Tag: Louis DeJoy

New Mail Wrinkle: USPS Sending Out Inaccurate Mail Ballot Info, Warns State Official

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy refused to let state officials review notices before they went out, says Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

The U.S. Postal Service is sending out inaccurate mail ballot information to residents of several states, which could further snarl a system already facing overwhelming demand amid the COVID-19 crisis, Colorado’s secretary of state said Friday.

The USPS is sending postcard notices to addresses and post office boxes of registered voters, urging them to request mail-in ballots early. But several states already have a system in place that automatically sends ballots to all registered voters, noted Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in a series of tweets. For residents in those states, the “information is not just confusing, it’s WRONG,” she said.

She said that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy ignored requests from secretaries of state to review any notices to ensure their accuracy before they went out. Continue reading.

House Oversight Committee will investigate Louis DeJoy following claims he pressured employees to make campaign donations

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House Democrats are opening an investigation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and called for his immediate suspension following accusations that he reimbursed employees for campaign contributions they made to his preferred GOP politicians, an arrangement that would be unlawful.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement late Monday that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which she chairs, would begin an inquiry, saying that DeJoy may have lied to the panel under oath.

Maloney also urged the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service to immediately suspend DeJoy, whom “they never should have hired in the first place,” she said. Continue reading.

Louis DeJoy’s rise as GOP fundraiser was powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say

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Louis DeJoy’s prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates — money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say.

Five people who worked for DeJoy’s former business, New Breed Logistics, say they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or by the chief executive himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his 15,000-square-foot gated mansion beside a Greensboro, N.C., country club. There, events for Republicans running for the White House and Congress routinely fetched $100,000 or more apiece.

Two other employees familiar with New Breed’s financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers be boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful. Continue reading.

USPS is telling people their mail is being held ‘at the request of the customer.’ It isn’t true.

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U.S. Postal Service customers across the country have been receiving a notification that often alarms and perplexes them: The message says packages they expected delivered to their home or business are being held at a post office “at the request of the customer.”

But customers who are receiving these notifications never requested that their mail be held.

The packages are delayed because of broad changes Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has implemented to the nation’s mail delivery operations, including policies that slow down package delivery. When a mail carrier cannot deliver a package on the day it was scheduled because their shift is ending, postal workers say, the system sometimes generates a misleading “held at the request of the customer” message.

Although the reality is that the mail carrier will deliver the package, sometimes the next day, customers say the message has prompted them to visit the post office to claim their items — even if they are concerned about venturing out because of the coronavirus pandemic — and has undermined their faith in mail delivery leading up to the 2020 election. Continue reading.

How Trump, Mnuchin and DeJoy edged the Postal Service into a crisis

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Soon after Louis DeJoy arrived at the U.S. Postal Service’s L’Enfant Plaza headquarters in mid-June, Mark Dimondstein, the veteran leader of the agency’s largest union, called to get on the new postmaster general’s schedule.

He had urgent matters to discuss: The coronavirus pandemic was forcing widespread absenteeism among his 200,000 members. Protective gear was running low. The post office needed a plan to handle a historic crush of mail-in ballots.

Dimondstein had spoken weekly with DeJoy’s predecessor, Megan Brennan. But it would take six weeks for him to get an audience with the new boss, and by then, the labor leader had other priorities: to halt the rapid-fire cost-cutting moves DeJoy ordered that were degrading the delivery of mail, medicine, food and other staples to a country homebound as the virus was surging again. Continue reading.

Internal USPS memo appears to contradict postmaster general’s testimony

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Salon has obtained internal U.S. Postal Service documents that appear to contradict Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s congressional testimony on Friday, in which he told a Senate panel under oath that he was not cutting employee overtime.

The memo, which was provided by a manager to rank-and-file employees, appears to confirm reports that under DeJoy the agency is implementing policies aimed at dramatically curtailing the opportunity for worker overtime, to the point that the memo says flatly on its first page: “Overtime will be eliminated.”

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., asked DeJoy whether he had taken steps to “eliminate” or “curtail” overtime. DeJoy said no. Continue reading.

Postmaster General testifies that ballots will be prioritized for delivery

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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday said that ensuring mail-in ballots are delivered during elections this year is his ” No. 1 priority.”

The statement from the postmaster general comes as DeJoy has faced criticism of recent decisions made around reforming the Postal Service.

“As we head in the election season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time,” DeJoy testified during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the Postal Service. Continue reading.

‘It’s a cover-up’: White House accused of hiding Mnuchin’s role in recruiting postmaster general

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday accused the Trump White House of covering up the role Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin played in recruiting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor with no prior experience working for the U.S. Postal Service.

In a letter to Robert Duncan, chairman of the USPS Board of Governors, Schumer wrote that as part of his investigation into DeJoy’s selection and unanimous appointment in May, his office “learned of the role Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had with the Postal Board of Governors, including through meetings with individual governors as well as phone calls with groups of governors, which has not been previously disclosed by the board.”

“This administration has repeatedly pointed to the role of [executive search firm] Russell Reynolds to defend the selection of a Republican mega-donor with no prior postal experience as postmaster general while at the same time blocking the ability of Congress to obtain briefings from the firm and concealing the role of Secretary Mnuchin and the White House in its search process,” the New York Democrat wrote. Continue reading.

Former Postal Governor Tells Congress Mnuchin Politicized Postal Service

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WASHINGTON — The former vice chairman of the U.S. Postal Service’s board of governors accused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday of trying to engineer a hostile takeover of the service, telling lawmakers that Mr. Mnuchin required members of the independent board to “kiss the ring” before they were confirmed and issued demands that agency officials believed were “illegal.”

In scathing testimony delivered before lawmakers in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, David C. Williams, a former Postal Service inspector general who resigned as vice chairman in protest in April, said the Trump administration appeared to want to turn the agency into a “political tool.” The Treasury Department, he said, was maneuvering to use its lending authority to strong-arm the agency to adopt policies that would be “ruinous,” like raising prices and cutting back crucial services.

“If this is the beginning of what the president promised, it’s the end of the Postal Service,” Mr. Williams said in his first public comments since his resignation. Continue reading.

Postmaster general eyes aggressive changes at Postal Service after election

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Louis DeJoy is said to be looking at policies that could lead to slower delivery in parts of the country — and higher prices

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has mapped out far more sweeping changes to the U.S. Postal Service than previously disclosed, considering actions that could lead to slower mail delivery in parts of the country and higher prices for some mail services, according to several people familiar with the plans.

The plans under consideration, described by four people familiar with Postal Service discussions, would come after the election and touch on all corners of the agency’s work. They include raising package rates, particularly when delivering the last mile on behalf of big retailers; setting higher prices for service in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico; curbing discounts for nonprofits; requiring election ballots to use first-class postage; and leasing space in Postal Service facilities to other government agencies and companies.

DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, envisions aggressive cost-cutting maneuvers that he and other conservatives say are necessary to strengthen the agency’s financial footing. But they also would represent the biggest reshaping of the agency in generations and would likely draw severe criticism from people and organizations that rely on the mail service for timely delivery, particularly in less populated regions of the country. Continue reading.