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Biden replaces Ron Bloom on USPS Board (tweets) (Original Post) FelineOverlord Aug 2022 OP
For DOG's sake and all that is "holy," can we get rid of DeJoy, now? hlthe2b Aug 2022 #1
Yes, PLEASE. nt crickets Aug 2022 #2
DeJoy needs to be in de jail for destruction of government property. Hermit-The-Prog Aug 2022 #3
Seriously. ananda Aug 2022 #4
We should mail him home with a label clearly stating the contents of the box. Hermit-The-Prog Aug 2022 #7
Lol. Good one! ananda Aug 2022 #8
Definitely Rebl2 Aug 2022 #9
you said it! Takket Aug 2022 #15
the sorting equipment stopdiggin Aug 2022 #19
The Board itself has to do it and Bloom was one of the blocks BumRushDaShow Aug 2022 #11
+ 1,000 nt pazzyanne Aug 2022 #18
dejoy needing dehoosegow sprinkleeninow Aug 2022 #5
My father was postmaster in my small hometown Novara Aug 2022 #6
Cool! MyOwnPeace Aug 2022 #10
After my Mom died and I was cleaning out her house to sell, I found Dad's ... Novara Aug 2022 #12
what they all said . hear , hear.make it so. AllaN01Bear Aug 2022 #13
I read he's laying off 50,000 workers and wants to "set up an election" delivery system kimbutgar Aug 2022 #14
"I hope Biden fires him ASAP." Tarheel_Dem Aug 2022 #25
Twitter reply: Rhiannon12866 Aug 2022 #16
These tweets are in error. former9thward Aug 2022 #17
thanks (again). stopdiggin Aug 2022 #20
You can, perhaps forget about DeJoy getting the sack atm Celerity Aug 2022 #21
I'm confused. Ron Bloom was removed in 2021 and spooky3 Aug 2022 #22
I looked but can't find a public agenda. But here's what I did find: summer_in_TX Aug 2022 #23
Too bad there can't be protests outside the meeting demanding DeJoy be kicked out FelineOverlord Aug 2022 #24

Takket

(21,425 posts)
15. you said it!
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 08:39 PM
Aug 2022

honestly i cannot believe he just got away with that, and no one did anything. he was ordering sorting equipment destroyed to slow down absentee ballots for drumpf. And, like, that's just fine???????

stopdiggin

(11,095 posts)
19. the sorting equipment
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 09:06 PM
Aug 2022

was not really related, in any significant way, to mail in ballots. DeJoy monkey-wrenched on a lot of levels - and service clearly suffered - but the machines you point to were always kind of a diversion, and a convenient scapegoat.

BumRushDaShow

(127,317 posts)
11. The Board itself has to do it and Bloom was one of the blocks
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 07:59 PM
Aug 2022

(despite being a " (D) " (in quotes))

He's gone and the latest 2 were confirmed in May.

Here are specifics about what can and cannot be done - https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/bidens-usps-picks-confirmed-s-dejoy-rcna28689

I think there's another vacancy also up Dec. 8 for a (D) seat so hopefully they can be re-upped or they will remain until a new (D) nominee is confirmed (and it probably wouldn't be right away).

Novara

(5,754 posts)
6. My father was postmaster in my small hometown
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 07:09 PM
Aug 2022

I'm sure the entire DeJoy saga has him spinning in his grave.

(I have a large framed and signed official certificate from Lyndon Johnson appointing him as postmaster hanging in my basement, heh.)

MyOwnPeace

(16,888 posts)
10. Cool!
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 07:57 PM
Aug 2022

Back 'in the day' when civil servants were proud of their job and committed to 'doing the right thing.'

Kinda' like Joe......

Novara

(5,754 posts)
12. After my Mom died and I was cleaning out her house to sell, I found Dad's ...
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 08:04 PM
Aug 2022

... certificate of interim Postmaster appointment and then the official one when he became permanent Postmaster, signed by Lyndon Johnson. They were both framed. That's how proud my Dad was of his civil service. I'm sure he hung them up in his office.

