Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/60083
Page 4 Thursday, March 29, 2012 Postal Service solution: Cut costs not service EDITOR'S NOTE – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, spoke in support of S. 1789: 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012. The measure's sta- tus was failed cloture at press time. Collins, a co-sponsor of the bill, is the ranking mem- ber of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where the bill has been referred. An excerpt of her speech fol- lows. Visit hspa.com to read her remarks in their entirety. T he Majority Leader has indicated that the Senate may soon turn to legislation to reform an American institution, the United States Postal Service Our Founding Fathers recognized the importance of having a Postal Service. Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution gives Congress the power to establish post offices. The Postal Service is also required by law to provide, as nearly as practicable, the "entire population of the United States" with "adequate and efficient postal services at fair and reasonable rates." This is called the universal mandate and ensures that the Postal Service cannot leave rural states or small towns behind. The Postal Service, which has delivered mail to gen- eration after generation of Americans, will not be able to make payroll some- time this fall, accord- ing to the Postmaster General him- self. In the past like the one in Bucksport, Maine, which provides paper for Time magazine. The crisis facing the Postal U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine two years alone, the Postal Service has lost $13.6 billion, and first-class mail volume has dropped 26 percent since 2006. No one wants the mail to stop later this year. That means that we must pass a bill. The U.S. Postal Service is the linchpin of a mailing industry that employs more than 8.5 million people and generates almost $1 trillion in economic activity every year. Virtually everyone – from big retailers to small busi- nesses to online shops – relies on the Postal Service to deliver packages, advertise services and send out bills. The jobs of American in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, and paper manufacturing all are linked to a healthy Postal Service. Nearly 38,000 Mainers work in jobs related to the mailing industry, including thousands at our pulp and paper mills Service is dire, but not hope- less. With the right tools and action from Congress, the Obama Administration, and the Postal leadership, the Postal Service can reform, right-size and modernize. My colleagues, Senators Lieberman, Carper, Brown, and I have crafted legislation to update the Postal Service's business model and give it the tools it needs to survive and succeed. We have introduced a bipartisan bill that will help the Postal Service reduce operating costs, modernize its business model, and innovate to generate new revenue. However, the Postmaster General and I fundamentally disagree on how to save the U.S. Postal Service. He con- tinues to make decisions that will severely degrade service and drive away customers. It is clear we have two very different visions on how best to help the Postal Service. While each of us wants to ensure the Postal Service is set on a sustainable path, I fear Mr. Donahoe's approach would shrink the Postal Service to a level that will ulti- mately hasten its insolvency. The current plan by the Postal Service to slow first- class mail, close facilities, and ignore Congress flies in the face of the good faith we extended during the many months we have worked on the reform bill. We worked hand in hand over a number of months with the Postmaster General to craft a bill that would save the Postal Service money in a way that prioritized the lifeblood of the mail – mailers and the service around which business mailers have built their business models and around which individual cus- tomers have developed their mailing habits. Despite these negotiations, the Postmaster General has pushed ahead with plans to abandon current mail service standards in favor of reduced access, slower delivery times, and higher prices, which will force many customers to pur- sue delivery alternatives. If those adjustments involve shifting to non-postal options in even a minority of cases – say 10 percent or 20 percent, the Postal Service would face an irreversible catastrophe. Once customers turn to other communication options and leave the mail system, they won't be coming back, and the Postal Service will be sucked into a death spiral. HSPA Hotline From The Herald Republican (Angola), the South Bend Tribune and The Times (Munster): Q A We have a local short- line railroad asking for a loan from Steuben County's Major Moves transportation fund (proceeds from the toll road lease). The loan sought is a $1.25 million, interest-free 10-year note. For the loan to happen, the county will need financials from the railroad, Indiana Northeastern Railroad, a privately held company. The county attorney said these documents would not be disclosed to the public. We have public money being loaned to a private business for a track- upgrade project. Fine. But the public cannot see the com- pany's financials? Does this fall under economic-development exclusions? When the company provides docu- ments to the county, do they not become public record? It took a little digging into Major Moves legislation to see where this falls. IC 8-14-16 discusses local Major Moves construction funds. After distribution, the fiscal officer of the county, city or town that has received