Postmaster got $800,000 in pay, perks-but stamps are going up, service being curtailed

[babylonsister]

WTF is wrong with this picture? :nuke:

EXCLUSIVE: Postmaster got $800,000 in pay, perks
Raise came amid calls for cuts in delivery
Jim McElhatton (Contact)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009


Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries. But his personal fortunes are nonetheless rising thanks to 40 percent in pay raises since 2006, a $135,000 bonus last year and several perks usually reserved for corporate CEOs.

The changes, approved by the Postal Board of Governors and contained in a little-noticed regulatory filing in December, brought Mr. Potter's total compensation and retirement benefits to more than $800,000 in 2008. That is more than double the salary for President Obama.

The new compensation package, much of it deferred to later years, goes beyond a newly beefed-up salary, now $263,575, that Congress arranged for him as part of a 2006 law to make top postal salaries more competitive with those in the private sector. At least four other postal officials got more than a quarter-million dollars in total compensation in 2008, according to Postal Service records reviewed by The Washington Times.

Lawmakers, already trying to limit compensation of Wall Street executives, have taken notice of Mr. Potter's good fortune when the Postal Service is posting nearly $3 billion a year in losses and now wants to raise the price of a stamp by 2 cents.

The House Oversight and Government Reform federal workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia subcommittee "will investigate during this Congress," said Marcus A. Williams, a spokesman for the panel that oversees the Postal Service.

Outside analysts also said Mr. Potter's recent vow to freeze postal executive salaries at 2008 levels means little when several got such generous compensation packages.

more...

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/17/in-hard-times-postmaster-earned-800000-in-pay-perk/

[Captain Hilts]

1. No shit! NOW I'm REALLY pissed over getting rid of the 'book rate'. thanks! nt

[wroberts189]

14. You mean the Media mail rate? Where did you here this? thx

[Captain Hilts]

16. Internationally, there is ONLY 'media' rate. No more 'printed matter'.

And the 'media' rate is NOT inexpensive and I was told it could take SIX weeks to get a book to Toronto from Wash DC using this EXPENSIVE rate.

They told me that "since all of it flies, there's no reason to have a special rate for books." This is an incorrect and ignorant explanation. The origin of the 'book' and 'printed matter' rate was to prevent CENSORSHIP because high postal rates for books was seen as back door censorship.

It is now. I have some books I need to mail to Canada and now cannot afford to do so.

[tanyev]

2. Just call that bonus a retention award and it will be OK.

[MadHound]

3. This is why the US Postal Service is foundering

They've got a whole class of upper management that virtually cannot be gotten rid of, who do virtually nothing, yet suck up an incredible amount of the PO's budget through exorbitant salaries and perks. This management is seriously entrenched, and it would probably take an act of Congress to get rid of them.

Thus we get stuck with increasing postal rates and decreasing service while these people continue to pull down the big bucks.

[Greyhound]

9. True, but only part of the story. Read on. n/t

[customerserviceguy]

10. Those upper management fuck-ups will have to just die off

and at the same time, the USPS will do so with them. A few posts ago, I saw a lament over the demise of the "book rate", but books, music and movies will all soon be delivered primarily over the Internet, anyway. That's what's been happening with bill payments, bills, and short notes to friends and family, the USPS is where buggy whip manufacturers were a hundred years ago.

[MadHound]

21. Actually I forsee a place for the post office for several years out,

That is if they get their shit together and keep it together. There are always going to be those of us who will order real live books, not those electronic impulses coming over a wire. The same goes for music, bills, movies, etc. Call us luddites if you want, but the fact of the matter is that there is a large enough market that it will be catered to. Not to mention the need to ship things that simply can't be squeezed through the intertubes.

[Hamlette]

4. The other side of the story

"Mr. Potter also said the losses occurred even as officials cut costs by more than $2 billion, reduced work hours by 50 million compared with the previous year and reached record levels for on-time delivery. He said the problems were caused, in part, by a weakening economy, billions of dollars in required payments to prefund retiree health care benefits and more people using electronic mail to communicate."

He got a performance bonus of $135,000 for cutting costs by $2 billion. That seems reasonable to me. That plus the salary for the top guy at such a huge agency doesn't seem out of line to me and saying it is more than the president is not right. To reach the 800K number they include "perks" like retirement (some calculations also include employer FICA, not sure if it is in this one) and a parking place.

Note the source too. The story is beefed up to show only the "outrageous" side. Pay a decent salary and you attract the best and brightest to public service. Otherwise, you get the government you pay for.

[babylonsister]

7. You're kind. I think this guy, being a public servant and federal

employee, shouldn't be getting bonuses like this. He's making more than the president in bonuses alone. Not a great way to set an example either, especially since the PO has been floundering for years.

[Hamlette]

13. his bonus is $135K

if you added up presidential perks it would be far above $800k when added to his salary.

I'm not saying THIS president is not worth it, I'm saying maybe both are. I work for state government where salaries are low and it shows in some places in the workforce. You want shitty people working for you, pay them crappy wages and the good ones will go to UPS.

You get what you pay for.

