Stamp of Approval

The welcome came by special delivery: a hug in the middle of the world’s largest mail room.

New Los Angeles Postmaster Al Iniguez received the warm greeting from Donald Ward--his first post office boss 24 years ago.

“I’ve followed your progress over the years!” Ward shouted above the noise of the sorting machines and conveyor belts that fill the million-square-foot mail distribution center on Central Avenue, south of downtown. “I’m not surprised to see you here.”

Iniguez was fresh out of Belmont High School in 1973 when he landed a job as a part-time postal clerk and worked for Ward.

Now 41, Iniguez is the youngest postmaster of a major city in the United States. And he is one of only three postmasters in the country to hold the additional job of regional postal district manager.

Iniguez was named Los Angeles postmaster Jan. 3. He was taking an impromptu tour of the huge mail distribution center the other day when he bumped into Ward, one of its managers.

For a few moments the pair reminisced about the old days, when Iniguez sorted parcels for Ward--and about the time the two found themselves caught in a Christmas blizzard of third-class packages.

“We were at the old Cheli truck terminal in Bell and trainloads of Parcel Post boxes of cheese and sausage and fruit were coming in,” Iniguez said.

Ward laughed. “You came in with your brothers and took care of it,” he said.

Actually, it was a 20-man crew of young postal clerks, working under Iniguez at Ward’s direction, that handled the half-million-parcel flood of perishables that passed through the terminal each day during that Christmas season.

Many of those on Iniguez’s crew were 10 years older than he was. But they easily took orders from him.

“I think that was the turning point for me,” Iniguez said.

“Until then I’d thought I’d be here for a few months and then I’d go on to college and pursue my dream of becoming a CPA. I found out that the post office is more than just delivering the mail.”

Iniguez, a native of the Pico-Union area, continued working at the post office as he took courses at East Los Angeles City College, Cal State L.A. and the University of Phoenix.

In his new job, Iniguez will be under pressure to boost the Postal Service’s presence in Los Angeles by convincing more members of the rapidly growing small-business community to come to him instead of competitors such as United Parcel Service, Federal Express and Roadway Package System.

He has done that before. In his last job as district manager for the Santa Ana postal region, Iniguez brought in new commercial bulk mail and Express Mail customers to raise the district’s revenues last year to $959 million. That 7% increase made the district the Postal Service’s top revenue generator for California and Hawaii.

In contrast, the Los Angeles district brought in about $500 million last year.

The man who selected Iniguez, Jesse Durazo, the top postal official for the California-Hawaii area, said Iniguez’s “ability to improve a very complex and difficult operating environment will be a tremendous asset” to Los Angeles.

Durazo, a San Pedro native, was Los Angeles postmaster for five years before being promoted last month to the California-Hawaii post.

Iniguez made it clear that he intends to approach his new job like a business executive, not a bureaucrat.

The 65 local post offices scattered across the 900-series Los Angeles ZIP Code area are “retail outlets” in his view. And service is what he calls the “product” that is being offered for sale.

“This is a business. This company needs to be successful. I want to expand our retail,” he said.

“I’m going to take us to another level. We can help the economy of Los Angeles. We can help the mom and pop outlets grow.”

About 11,000 postal workers are involved in the delivery of 10 million pieces of mail daily to 3.6 million residences and 95,000 businesses in Iniguez’s jurisdiction.

Iniguez’s previous Postal Service administrative jobs included stints in Miami, Van Nuys and San Jose. He lives in Laguna Hills with his wife, Josephine, and daughters Stephanie, 16, and Kristie, 7.

Besides stealing commercial delivery business away from competitors, Iniguez hopes to do things like cut the wait in post office lines to five minutes or less.

He also wants to get all local mail posted by 5 p.m. delivered the next day. The current next-day delivery rate is about 94%--slightly higher than the national average.

To Iniguez, that’s not pushing the envelope.