision.”
Being an accountant who likes detail,
I reviewed the financial report which was the basis for making the
‘business decision’ to close the Marina P&D Center, and found
errors in their calculations and reasoning. I won’t bore you with the fine
details, but they report that they will save $17 million annually, which I
believe is overstated by $3 million. However for some reason, they have failed
to address what will happen to the over $37 million of revenue currently
generated at the Marina P&D Center from processing bulk mail.
In addition, the Postal Service
reports that it will cost over $8 million to renovate the South Central P&D
Center in preparation for the consolidation. Furthermore, the internal documents
show that the South Central P&D Center (which ranks 329 out of 400
processing centers) has a substantially higher processing error rate and lower
performance rate than the Marina P&D Center (which ranks
178).
The real ‘business
decision’ appears to have nothing to do with the processing of mail or the
selling of stamps, but with the value of the land. According to Mr.
Driver’s letter noted above, Mr. Almaraz revealed in a meeting on August
17, 2004, that “the Pacific Area, led by VP Al Iniquez, had been
informally approached by an unnamed private entity about the possibility of
selling the land the Marina P&D Center occupies.”
I found on the last page of the report
prepared by the Postal Service in determining the viability of keeping or
closing the Marina P&D Center, a one line entry which reads as follows:
“Sale of Marina P&D Facility, $35,000,000.” I couldn't believe
my eyes. The Postal Service is planning to sell over 17 acres of land located
directly across from the Playa Vista development for half it’s market
value. This is an outrage!
This is not
the first time the Postal Service has sold valuable property for less than
market value. In another correspondence, Mr. Driver gives the example of the
sale of the Denver Colorado Annex USPS property in the summer of 2004. In this
situation, the USPS property was sold for $7-8 million to a private interest.
Within 72 hours, the property was split into two parcels; one parcel was sold
for about $12 million and the other parcel has plans to be developed into a $65
million project.
What kind of
‘business decision’ motivates the owner of prime real estate to sell
its valuable property for 50 cents on the dollar (or less, as in the Denver
example)? No wonder the Postal Service is losing money, but how dare they
continue to ask the public to pay for their bad business decisions. Or worse,
for the back room dealing which appears to be in play
here.
It is time for the community to
stand up and say “STOP” to the 'bad business decisions' currently
being made by the US Postal Service.
Is
it wise for the Postal Service to close the Marina P&D Center at this
time?
According to Mr. Almaraz, the
reason for the move is declining mail volume at the Marina and excess processing
capacity in Los Angeles. Nationwide, the first-class mail volume has declined
5.5%, while according to Mr. Moden, at the Marina P&D Center it has declined
20% over the past few years.
How could the
westside have declined more than the national percentage when we have been
experiencing a growth in new housing, new retail and new office space? Something
doesn't make sense here.
I did some
research. In the Venice and Marina area
alone:
- 4,525 new homes/apartments
have been completed in the past few years
-
2,939 new homes/apartments are currently under
construction
- 1,976 new condos/apartments
are in-process of being approved either by the City of L.A. or the
County
This totals 9,440 new units, without
considering the increase in retail and office space or the increase in hotel
rooms.
And how much mail would 9,440
new units generate? Well, I receive 5-10 pieces of mail each day (including
letters, bills, invitations, magazines, etc.). Over a week, I receive 30-60
pieces of mail, and over a year I receive 1,560-3,120 pieces of mail.
This could mean that these new units
might generate from 14,726,400 - 29,452,800 pieces of mail a year. With the
Marina P&D Center currently handling 2,758,104,900 pieces of mail annually,
this represents more than a 1% increase. And, I'm only talking about the Venice
and Marina area.
What if you consider
the recent increase in housing, retail and office space currently going on in
the other 23 communities affected by this
closure.
If these communities are
experiencing even half the amount of growth that Venice and the Marina have,
then the increase in mail would result in more than a 12%
increase.
We can all use common sense.
There is no way the Marina P&D Center has had a 20% decline in the
processing of mail. It is obvious that the consumer demand in the above zip
codes has been on the increase, not the decrease.
This is supported by Mr.
Driver’s above mentioned letter in which he writes “the USPS has
begun diverting Marina P&DC first-class mail volume to other
facilities...This decision is being made to directly impact the Marina P&DC
operation and support the USPS contention that Marina P&DC first class mail
volume has decreased.... The decrease is self-imposed, not consumer
driven.”
In addition,
“USPS Management has made subtle changes to standard operations at the
Marina P&DC which have directly affected the performance and efficiency of
the Marina P&DC...resulting in poorly prepared mail for Automation impacting
performance and efficiency...the USPS have implemented relaxed Maintenance
repairs and preventive maintenance schedules resulting in increased inoperable
and unreliable vital" machinery....
“Furthermore, the USPS has
instructed employees to mix First Class mail with Second Class mail...Why are
machines not being repaired properly? Why are classes of mail being mixed? What
are the motives? Who is making the decisions and
why?”
The Postal Service is not
being honest with the community, and this is another reason why the decision to
close the westside center is a ‘bad business
decision.’
What can I do to stop
the closing of the Marina P&D
Center?
We, as a community, can stop
the closure of the Marina Processing and Distribution Center. But it requires
each of us to stand up and be counted. The US Postal Service currently expects
the consolidation to be completed by July 14, 2005. So write your letter today
and mail or fax it to:
William
Almaraz FAX 323-586-3702
LA District
Manager
United States Postal
Service
7001 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles, CA
90052
Postmaster
General John Potter FAX 202-268-5211
United
States Postal Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW,
Washington, DC
20260-0010
John
F. Walsh
United States Postal
Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington,
DC 20260-0010
Legree S.
Daniels
United States Postal
Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington,
DC 20260-0010
John A. Rapp FAX
202-288-5381
Senior Vice President -
Government Relations
United States Postal
Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington,
DC 20260-0010
Ralph J. Moden FAX
202-288-2503
Senior Vice President -
Government Relations
United States Postal
Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington,
DC 20260-0010
Posted: Tue - March 1, 2005 at 06:01 PM