Ossoff: Post office not a luxury, marred by 'execution debacle'

(The Center Square) — As a small business owner, Greg Teague sees firsthand how the woes of the United States Postal Service can affect business.

"I have never in my life encouraged so many of my clients to do wire transfers because I have no idea when an invoice check might show up in the mail," Teague, CEO of Croy Engineering, said during an "armchair chat" with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia. "It's a real, real problem."

Teague spoke with Ossoff, who has repeatedly raised concerns about the postal service's poor performance in metro Atlanta, during the Cobb Chamber of Commerce's Marquee Monday event at The Battery Atlanta near Smyrna.

"This is not … a luxury, it's not a convenience, it's a necessity," Ossoff said. "It's a necessity for businesses to operate, for basic financial transactions to be made, for businesses to get supplies, to get products to market, seniors getting their prescriptions — huge dependence on USPS to get medicine. Ballots — ballots arriving, participation in our democracy."

The senator said the USPS first class on time rate in North Georgia was 34% in mid-spring.

"Basically, the postmaster general decided that he wanted to transition to this new regional distribution center model anchored at the new facility in Palmetto at the same time as undertaking a bunch of other changes to the infrastructure in metro Atlanta," Ossoff said.

"It was a ... complete execution debacle. It was not thought through carefully. It was not planned well. There was nobody in charge," Ossoff added. "...This is not postal workers' fault. This is a management problem. Our postal workers are out there every day, hustling, making do with what they can to try to get the mail in on time. This was a classic management failure."

Ossoff noted that neither the president nor Congress can fire the postmaster general; only the USPS Board of Governors can jettison the service's leader. A USPS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.