berkeley main post office public meeting subcommittee...public meeting the purpose of this meeting...
TRANSCRIPT
®
Berkeley Main Post Office
Public Meeting
September 13, 2012
2
Why we are here
39 CFR 241.4
Decision Making Process
Cost Avoidance While Maintaining Service
Financial Climate of Postal Service
Community Input
Public Meeting
Written Comment Period
Next Steps
Q&A/Comments
Agenda
3
Why we are here
39 CFR 241.4 – Public Meeting
The purpose of this meeting is to assure increased opportunities for members of the community who may be affected by the project, along with local officials, to convey their views concerning the contemplated project and have them considered prior to any final decision.
Share information
Listen to comments
4
Financial Climate of Postal Service
Volume
Price Labor Costs
Universal Service
Obligation
Non-competitive services
capped by rate of inflation
Postal network driven by:
Delivery points
Retail locations
Mail processing facilities
Unique future retiree
prefunding obligation
These trends will
continue to put
pressure on USPS’s
ability to provide
affordable universal
service
Declining
steadily First Class Mail volume
decline of 25% since 2006
Mail mix changes –
lower profit contributions
Fixed Cost
Base
Rising but
capped
Legislation
needed
5
98
78
53
39
0
25
50
75
100
125
2006 2010 2016 2020
103
83 82 81
0
25
50
75
100
125
2006 2010 2016 2020
First-Class Mail Standard Mail
Financial Climate of Postal Service
Mail Volume Shifting to Less Profitable Mix
Volume in Billions of Pieces
(Source: Boston Consulting Group)
6
Net Losses of over $25 billion past five years, despite
removing nearly $14 billion from annual cost base during the same period
Low cash levels, no remaining borrowing capacity
Aug. 1, 2012: USPS defaults on $5.5 billion future retiree health benefits prefunding payment
Aug. 9, 2012: YTD net loss $11.6 billion, compared to $5.7 billion SPLY
USPS is doing everything possible to generate revenue and reduce costs in order to maintain universal service
Financial Climate of Postal Service
7
Title 39 CFR 241.4
Community Relations Regulations
Customer Service Facilities
Expansion, Relocation, and Construction of
Post Offices
Relocation
8
Optimize Network
Realign Workforce
Reduce Energy
Reduce Physical Footprint
Drives Out
Cost
Core Strategies
Leaner, Faster, and Smarter Organization
Current Square Footage
Berkeley Main Post Office 57,200 sf
Berkeley NPU 3,644 sf
Berkeley DDU 23,040 sf
Total 83,884 sf
Required Square Footage
Berkeley Delivery Ops 16,830 sf
Berkeley Retail Only 4,110 sf
9
Node Action: Option A
Existing
Proposed
PA-11-078 Berkeley CA
Berkeley
NPU 3,644 sf
Relocate Delivery Operations to Carrier Annex &
Relocate Retail to Smaller Post Office Space
Berkeley
MPO 57,200 sf
Berkeley
DDU 23,040 sf
Terminate
Lease
Sell
Retain
Berkeley
DDU
Establish New Alternate Quarters
Berkeley Retail ~4,000 SF
10
10-Year
Savings:
$5,054,460
Relocate Delivery Operations to Carrier Annex &
Relocate Retail to Smaller Post Office Space
11
Berkeley Retail Locations
12
Appraisal
Survey
Phase 1
Internal Documents
Historical Consultant
• Findings compiled and sent to SHPO for
covenants
Asset Manager for USPS
David Rouse (201) 714-7420
Due Diligence Period 90 Days
13
Assign Local Broker (CBRE)
Advertise Property Sale
Determine Qualifications
Best and Final
CONTINGENT ON
ACCEPTABLE BUYER and
ACCEPTABLE REPLACEMENT SPACE
www.uspspropertiesforsale.com
Next Steps
14
Marketing Advertisement
Sample Advertising for Historical Building
15
Other Cities
San Rafael Sausalito
Half Moon Bay Palo Alto
Menlo Park Burlingame
Los Angeles La Jolla
Santa Monica Anaheim
Beverly Hills Santa Barbara
Completed
Venice Main Post Office
Soquel Main Post Office
Ukiah Main Post Office
Healdsburg Main Post Office
San Francisco Bryant Station
San Jose Station D
16
Grass Valley, California
Law Offices and Financial Services
(Photo credits: JEF)
17
Meriden, Connecticut
Engineering and Architectural Firm
(Photo credits: DeCarlo & Doll Inc.)
