A year after postal reform bill, Moran and Davids raise complaints to Postmaster DeJoy

Jeff Gorski first started noticing issues with his local post office after he ordered a part from Florida to fix his broken oven.

It stayed at the post office for days. One day it wasn't delivered to his home in Prairie Village because the carrier reported he had animals. Gorski doesn't own an animal. The next day it wasn't delivered because the carrier said the front entrance to his house was blocked. Gorski said it wasn't. He eventually picked it up from the post office himself.

Rick Heying used to work for the Postal Service for 40 years. He, too, says he isn't getting consistent delivery at his Overland Park home. He says the workload on mail carriers has increased significantly since his days working a route and that mail is piling up.

"Somehow, Congress or the senators, they need to get them back on track," Heying said. "Or hell, get the National Guard to deliver it if they can."

Two of his members of Congress are working on it. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, and Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, teamed up to send a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Thursday, amid rising complaints about mail delivery.

Their letter comes a year after President Joe Biden signed a bill intended to relieve some of the financial burdens on the Postal Service. The legislation changed how the Postal Service pays retiree benefits, while guaranteeing six days of mail service a week. Both Davids and Moran supported the bill, which passed with bipartisan support.

But, as The Star reported earlier this week, the Postal Service has failed to meet those standards throughout the Kansas City area, drawing ire from the community and members of Congress.

"It is unacceptable that implementation of certain provisions, including the six-day-a-week delivery service, is not being accomplished by USPS," Davids and Moran wrote in their letter.

The Postal Service has largely said the issue is one of employment — the agency is struggling to attract and retain enough employees to deliver mail on time. Moran and Davids' letter specifically asks them to detail a plan that would increase hiring, training and retention of Postal Service employees, along with reasons why the mail isn't being delivered on time.

Similar letters from members of Congress have failed to move the needle. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Sam Graves, both from Missouri, wrote letters to the agency in October and March complaining about a lack of delivery in the Kansas City area. While their second letter prompted an audit in Kansas City, it's unlikely that it will be able to clear up delivery problems in the short term.

Mark Inglett, the USPS spokesman for Kansas, said the Postal Service is actively hiring and recruiting people at local job fairs.

"When mail service issues occur, we take steps to quickly resolve customer concerns," Inglett said. "We gladly work to address any specific issue from the community when brought to our attention and we encourage customers to reach out to their local postal station."

Heying, who is retired from the Postal Service, said his friends who are still working say the job has become more challenging. He said employees are monitored with cameras and are often walking more than six hours a day on their routes. He said there are plenty of overtime opportunities, where employees are asked to work 10 or 12 hours a day, but that mail is still piling up because there aren't enough workers.

"They're not getting workers," Heying said. "And the ones they are getting they're working, I hate to say to death, but close."

Some have pinned the blame on changes made under the tenure of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a former logistics CEO and major Republican donor. DeJoy was appointed under President Donald Trump and attracted controversy over his plans to remake the postal service into a financially self-sustaining operation, which included the closure of processing plants, removing collection boxes and cutting post office hours. The changes left Kansas with just one processing center.

The changes were unveiled right before the 2020 Presidential Election, thrusting it into a partisan atmosphere at a time when many were relying on mail-in ballots because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeJoy was appointed by the USPS Board of Governors in 2020, when they were controlled by Trump appointees. Biden now has a majority of appointees on the board, but they have not taken any action to remove DeJoy from the job.

In the meantime, Kansans have continue to experience delays in their mail service, affecting everything from government documents, oven parts and post cards from family.

"I just really feel like this is a primary function of government," Gorski said. "It's a place where government is visible in our daily lives."