His civil service also paid my Mom a monthly annuity from 1977 when my father died until 2018, when she died.

Civil service was an honorable thing.

Dad sometimes went into the PO on Saturdays if he needed to catch up on work. We were little, and the PO wasn't open on Saturdays so he kept the lights low. Sometimes he'd let me and one of my sisters come with. I have very fond memories of pushing each other around in those canvas mail carts in a dimly lit mailroom. To this day, stepping inside any PO and smelling the paper, ink, etc brings it all back.

I am a Postmaster's daughter. What DeJoy has been doing infuriates me. It feels like he's attacked my family.

kimbutgar

(20,882 posts)
14. I read he's laying off 50,000 workers and wants to "set up an election" delivery system
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 08:27 PM
Aug 2022

Meaning. Those mail in ballots could be lost.

I hope Biden fires him ASAP.

Tarheel_Dem

(31,211 posts)
25. "I hope Biden fires him ASAP."
Sun Aug 7, 2022, 07:02 AM
Aug 2022

If only he could. The POTUS can't fire the PM General. The PMG is selected by the Board of Governors, and it is they who will have to remove him. I know it's hard to believe after Trump, but there are limitations to the president's power.

former9thward

(31,805 posts)
17. These tweets are in error.
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 08:50 PM
Aug 2022

Ron Bloom has been long gone. The Board has met and meets once a month. They have met many times since Bloom left. They have open meetings several times a year including the one in August.

https://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/briefings/welcome.htm

Celerity

(42,668 posts)
21. You can, perhaps forget about DeJoy getting the sack atm
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 09:40 PM
Aug 2022

It is likely based off faulty logic, as it assumes that just because there are 5 Biden nominees that means they will vote for sure to remove him. That is not the case for sure at all.





Will The New Postal Board Fire Louis DeJoy?

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/will-the-new-postal-board-fire-louis-dejoy/

snip

The Trumpists: 5 Sure Votes To Keep DeJoy

All four Trump-era board members (including Democrat Lee Moak, who has backed DeJoy’s agenda and refused to tell Congressman Bill Pascrell whether he supports firing DeJoy) are likely to remain in the “keep DeJoy” camp. None of them spoke out or took action against DeJoy over the last two years (Duncan and Martinez, who have been at USPS longer than DeJoy, voted to hire him in the first place), so don’t expect them to have a sudden change of heart now.

Kan, as I wrote for this blog last month, is almost certain to join them. Before joining the Postal Board, Kan was an aide to Mitch McConnell. As a top political appointee in the Trump Department of Transportation, Kan even helped McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao abuse her powers for personal gain on multiple occasions. Between his stints in government, Kan has racked up a litany of revolving-door corporate ties, from infamous consulting giant Bain & Co to anti-worker rideshare giant Lyft to private equity and real estate firms like Oaktree Capital and Toll Brothers. During his confirmation hearing for the Postal Board – shared with Tangherlini – Kan avoided expressing any desire to fire DeJoy and only made vague pledges to examine some of his policies. Together, the Trump Four plus Kan will likely give DeJoy the minimum 5 Board votes he needs to keep his job and block efforts to replace him. But it gets worse – even non-Republican Biden-nominees on the Board can’t be counted on to be members of the “Dump DeJoy” camp.