18
Winnsboro, Louisiana
Museum and Community Facility
(Photo credit: Flickr/courthouselover)
(Photo credits: oldpostofficemuseum.com)
BEFORE AFTER
19
El Dorado, Arkansas
Court House, Offices, and Café
(Photo credit: Flickr/courthouselover)
20
Pasadena, Texas
Museum
(Photo credit: Flickr/mrchriscornwell)
21
Franklin, Louisiana
Bed and Breakfast Hotel
(Photo credit: Flickr/courthouselover)
22
Community Input Public Meeting
Comment Period
Considerations in Decision Making Process
23
Common Concerns
Historical Significance
Post Office Boxes
BMEU
Mail Delivery
Parking
Community Input – Letters
24
Next Steps
Postal Service makes a recommendation.
Forwards recommendation to USPS HQ along
with cost analysis and community input.
HQ either concurs with recommendation or makes
a recommendation of its own.
Postal Service notifies the community of the decision.
The community is given opportunity to appeal.
25
Continue to send comments through September 28, 2012 to:
Diana Alvarado
USPS Pacific Facilities Service Office
1300 Evans Ave Suite 200
San Francisco CA 94188-8200
Berkeley Public Meeting
26
Comments? As a courtesy, please limit your
comments to 3 minutes.
Berkeley Public Meeting
Berkeley P.O. Public Hearing – Sept. 13, 2012
Testimony by Harvey Smith, President
National New Deal Preservation Association
What I’d like to sketch for you today are the two competing narratives of what’s
happening with the USPS.
The view we get from the USPS is that because of the drop in mail volume due to email,
the postal service is facing insolvency. To meet its budget the post office must sell its
properties, both historic and otherwise, in order to maintain service.
The USPS says it will listen to the public in hearings. (I should say poorly noticed public
hearings as evidenced by the notice for today’s meeting.) However, the national pattern
of closures shows a disregard for public input. The USPS has also structured its rules for
closures by saying that if it “relocates” its operations that closure is not really a “closure”
which gives it the ability to make this decision more freely.
Furthermore, the USPS has hired a private real estate firm to advise which facilities to
sell. Not surprisingly, many sites up for sale are located in areas of high end real estate
that will turn a very handsome profit for this firm.
This narrative is supported by such conservative think tanks such as the American
Enterprise Institute and others who have promoted privatization of our military, prisons
education system and in essence the entire public sector.
Now, there is a counter-narrative to this story which can be learned by looking at a
number of easily accessible sources. First, the USPS is an institution that has survived
the advent of both the telegraph and telephone. With some restructuring it can certainly
survive email. Second, the primary reason it is not meeting its budget is the onerous
burden placed on it by Congress in 2006 to prepay its health benefits 75 years in advance
over a ten-year period. Third, it has also overpaid its pension fund so a refund could add
additional monies to its budget. These are not problems generated by postal operations,
but by conditions created in a Congress intent on privatizing the USPS.
So, this begs a few questions. Is USPS management on the side of those that would
privatize the postal service and actually welcomes the sell-off of its property? Does the
USPS just think the public is stupid and can not distinguish between these two narratives?
