Camden Council Probes Mail Delays

CAMDEN, N.J. - A Fox 29 investigation looking into claims the postal service in Camden delayed an important city mailing just to save money, prompted strong action on Tuesday by the Camden city council.

It was two weeks ago when we Fox 29 reported how the postal service in Camden, in an attempt to save money on overtime, allegedly held up thousands of pieces of certified mail sent out by the city.

Now, the city council president wants to know if the allegation is true, and he's calling for an investigation to find out.

The first class, certified mail, which was sent out by the Camden city clerk's office, cost more than $20,000 and contained information about the city's Kramer Hill neighborhood and an up-coming public hearing.

The 3,000 envelopes should have been delivered to Camden residents the day after they were received by the Postal Service.

However, several postal workers told us much of the mail was delayed because management balked at paying carriers the overtime needed to get the job done.

A tracking analysis by Fox 29 showed that only 23 percent of the mail was delivered or attempted to be delivered on the first day. Another 70 percent took three or more days to get out the door.

On Tuesday, Camden city council president Francisco Moran introduced a resolution calling for the creation of an ad hoc investigatory committee to get to the bottom of what he calls "the late delivery issues."

Moran also wants the city administration to look into the matter and seek reimbursement from the postal service for "any delivery services not performed."

"We're in a financial crisis in the city of Camden and $20,000, $30,000 is an enormous amount of money in our budget, and the fact that we had an obligation legally to provide a notice to the individuals and we trusted the United States Postal Service to do their job, and unfortunately i don't think that was the case,” Moran said.

Vote on the resolution by the full council is expected next week.

When we called the Postal Service, a spokesperson told us it doesn't comment on "pending" resolutions.

So we'll call again next week when council President Moran expects his colleagues to approve his call for a full investigation.