Before the U.S. Postal Service made its formal decision to move its Reno mail processing operations to California , it asked residents to share what they thought of the idea.
Their universal opposition — revealed in new Freedom of Information Act documents — appears not to have mattered in the face of projected financial benefits.
Terrible, crazy and stupid were common reactions to the plan.
“This idea for moving the processing facility's operations to Sacramento is insane,” reads a typical comment received by the USPS. “It will be expensive and energy wasting not to mention slowing down the delivery of the mail.”
Starting in a few months, USPS expects to move its Processing and Distribution Center on Vassar Street to Sacramento as part of a nationwide modernization plan that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says will save money and make the postal service more efficient.
One effect of the move will mean that a letter sent from one Reno address to another will go to California first before coming back to Northern Nevada.
The USPS had done a review of its Reno facility in January to see if a business case could be made for moving mail-processing operations to Sacramento.
“Public input will be considered as part of the review,” USPS said in a Jan. 10 notice-of-intent.
It gave a link to an online survey where people could offer comment. Hundreds did.
The Reno Gazette Journal examined much of the 136-page USPS document containing these online responses and could find no one in favor of the plan.
Patrick File acquired the public comments. He’s an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno’s journalism school and teaches a class on public records requests.
File first contacted the USPS on April 28. It fulfilled his request Wednesday, and he immediately shared the information with multiple news outlets.
Sample of public comments about moving Reno mail-processing operations
The responses are mostly polite. The word “please” is used 573 times.
“Please don't outsource our postal processing to Sacramento, an already highly populated area, to get lost and add much extra time to our mail processing and delivery,” a typical public comment reads. “It will add time, hardship, delays due to weather, and pollution to add these miles to something that could happen locally, providing local jobs and community feeling.”
Others expressed fear about delays in receiving medications, about legal documents not arriving in time and about harm to local businesses.
“The impact this has on local/small businesses is massive,” one person wrote. “The trickle-down effect would be absolutely devastating. I visit this post office a minimum of three times per week for my small business and it is always busy. I rely on delivery to outer NV areas via USPS as the most effective way to service my customers because it is typically the fastest and most reliable service. Driving/transporting anything to another state (especially in the winter months) is not only unreliable, it opens up opportunities for more errors, unsafe driving conditions, and more.”
A large majority of commenters brought up the weather. “Snow” is mentioned 203 times and “weather” 449 times.
“How does the Post Office think this will work with transporting our mail over (Interstate) 80 when a large snowstorm shuts it down till weather clears?” one person asks.
USPS response to release of public comments
The U.S. Postal Service considered these public comments when it reviewed the proposal to move Reno’s Processing & Distribution Center to California, spokesperson John Hyatt said.
But, he added, “The business case, as part of the Delivering for America Plan, supports transferring some mail processing operations to the Sacramento P&DC.”
USPS projects annual savings from the move of between $3.1 million and $4.2 million due to fewer employees and lower transportation and maintenance costs. It says most mail sent from within Northern Nevada goes to outside destinations, making it more efficient to sort the mail in Sacramento.
Hyatt said the move will not affect delivery times.
“Local mail is, and will continue to be, a two-to-three-day delivery product,” he said.
Sen. Rosen’s response to release of public comments
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, has said she doesn’t believe mail delivery will be unaffected and has repeatedly asked for any analysis the USPS has done regarding the move's effect on delivery times within Northern Nevada.
“Nevadans I’ve talked to have made it perfectly clear that they don’t want Washington bureaucrats to relocate their mail processing operations to Sacramento,” Rosen said in a statement to the RGJ.
“It’s a misguided decision that’ll hurt those who rely on the timely and reliable delivery of mail, and that’s why I’m continuing to push to pass my bipartisan bill with Congressman Amodei to stop this plan from being implemented.”
In June, she and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, proposed a bill that would block the move if USPS has failed to meet on-time delivery standards — something they say it has already done in Reno — or if the new processing facility is more than 125 miles from the existing one.
The Sacramento facility is about 140 miles away.
In July, members of the Postal Regulatory Commission testified that they support this legislative effort to provide greater oversight of the USPS’s attempts to relocate mail processing centers like the one in Reno.
When will Reno mail-processing operations move to Sacramento?
There’s not an exact timetable for the move to Sacramento, and the Rosen-Amodei bill — as well as a lawsuit by the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office — to block the move may delay things, but the project is slated to begin as soon as January.
“We have paused implementation of mail processing changes at the Reno P&DC until after the first of the year,” Hyatt said.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page .
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Records request reveals opposition to 'insane' and 'devastating' USPS Reno mail plans
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