Rep. Bates Seeks Postal Service Investigation in Wake of Deaths

Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) said Monday that he has asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the U.S. Postal Service and pay “particular attention to San Diego County post offices.”

Since an Aug. 10 shooting rampage in which an Escondido postal worker killed his wife and two co-workers before fatally wounding himself, Bates said he has received hundreds of calls from San Diego County and around the country “demanding that something be done about the Postal Service.”

Bates also called for the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee’s subcommittee on investigations, chaired by Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), to launch an inquiry into the management practices of San Diego County Postmaster Margaret Sellers. Bates cited four suicides and two murders that have occurred among the county’s postal workers in 1989.

Sellers’ spokesman, Mike Cannone, said Sellers “welcomes any investigation initiated by Congress or the Postal Service.”

“She feels confident that there is nothing to fear,” he said.

Bates said he is concerned that the growth of San Diego County and fiscal restrictions on the Postal Service have created an “intolerable situation.”

“My hope is that an inquiry will demonstrate that budget freezes have not allowed the Postal Service in one of the country’s fastest-growing counties to do the job that needs to be done,” Bates said. “My attempt is not to undermine management morale or worker morale. I just want to get to the bottom of this.”