I commend U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robert Weissman for speaking out about the abject failure of the U.S. Postal Service (“It’s not too late to revive the US Postal Service,” May 5).
Since Louis DeJoy has been in charge, the service has deteriorated significantly while prices have risen. It seems to be his mission to cause the end of this vital service — and he is succeeding!
I am not sure why DeJoy has not been replaced. It should have been one of the first orders of business of the current administration. It has come to the point in which the service is no longer trusted to deliver mail and packages in a timely manner. People are switching to other modes of paying bills and using other services for packages — which, of course, reduces revenue, which in turn causes rates to rise — and the downward spiral continues.
I assume that privatizing this service is DeJoy’s goal — but private companies will not deliver mail to less profitable areas, and prices will rise when profit is the only motive. The Postal Service is vital to our economy and to the daily privilege of having our mail delivered to our homes.
It is time to replace DeJoy with a postmaster general whose mission is to improve the Postal Service — not to kill it.
— Carol Kraines, Deerfield
Postal system used to be great
I totally agree with the assessment of Louis DeJoy’s failure at the Postal Service.
I have been doing online sales for 10 years. Our postal system is outstanding — every home and business across this country is mapped out. I used to be amazed that a package sitting on my kitchen table in Chicago on a Wednesday would arrive on a Los Angeles doorstep on Friday afternoon. The tracking system was phenomenal; I could see my package literally moving across the country to its destination.
That all changed in 2020 with DeJoy’s arrival. My packages were going on crazy roundabout routes — a box for Chicago to New Jersey was going to Indianapolis first? A package to South Carolina was going to Florida first?
The best was a box from Chicago to Detroit that took this route: Chicago to Massachusetts to Washington to Anchorage, Alaska, and finally to Detroit. Does that sound right? At least I knew it was somewhere.
But now, staffing has been cut. I leave my box at the post office, and they throw it on the truck, and sometimes it gets scanned along the way and sometimes not. Sometimes, my package has no activity for five days, then all of a sudden: “delivered.”
We have this fabulous tracking system, and it is not being used. Now we have to pay even more for this lack of service.
In all other sectors of society, if you are failing at your job, you are fired. DeJoy needs to be removed.
— Irene Kazenas, Oak Brook
What would they do differently?
With their op-ed, a U.S. representative and the president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen give us 13 paragraphs of virtually nothing. They say over and over that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is not doing a good job and now wants to raise postage prices again. Anyone buying stamps knows the price we pay keeps going up, but the op-ed provides no ideas for how to reduce costs without cutting employees. Combining two postal offices sounds reasonable, if delivery is not affected. What are the alternatives?
Do our authors have any suggestions that would lower our stamp prices? Tell us what the annual Postal Service budget has been for the past 10 years, why each year costs have gone up and what could be done to reduce cost without damaging performance.
In other words, if either of these authors was appointed as postmaster general, what would he do to lower costs without harming quality of delivery? The authors even ask: “What’s the solution?”
Their only solution is to put new people in charge — but exactly what would new people do?
— Robert Tingler, Palatine
Tier 2 pensions need fix now
The op-ed “Time for Illinois to pass a sensible Tier 2 pensions fix,” written by Derek Douglas, Joe Ferguson and David Greising, admits that Illinois has a pension problem that needs to be readdressed.
When the Illinois General Assembly created a Tier 2 pension plan for employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2011, it fell short in many ways. The current challenge is the Internal Revenue Service’s rule on “safe harbor,” which requires that any pension plan replacing Social Security must offer benefits that are at least equal to what Social Security would have paid. As it has turns out, the Tier 2 plan generally fails to meet that requirement — unless the state makes changes to address this inequity.
Illinois faces the prospect of costly legal action by the federal government. We believe these changes need to be made, and changes that meet criteria to comply with federal law are not “pension sweeteners” but are a prudent policy to protect taxpayer dollars.
The state’s pension systems remain woefully underfunded. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has begun to remedy this by fully paying the existing required pension obligation each year, plus an additional sum to pay down the debt. His proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 not only continues these payments but also restructures the pension debt in a way that will eventually make the pension systems sound, with Illinois’ pension systems fully funded by 2048. The State Universities Annuitants Association applauds these proposals. However, we must also acknowledge more needs to be done to address the inability of Tier 2 pension plans to meet the federal standard.
SUAA and its members advocate for recognition that our members’ earned pensions and benefits remain constitutionally protected. SUAA has used legislative action and even litigation to protect these promised benefits. Additionally, SUAA has regularly called for necessary Tier 2 improvements, such as reducing the vesting period, restructuring the annual cost-of-living adjustment increment and modifying the early retirement reduction. It is necessary and prudent to reform Tier 2 now to meet the state’s legal obligation rather than prolonging the agony and cost of delay.
Under Pritzker’s leadership, Illinois has been able to repair its credit rating. Borrowing costs have been substantially reduced simply by paying bills when payments are due. Illinois has an opportunity to apply those successful principles to the Tier 2 problem.
Illinois’ Tier 2 pension fund promise needs to be fixed — immediately.
— Steve Cunningham, Cris Milliken, Betty Zeedyk and Larry Kloc, State Universities Annuitants Association
Police are not superhuman
I respectfully disagree with the Rev. Pamela Rumancik of Bull Valley, Illinois (“How police can regain trust,” May 5). Apparently, the good reverend believes that when someone places a sign in their front yard pertaining to the thin blue line, it means that the “police are the last line of defense against the dregs of humanity.”
That sign means that that person proudly supports the police.
Retiring as a lieutenant after 32 years with the sheriff’s police, I for one support the police and not because I was one but because of the complete and total disrespect shown by the public as of late. The police don’t arbitrarily decide who to “protect and serve.” They protect and serve the public.
Police officers are not superhuman. Police are only a mirror of society. We suffer the same as everyone else in society. We may have siblings, spouses or children who run afoul of the law. We have family relations who are victims of crime, and we have become victims of crimes.
I will not be so naive as to say we the police are perfect because we are not. Police departments across the nation are having a difficult time hiring new recruits due to the the simple fact that the job is dangerous. Imagine making a split-second decision, and then someone with many more seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc., deciding your life and career regarding your split-second decision. Doesn’t sound fair, does it? Police officers do that every single day they work.
There are bad apples in every career field. Try to remember that police officers are merely mirrors of society.
In regards to Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, he is doing his job. Police officers, as well as every citizen, are entitled to the presumption of innocent until they are proved guilty. Catanzara’s job is akin an attorney’s in that he is defending his members.
As the saying goes: Don’t judge someone until you have walked in their shoes.
— Jerry Casserly, Crete, Illinois
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