Today, Rep. Adam Schiff  sent a letter to U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe calling on him to keep open the historic Glendale Post Office on Broadway.  While the Postal Service has not confirmed the reports, it is clear that they are moving ahead with potential closures and consolidations throughout the Los Angeles area, including two consolidations in Pasadena and the City of Industry, and the post office in Glendale might be next on the chopping block.

In the letter, Schiff writes: “Closing the Post Office would mean a significant degradation in services for the community. Small business owners and families who rely on the Post Office on a daily basis to help their firms grow and mail care packages, respectively, will likely have to travel far outside the downtown business district to conduct their business with USPS. Additionally, seniors who depend on being able to access the Post Office on foot will no longer have a Post Office within walking distance.  This step is misguided not only because it will negatively affect the services USPS provides the community, but also because closing the Post Office will not achieve anywhere near the level of cost savings that USPS needs to improve its fiscal health. USPS faces an annual multibillion dollar operating deficit, but selling the Post Office will do little compared to the scale of the financial challenges USPS faces. Unfortunately, the damage done by selling the Post Office would be permanent – the community would never be able to get back its beautiful and historic Post Office.”

The USPS announced plans to move ahead with a modified plan to consolidate its network of 461 mail processing locations in phases. The first phase of activities will result in up to 140 consolidations through February of 2013. Unless the circumstances of the Postal Service change in the interim, a second and final phase of 89 consolidations is currently scheduled to begin in February of 2014. These consolidating activities will reduce the size of the Postal Service workforce by approximately 13,000 employees after the first phase. When fully implemented in late 2014, the Postal Service expects its consolidations to lead to total workforce reduction up to 28,000 employees.

The full letter is below:

The Honorable Patrick R. Donahoe

Postmaster General

U.S. Postal Service

475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20260-0010

Mr. Donahoe,

It has come to my attention that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is considering closing and selling the historic Glendale Post Office on Broadway. I strongly encourage the Postal Service to keep the Post Office at that location open and reject any potential sale.

Closing the Post Office would mean a significant degradation in services for the community. Small business owners and families who rely on the Post Office on a daily basis to help their firms grow and mail care packages, respectively, will likely have to travel far outside the downtown business district to conduct their business with USPS. Additionally, seniors who depend on being able to access the Post Office on foot will no longer have a Post Office within walking distance.

This step is misguided not only because it will negatively affect the services USPS provides the community, but also because closing the Post Office will not achieve anywhere near the level of cost savings that USPS needs to improve its fiscal health. USPS faces an annual multibillion dollar operating deficit, but selling the Post Office will do little compared to the scale of the financial challenges USPS faces. Unfortunately, the damage done by selling the Post Office would be permanent – the community would never be able to get back its beautiful and historic Post Office.

Instead of selling the Post Office on Broadway and other post offices across the region and the country, USPS should be pursuing a larger, more comprehensive approach to its financial health, while minimizing service reductions and the loss of local jobs. The current legal requirement that USPS prefund its retirement health benefit program by $5.5 billion per year is one of the largest sources of USPS’s financial woes. USPS should use the funds it has previously overpaid in retirement benefit liabilities to meet the prefunding requirement. The United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act (H.R. 1351), of which I am a cosponsor, would do just that.

I strongly urge the United States Postal Service to retain the historic Glendale Post Office on Broadway.

Sincerely,

Adam B. Schiff

Member of Congress