Make no mistake, Postal Service Issues are Systemic

To Dr. Alpert [The RCT Ombudsman] and Rockland County Times readers:

Dr. Alpert’s recent column on the decline in service from the U.S. Postal Service was sadly not surprising. Unfortunately, Ombudsman Alert is not alone. Among the 164 postal cases my District Office staff has addressed over the past 12 months, at least six included complaints about tracking mail and packages.

In fact, a constituent in Thiells lost personal information, including his Social Security Number, when an application for rental property got stuck “In Delay.” Another resident sent two packages on the same day from White Plains, both Priority Mail, both with tracking numbers, and one didn’t arrive to its destination in Florida. She was told that her package, filled with family heirlooms from her grandparents, might never be found in the volume of packages lost in a mail recovery room.

Other constituents have suffered the loss, damage, or delayed delivery of medications, important business and personal financial documents, bills, gifts and other items. I have taken numerous actions to work toward solutions to cases like these. Since Congressman Eliot Engel and I met with Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman in Washington, DC, in September 2017, there has been no improvement while the volume of complaints continues to rise across New York’s 17th Congressional District and beyond. It’s clear that the USPS needs systemic improvements, not the case-by-case fixes that the Postal Service continues prescribing.

I recently called for the Postal Service to hold a town hall meeting in the Lower Hudson Valley to hear directly from local residents facing problems and, more important, to present a plan for addressing these challenges. On Saturday, April 21, we learned that a town hall meeting would be held with local representatives three days later, on April 24, with little time for the public to make plans to attend, and at a location that holds far too few people, given the volume of postal cases my office has handled. I have since called for Postmaster General Megan Brennan’s prompt attention to these structural failures and requested that she meet with me soon so that I can convey the urgency of addressing the poor service that is plaguing postal operations in our area.

I will continue pushing for answers from the Postal Service and fighting for a mail delivery system in the Lower Hudson Valley that meets your needs. I hope you will follow developments on this issue on my website at www.lowey.house.gov or on my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Sincerely,

Nita M. Lowey

Member of Congress

  louis alpert, nita lowey, ombudsman, postal service, usps