Chicago City Wire

A report by the Office of the Inspector General found several service issues involving mail delivery and customer service for select Chicago stations.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is calling for the postmaster to step down after the report was published.

“I was astonished, hurt, deeply saddened about what was in the report,” Rush said at a news conference Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “It’s an absolute, abject, total, undeniable failure.”

Rush said Postmaster Wanda Prater needed to resign, saying the Postal Service needed a new management team.

“I can only conclude and demand that Postmaster [Wanda] Prater resign immediately or that she be terminated immediately,” Rush said, the news media reported.

The Feb. 1 memorandum sent along with the report to Chicago District Manager Randy Stines from Delivery and Retail Response Team Director Sean Balduff notes that the report presents the results of the Office of Inspector General’s audit of mail delivery and customer services issues.

“This report presents the results of our audit assessing mail delivery and customer service issues at select stations in Chicago, IL (Project Number 20-296). In August 2020, U.S. Representative Bobby Rush, 1st Congressional District of Illinois, requested that we conduct an investigation after he received over  600 complaints regarding inadequate mail delivery for customers serviced by four stations in the Chicago District,” the report notes. 

The postal stations included in the report are Auburn Park, Henry McGee, Ashburn and James E. Worsham.

“Congressman Rush stated that constituents reported they had not received their mail for up to four weeks and received unsatisfactory service at the retail counter,” the report states. “These four stations are in the Chicago District of the Central Area. The Chicago District has 48 stations with 2,124 city routes servicing the city of Chicago. These four selected stations have a combined total of 188 city routes and 349 carriers and clerks. Staffing at these stations included 245 full-time letter carriers, 61 city carrier assistants, 33 full-time clerks and 10 postal support employees.”

The report notes auditors analyzed customer inquiries from May through July and found multiple complaints.

“Specifically, the Henry McGee Station had 5,317 customer inquiries related to package tracking, non-receipt of mail, and letter carrier complaints," the report states. "The Auburn Park Station had 2,710 inquiries, the James E. Worsham Station had 1,958 inquiries, and the Ashburn Station had 997 inquiries…”

The audit was conducted to evaluate mail delivery and customer service issues at the four service stations. The auditors reviewed delivery metrics and had two site visits on Sept. 21 and 22. They also continued the audit through Feb. 1. 

“We identified delivery and customer service issues at all four sites we visited,” the report notes."These issues included delayed mail, inaccurate reporting of mail conditions, improper scanning, and unsecured delivery vehicles. We did not identify any issues related to retail customer service.”