the money administers the funds. The only real direction included in the law is IC 8-14-16-5, which describes the uses eligible for the entity to spend the money. There are no provisions outlining the request and approval process. That throws the records question back to the Access to Public Records Act. Unfortunately, I believe the finan- cial information of the short-line rail- road, a private business, falls under IC 5-14-3-4(a)(5), which mandates the public agency keep secret "confiden- tial financial information obtained, upon request, from a person. However, this does not include information that is filed with or received by a public agency pursuant to state statute." No statute requires the county to ask for the financial information, so unless the information is something that is already public – like an annu- al report of a publicly traded company – the county would violate the law in making the company's confidential information available for inspection or copying. Q Fayetteville Observer's Platinum TV ad package exceeded revenue goal in less than a week! We've had an issue come up with a local school cor- poration in which there is some apparent discord between the superintendent and the school board president in terms of what items from the packet that board members receive are legally required to be shared with the media. I believe everything in the packet should be available. But the main issue is that the superintendent is refusing to provide anything and is deferring to the board president, who has so far been compliant with our requests. It leads us to wonder who has the legal responsibility to provide that information to the media, the school administration or the board? We're concerned that if the board president is unavailable or absent from a certain meeting, we won't have access to information we want. A The Access to Public Records Act does not specify any individual or title as being responsible for gener- al records requests. This is a dispute between the two school officials. All you can do is make the requests of the superintendent, and if she denies the request, take the next legal step necessary to get the school corporation to comply. As to what from the packet should be made available, the assumption is always that records should be avail- able for inspection and copying unless they fall under a statute that requires or gives the public agency the discre- tion to keep them confidential. With the packet, there could be docu- ments concerning items to be discussed during an executive session, which the school board could keep confidential. Without publishing anything new, the Fayetteville Observer ad package created new, year-long revenue in just one week! Contact Advantage Newspaper Consultants today to learn more about creating NEW annual revenue with your existing core products. Ask us about our digital editions! 910-323-0349 | info@newspaperconsultants.com | www.newspaperconsultants.com TRAINING Continued from Page 1 will use the generic code. The training program focus- es on three fundamentals: advertising, prospecting and consultative media sales. A panel of Indiana newspa- per advertising directors selected Media $ales Basics from other training pro- For example, records concerning alleged misconduct of an employee could be kept confidential. Q A What is the policy on edu- cation institutions running ads under a Help Wanted header in the classified sec- tion? Career/vocational schools need to be accredited by the Indiana Commission on Proprietary Education. Once accredited, the school is assigned an advertising code that must be included in advertising. IC 21-17-3-18 prohibits these schools from acting in a fraudulent, deceptive manner or misrepresenting themselves. They also can't promise employ- ment will occur if someone takes their classes unless they have a contract for the individual to be employed upon completion of the course. The question isn't whether the schools advertise under a Help Wanted header but what the ad says. Is it deceptive or misrepresenting what the offer is? That would violate the law. Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, with media law questions at skey@ hspa.com or (317) 624-4427. grams available. Through an agreement with AdMall, HSPA members may use the program for their Indiana newspapers as often as they like in 2012. Each newspaper can name an administrator who can view all activity for the paper. Newspaper staffs can watch a video about the pro- gram at www.mediasales basics.com. What do I mean when I say businesses will adjust their business model? Companies large and small that rely on the mail tell me that if service continues to deteriorate, they will conduct more business online and encourage their customers to switch to online services for bill-paying and other transac- tions. Other businesses, such as small newspapers or phar- macy suppliers, have told me that they would seek non-postal delivery options, such as for local delivery and transport services. Again, let's assume only a small fraction of businesses change their operations by shifting to these online or non-postal options – it could still spell the end for the U.S. mail system. For every 5 percent drop in First Class Mail volume, the Postal Service loses $1.6 bil- lion in revenue. That's why the downsizing of the labor force and excess capacity that the postmaster general states is so critical to saving the Postal Service must be carried out in a way that preserves service and does not inflict avoidable harm on these dedicated workers. Visit hspa.com to read the speech in its entirety.