Apparently Santa Monicans aren’t the only ones getting the run-around from the postal service. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has been pressuring the United Postal Service since December to fix the delays in mail deliveries. But his efforts have so far been in vain — minimal improvement has been made, despite USPS officials saying the problem has been fixed.
In response to numerous complaints from his constituents, Waxman wrote a letter earlier this month to the USPS’ inspector general asking him to conduct an investigation as to why mail delivery in Santa Monica is so slow. He also called on the USPS to come up with solutions to rectify poor mail service.
The problem was supposed to be solved by hiring more postal workers to help sort the mail and get it to carriers quicker. Post offices in Santa Monica were consolidated and mail routes were realigned. Those actions have reduced some complaints but there are still people who are not getting their mail.
The problem may boil down to one carrier in the Sunset Park neighborhood who apparently is being dealt with. Talk about one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch.
Just the other day a resident lamented (SMDP, Aug. 23, page 4) that her son missed out on attending the school of engineering at Vanderbillt University because the priority package announcing his acceptance — postmarked on March 23 — showed up in her mailbox on Aug. 21. The parent had just returned home from delivering her son to UC Berkeley.
That same parent said that another college acceptance letter had been delivered a few months ago to the wrong address. Fortunately, her neighbors brought the letter to her front doorstep.
We agree with her that there are many important documents that the post office should deliver reliably and in a timely manner. It is a basic community service and we shouldn’t have to rely upon Fed-Ex for it.
The USPS needs to reign in its personnel issues and get back to the task at hand: Delivering the mail on time. Our lives depend upon it.
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Mass exodus should be seen as an opportunity
Change is difficult but inevitable. And once it’s embraced, it should be used as an opportunity.
And that is exactly what City Manager Lamont Ewell is doing. New to the job himself, Ewell is dealing with several key positions within city government that have become vacant. Filling them with the right people while trying to get up to speed on the city’s pressing issues is certainly a daunting task. But Ewell is up for the challenge and believes it’s a great opportunity to be able to hire a new planning director, a new finance director, a new spokesperson at City Hall and a chief of police.
Not many managers are able in their first year to assemble their own team and Ewell recognizes that and feels fortunate that he can. Ewell has embraced the changing of the guard and we are confident he will hire the right people. Why? Because he is reaching out to the community to help him. Three panels comprised of residents, business leaders and high-ranking city officials will be assembled to help select a new police chief. A similar method was done in selecting a new assistant to the city manager, a key person in relating information to the public.
Change isn’t just occurring at City Hall. The leadership at Santa Monica College and at the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District has recently changed as well. A new college president was hired earlier this year and a new schools superintendent was hired last month.
There is great opportunity in this community right now to harness the new energy from those who have recently come to Santa Monica and those who will be coming here soon. It’s an opportunity to start fresh — to let go of some of the old baggage and resentment between City Hall and the schools on issues of funding and development here.
So our suggestions to the incoming regime ... To the new president at SMC: Do a better job of following up with the community regarding the institution’s growth and traffic plans. To the superintendent of schools: Her staff and school board need to provide more readily available information to the public and be upfront about the content of that information. To the new planning director: The rewriting of the general plan that is currently underway should not lose steam and needs to focus on how Santa Monica can be more creative in development while not losing our small-town character. Future development also needs to address the loss of the middle class in Santa Monica. To the police chief: While Santa Monica is experiencing a record low crime rate, quality-of-life issues pertaining to our vagrant population are serious and need to be addressed.
We look forward to seeing what these newcomers have up their sleeves and how they will make Santa Monica an even better place to live, play and work.