[GiveMeFreedom]

22. Not to start an argument

But does he get to fly on air force one and marine one also? I agree that it sucks that some people are so overvalued and for what? Because he shows up? Fuck, I could run a huge corporation if I didn't have a soul and loved only money.

[Thothmes]

24. This guy is not a federal employee

The post office is a semi independent agency. The Postmater General is no longer a cabinet post. His pay is not determined or limited by civil service rules. This is who Congress wired the program when they created the current system.

[lostnfound]

23. Figures don't lie but liars figure.. And I'm not sure that cutting benefits

to a captive workforce (given the paucity of jobs in the market) is something to be lauded. Cost-cutting that relied on outsourcing to India, for example, isn't necessarily in the public interest.

Even the quality of stamps has deteriorated, but that's just a pet annoyance of mine. I've been chalking it up to a sweetheart deal during the Bush years..

As far as my liars comment, I know how "cost cuts" get calculated sometimes, and it can include a lot of "art" in the assumptions about escalation, projections, deferral of accounting of costs etc. that may have little bearing in reality.

[ret5hd]

5. Washington Times?

[babylonsister]

6. Yes. And? You think they're lying about this? I don't. nt

[Greyhound]

8. I spent three hours on the phone with my USPS employed sister and learned much that

has evaded any public notice.

The PMG is appointed by the President so we're going to get a new one (If Obama gets to hear the whole story). Like the rest of the top level government admins, Potter was installed by Idiot Frat Boy for ideological adherence more than any other qualification. He at least has been in the USPS for a long time so does know the system, but the programs instituted and his administrative style seem to have the demoralization and destruction of the USPS as their main goal.

The board of governors are all appointed, but the appointments are staggered so Obama can't replace the whole board without a second term.

Almost everything the USPS does is by act of Congress and the most egregious thing I learned is that they are forbidden from owning most of the equipment necessary to moving the mail. They are required to lease it from private competitors (UPS and FedEx mostly) and those competitors are under no obligation to provide the equipment and can charge whatever they want. Additionally, when a shipment is scheduled and the company has a full load of their own parcels, they leave the USPS parcels behind for the next flight/truck. If your overnight package was late, it was most likely because UPS/FedEx didn't perform and there's nothing the USPS can do about it.

The USPS is, again by act of Congress, forbidden from advertising their rates, so even though they provide superior service at less than half the price, most people will never know it.

Consider this, when we are told that the USPS "lost money" it is because they are required by Congress to subsidize the private carriers through the leases they have to pay regardless of how badly the private company gouges them/us. Six consecutive Republic administrations (I'm counting Clinton among them since he acted just like them) have turned the USPS into another corporate welfare program

She told me that the delivery vehicles are government issue and believes the actual sorting/handling equipment is USPS property.

So when you're complaining about the cost of a stamp going up a couple of pennies, just know where those pennies are really going.

[Pab Sungenis]

11. Time to de-privatize the Post Office.

It should have stayed a government agency, and not made into a private company by Nixon. Congress needs to take it back over and clean out the private-sector dead weight in it.

[eShirl]

12. no federal employee should make more than the president

let alone double

[xiamiam]

15. 800k...its too much...it just is..nt

[L0oniX]

17. This isn't the first time the postmaster got a huge bonus and the price of stamps went up.

Do your all your bill paying online through your bank and save. I am down to writing one check a month and never use stamps except for my yearly car registration renewal.

[samplegirl]

18. Thanks so much for this post...

I will not be able to refrain from sending this to my very good republican girlfriends husband who is blaming democrats for him being cut a day a week from work saying it is the democrats fault as we do not want junk mail delivered anymore and can sign up not to have it. LOL
I have argued with this unjust republican all year with the auto-bail out as he thought it was not needed. Oh... but since he was cut to a four day work week....its the democrats fault for not accepting junk mail.
Seems like he can now fault the greedy CEO's in his workforce all made ever more possible by his GOP party.
K&R

[Historic NY]

19. I have relative working for the PO, they say its management is just FUBAR..

the entire system need overhauling. They spend a dollar to save a dime. Employee's are treated as numbers not people. There is more waste in trying to keep up with UPS, Fed EX etc.. The solution probably is the government taking back full control.

[madrchsod]

20. i mailed out magazines for 4 yrs and i will say this.

..do`t always blame the post office if you did`t receive your magazine. the worse magazine we mailed had a black plastic wrapper and by the end of the run we`d have mailing labels that were destroyed,fell off,or stuck together.we did our best with the crappy machines we had. other problems were mailing bundles of magazines that were supposed to go to california but were actually mailed to texas. a lot of labels would fall off in the mail bags or in the post offices sorting machines. we have had whole shipments of tens thousand magazines because the mail bag tag did`t match the tags inside.the saddest thing we ever did was to mail out magazines to people and business in new orleans. we warehoused them for months and i assume many were never delivered.

the post office here in illinois lost the unemployment checks in my region,lost my counties tax bills ,and lost the entire southern illinois unemployment checks. all the mail were found in trailers in the post office yards. now the state of illinois unemployment "checks" are debit cards or direct deposit. they no longer trust the post office!


management always gets what they want while the men and women who do the work for the post office get shit on everyday.