These buildings are legacies paid for by our parents, grandparents and great-
grandparents. They were built to beautify cities and towns and to provide a place to do
postal business that was worthy of a great democracy. Many were built and embellished
with public art during the New Deal. Their unnecessary liquidation is essentially a theft
of our heritage which will directly benefit a private firm. Relocation will make services
less accessible to ordinary citizens, businesses, the elderly and disabled. And, how do
you explain leasing in an expensive downtown location when you now own a building
free and clear?
This all makes one wonder if the USPS is an agent of some foreign government intent on
destroying our national heritage. Its conduct is tantamount to being an accomplice in the
theft of public property. It may not be today or tomorrow, but there will be a legal
reckoning in a court some day on this matter. Those of you that are telling the distorted
story of what’s happening to the USPS will undoubtedly say, “I was just following
orders.” I suggest why not take the high road now, the road of being a protector of an
American institution authorized in the Constitution?
The USPS is arguably one of the world’s largest communications operations. It could get
the whole story to its customers, the American public. We know it has this ability
because it distributed flyers to all its rental boxes in downtown Berkeley. However, these
flyers contained misinformation about this meeting today. Is this a pattern? Was this
deliberate?
So, I’ll conclude by asking, why can’t USPS management use its capability to tell all the
facts and join with its customers and its workers to tell Congress that we want our
beautiful and historic Post Offices to remain just where they are? We want the
privatization of this public service to cease. We want the USPS to become a 21st century
organization that continues to provide universal and convenient access to its customers.
Contact: [email protected]
1
REMARKS TO THE BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL/SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE POST OFFICE. September 12, 2012 Thank you for forming this subcommittee on saving our post office. It’s wonderful to be working together and we appreciate your involvement and action on this. I am working on this issue because the postal service is one of the civic services that make our lives easier, like having potable running water and a functioning sewage system. These services are a normal part of our lives until we begin to lose them as we are now experiencing. I would like to think that together we can stop the hemorrhaging of our basic services. We have to stop these losses before we lose more. Our national post office is one of these treasures. Others will speak to the services it provides and the visual and structural importance of so many post offices that are a part of the aesthetic life of our city and cities across this country. My comments will be on the Post Office as a major employer of African Americans since the Civil War and one of the most important government agencies to hire African Americans and provide consistent paths to the middle class. The civil rights movement certainly taught me, us how important the post office was as a major employer of African Americans at a time when it was almost impossible to get any other than menial or agricultural work. Of all government agencies, the post office was exemplary in its hiring practices. I want to note that although African Americans were hired as early as 1802, advancement was almost nil except during Reconstruction and picked up again in the 1960’s. My information is mostly from the Historian of the United States Postal Service, in a paper called “African American Postal Workers in the 20th Century”, February 2012. And part of their resources was recorded by the Federal Writers Project of the New Deal in 1939.
2
As part of the Great Migration, post offices in Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia were great employers. In Chicago, 70% were laborers, 28% clerks, 16% letter carriers and 5% foremen. In 1940, FDR’s Executive Order 8587 – eliminated photos for civil service applicants and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. In 1958: Herbert Hill, labor secretary, NAACP praised the P.O. as the only federal agency in the South that employed African-Americans above the level of janitors and other menial classifications. 1960, Urban League’s Frayser Lane, “Because of the pay and security, the P.O. is the basic foundation for the Negro community, P.O. workers have bought more homes and sent more offspring to college than any other segment of the group.” More from other documents…. The Post Office’s employment policy of the past is one reason why the right wing wants to destroy it. Their attack of course is wide and deep; working to shift more and more of our resources to the 1%, feeding privateers with government contracts while reducing our wages and services like schools and parks. Our Number One national concern is jobs. Why are we eliminating them when we know that salaries are vital parts of an economy. We need to work so others may have work. By saving our postal service we save part of our civil geographical center, we save vital communication links and we contribute to the well-functioning of a complex economy. We want to work with you to reach out to officials at every level of government to beat back these attacks against this important part of our lives. Note: Bulk of information is from African-American Postal Workers in the 20th Century; HISTORIAN, U.S.P.S. February 2012/