The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 53, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1999 Page: 2 of 24
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opinion
USPS rate hike flunks smell test
¥ HE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE is
I celebrating the New Year and its virtual mail
monopoly by sending first class stamp prices soaring
like a bouquet of helium-filled balloons. For33-cents
each, these new stamps should come pre-licked—if
for no other reason than to reassure postal customers
that they are indeed paying for real service.
The rate hike is expected to translate into an
additional billion dollars in annual revenue to the
Postal Service. It was requested less than a year ago
when postal officials claimed that a projected loss of
$1.1 billion during the 1998 fiscal year warranted an
increase. Instead, the USPS rang up record annual
profits of more than $1 billion for the third consecu-
tive year, in spite of steadily declining on-time deliv-
eries of first-class mail.
Second-class mail fared no better. An unprece-
dented number of our subscribers registered com-
76e &uuzdaXK
RECORD
INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 1998
USPS 087-940
P.O. Box 898, Canadian (Hemphill) Texas 79014
Fax #:(806)323-5738
E-mail address: lrbrawn@weH.com
BEN EZZELL Editor & Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor & Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN
Editor
JENNIFER BROWN Advertising Manager
STAFF:
Kim McKinney, Cathy Ricketts, Leslie Fry
Mary Smithee, Gabriel Brown, Greta Bass
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Laurie Ezzell Brown
-m-
Penodicals postage paid at the Post Office in
Canadian. Texas. Published each Thursday after-
noon in Canadian by Nancy M. Ezzell.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Canadian Record, Box 896, Canadian, TX 79014
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$ 20/Year in HemphIH County
$ 25/Year in adjoining counties
530/Year elsewhere
plaints about newspaper deliveries this year. Our
out-of-town readers complained about everything
from sporadic delivery—in which several weeks’
newspapers were delivered en masse or out of
chronological order, if delivered at all—to receipt of
newspapers with the inside pages missing, placing us
in the unusual position o( having to apologize for a
‘gutless’ newspaper.
We, too, are facing increases in mailing rates.
Recent postal sorting and certification requirements
have been difficult to comprehend, and costly to com-
ply with. We hope that our compliance will result in
better service to our subscribers, but remain stub-
bornly skeptical considering our experiences thus
far.
Feeling the pinch of a mere billion dollar profit,
the Postal Senice gave outgoing postmaster general
Marvin Runyon a posh farewell dinner at Union
Station recently. It featured embossed invitations
with special stamps highlighting Runyon’s career, a
$5,000 video recalling his career and party favors for
the guests in the form of specially engraved enve-
lopes bearing Runyon’s noble countenance
Although apparently not on the gala’s guest list,
we taxpayers picked up the tab for it to the cool tune
of 120 G's.
It is the Postal Rate Commission’s job to oversee
this quasi-govemmental corporation’s work. The
rate hike passed under their noses first and, in spite
of the obvious stench of those self-serving but grossly
inaccurate projected losses, it was “reluctantly" ap-
proved. The commission argued that it was forced to
acquiesce because federal regulations do not allow
the necessary review of Postal Service bonks to get a
clear fiscal picture.
So what’s the point of a Commission, anyway—if
not simply to bilk the taxpayer out of a few more
hard-earned dollars?
The new postmaster general, William G. Hender-
son, promises 2l“ century postal reforms, mention-
ing such buzz words as “deregulation of the postal
monopoly” and a “more dynamic competitive envi-
ronment.” Henderson wisely recognizes—as surely
Runyon must have when he decided to retire—the
increasing competition posed by the Internet and
commercial package delivery services.
Whether Henderson's brave new world of postal
service will come to pass—and whether it will actu-
ally benefit the average postal customer—remains to
be seen. But as an act of good faith, Henderson might
offer to use some of those enormous profits he’s
inherited to buy the Postal Rate Commission a new-
set of teeth, and a rubber stamp to use on future rate
increases that says “Return to Sender."
IF THE INTERLOCAL agreement between City and County officials
turning over tax collection duties to the County Tax Office two years
ago sounded too good to be true, it may well be because it was. It was
too good to be true, and too simple to possibly work without complica-
tions.
It was also cheap. Dirt cheap, we learn in retrospect. The services
the County Tax Collector provided for just $900 a year will now cost
$17,000, according to terms of the contract the City signed with Cana-
dian ISD, which assumes those duties for the year just begun.
We learned last week that County Tax Assessor Gladene Woodside
had neglected to pay more than $50,000 in fees to the law firm respon-
sible for collecting the City's and County’s delinquent taxes. The pay-
ments had previously been made on a monthly basis to the law firm of
Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins and Mott. The last regular payment
was made in January of 1996, and the payments ceased altogether four
months later.
Curiously, the lapse was not discovered until the City began prepar-
ing to transfer its tax records to the school district In an effort to
determine whether there were any outstanding bills. City Finance
Director Beth Briant contacted the law firm and learned—much to her
surprise—that no payment had been made since early 1996.
Even more curiously, the tax attorney? had failed to notice that no
payments had been made for either the County or City for nearly three
years. Kevin Brennan, a partner in the law firm of Perdue, Brandon et
al, was a bit chagrined when I asked about the error by phone this week.
He admitted that his firm shared responsibility for the oversight, and
explained that their clients had always paid on an honor system. No
bills were sent out, he said, because only the tax collection agencies
knew when delinquent taxes had been received, at which point the tax
attorneys were owed 15% of any collections.
For the record, the County Tax Office quickly paid the bill as soon
as they were notified of the error. Brennan said his firm was satisfied
that the matter had been resolved.
While Brennan may lie satisfied, I'm not so certain that we should
be. There are questions that remain.
While $50,000 may be just a blip on the County’s radar screen—and
was apparently loo insignificant an amount to catch the attention of the
law firm—it is still a chunk of change for which there should have been
some accounting. 1 asked Ms Woodside how such an oversight could
have occurred. She explained that when she tried unsuccessfully to
reconcile the account in which the money was deposited, “I was just
thinking something hadn't cleared yet.”
Since I am a habitual offender of reconciled checking accounts, I
can understand Ms. Woodside’.? rationale. But my checking account
rarely exceeds three figures, and it’s really nobody's business but mine
and the bank's when our numbers don’t match.
Ms. Woodside has been entrusted by the voters of this County with
handling public funds, ami as such, is responsible for tracking not one,
but seven bank accounts. She should hold herself to a much higher
standard. One month maybe , but after a couple of years, I’d have to
start asking myself where that extra money really belonged.
How does an elected official with fiscal responsibility for public
funds overlook nearly three years of what had been monthly payments?
Ms. Woodside explained that, in her absence one month, the payment
was not made. And then? “It just slipped through," she said. “Heaven
only knows what happened. It just wasn’t one of the ones I wrote."
Heaven and the County Tax Collector oughta' know better. Sure,
we all make mistakes. But I would be a whole lot less concerned with
this one if Gladene Woodside were a whole lot more so.
I HE CARE OF THE EARTH is our most ancient and most
I worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To
cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only
legitimate hope.
V_ J
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 53, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1999, newspaper, January 7, 1999; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth747259/m1/2/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.