DeJoy issues clarification on decision to pause facility changes

May 21—CHAMPAIGN — Recent remarks from U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy indicate that significant changes to about 60 post offices — such as the Mattis Avenue facility in Champaign — may only be on hold temporarily.

DeJoy has released an to U.S. Senator Gary Peters, D-Mich., and other legislators clarifying the details of his recent decision to pause changes associated with these reviews through early 2025.

The Postmaster General wrote that he was able to accommodate Peters' request to hold off on implementation and "do some further analysis" because the Postal Service is currently in the "work planning phase" of the initiative.

"Starting implementation of these changes after the first of the year is a logical choice considering where we are in the planning cycle, the additional work we have ongoing, our current efforts to stabilize service, and the upcoming election," he said.

DeJoy previously wrote in a May 9 letter to Peters that he had agreed to "pause the movement of processing operations associated with the mail-processing facility reviews" and hold off on implementation until after Jan. 1, 2025, at the earliest.

Philip Shelly, communications director for U.S. Rep Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, told The News-Gazette on May 15 that the announcement did not necessarily mean agency officials had changed their mind on the facility changes.

"It just means it won't happen until 2025," he said.

DeJoy's latest letter to Peters, dated May 20, includes a list of nearly 60 post offices that have undergone reviews, including the Processing and Distribution Center on Mattis Avenue in Champaign.

The Postal Service's plans for the local facility — which were announced in April and are expected to result in a loss of about 100 local jobs — include transferring outgoing-mail processing to facilities in the Chicago suburbs of Bedford Park and Forest Park.

"At this point of the facility review process, we have made our decisions and quantified our investments over the 59 sites, which are reflected on the attached list," DeJoy said. "We are now in the process of scheduling our work for this initiative, which we expect to accomplish over the next 18 to 24 months."

"Our position has been, unlike in the past, that we do not just move the mail processing operations without a firm committed and capitalized plan to the improvements we have specified in our notifications to the public and the community. Our goal is, by site, for it all to occur near concurrently."

He wrote that the Postal Service plans to invest $15 million to $20 million in the Mattis Avenue facility, and changes to the site are estimated to result in annual savings of $2.7 to $3.5 million.

DeJoy also clarified that while the agency will hold off on implementation for the nearly 60 sites listed, there are other ongoing facility and transportation projects that they are still working on throughout the rest of the year.

He added that the agency only has a few years to correct its course before a federal bailout will be necessary.

"I have not disputed that we had difficulty in the initial implementation of some of the changes we are making and are working hard to correct for them and will do so," he said. "However, simply put, we are digging out of one of the biggest financial and operating institutional holes ever dug and the demanding pace of this change is required because it should have begun many years ago."