The Weak-Willed Biden Nominees: 2 Likely Votes For DeJoy

Dan Tangherlini, as I wrote for this blog last month, has several red flags in his record, starting with his co-founding of EdBuild, an educational services firm that collapsed amid a DC municipal government ethics scandal over a $57.2m no-bid contract to renovate DC Public Schools. Tangherlini also boasts the dubious distinction of having led the General Services Administration (GSA) when the agency awarded Donald Trump a lease to convert DC’s Old Post Office Building into the Trump D.C. hotel. While it is unfair to blame Tangherlini for being unable to predict what Trump would become, it is fair to ask why Tangherlini did not deny the lease on the grounds that Trump already had numerous bankruptcies to his name, had previously been sued for racial discrimination, and regularly stiffed his workers. A 2016 Buzzfeed News investigation, quoting GSA insiders, alleged that agency leadership had months to pull out of the deal after Trump abruptly changed the project’s design team and financial midway through negotiations, but chose not to out of a desire to avoid undoing months of work or picking a public fight with Donald Trump. Tangherlini also drew the ire of federal contract workers during his time at GSA, who stated he seemed “unlikely to help” combat wage theft in GSA-owned buildings. Tangherlini, a former real estate executive, has also made a troubling pitch to explore “efficiencies in postal real estate” since being named to the Postal Board (a privatization-friendly move that would likely secure DeJoy’s support). Like Kan, Tangherlini has avoided expressing any desire to fire DeJoy.

Public statements from another Biden nominee, independent vote-by-mail advocate Amber McReynolds, do not inspire confidence in her willingness to stand up to DeJoy. Despite what her background might suggest, McReynolds has been surprisingly gracious to DeJoy, whose logistical changes wrought havoc on mail-in-voting during the 2020 election. In an MSNBC interview last August, McReynolds offered vague praise for DeJoy’s privatization-friendly 10-year plan for USPS, saying only it “had significant multidimensional solutions and programs in it.” Worse, when asked about whether DeJoy should remain as Postmaster General or if there were plans to fire him, she told anchor Geoff Bennett that she “could not give you a direct answer at this point” and that plans to fire DeJoy “were not currently on the table.” Just last month, when asked about DeJoy’s involvement in the USPS’ commendable plan to mail Covid-19 tests (though notably, DeJoy owns stock in test-maker Abbott Laboratories), McReynolds praised his “logistics experience” as “crucial to the success of that project”.

snip



https://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/1.12.22-Lexington-Issue-Brief.pdf

January 12, 2022 (but all the current names were already known then)

A host of progressive activists, including Senators Sanders, Warren, and Baldwin and dozens of members of Congress have called for the firing of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a one-time major fundraiser and megadonor for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. With the likely confirmation of Biden’s two pending appointments, five members of the Board of Governors that select the Postmaster General will have been appointed by President Biden and four by President Trump.

So why won’t DeJoy be gone?

When fully constituted, there are nine members of the Board of Governors who vote on the hiring decision. There are currently eight such governors and one vacancy. One of 2 those current governors, appointed by President Trump, would be replaced by a Biden nominee upon Senate confirmation. Two of the current eight Governors voted against naming Ron Bloom, a DeJoy supporter, as chairman of the Board of Governors at a November 10 meeting. That, however, is far different than the more drastic action of firing a Postmaster General. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) also says that “an absolute majority of the Governors in office shall be required” to remove a Postmaster General. As such, abstaining is equivalent to voting to keep the Postmaster General in office. The practical effect is that five Governors will need to vote to remove DeJoy.

Governor Amber McReynolds, who was nominated by President Biden and joined the Board in May, was not at the November 10 meeting and did not vote on the Bloom matter. Earlier, on August 19, 2021, she was asked directly on MSNBC whether DeJoy should be fired and declined to say he should be, thus incurring much social media anger from progressives. Governor McReynolds is a nationwide leader in promoting election mail, which USPS has handled well under DeJoy. She is not going to want to jeopardize this in any way and will be very thoughtful and deliberate in her decision making.

Governor Anton Hajjar, another Biden appointee, may also have trepidation with firing DeJoy. Hajjar previously served as general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). Last month, the APWU reached a three-year collective bargaining agreement with USPS that union leadership strongly lauded and which is generally seen as a good deal for the union’s members. Furthermore, President Biden’s two nominees on November 19 – Dan Tangherlini and Derek Kan – are by no means shoe-ins to vote to remove DeJoy. In fact, Kan served at several positions in the Trump Administration and has also worked for Senator Mitch McConnell.

snip

spooky3

(34,303 posts)
22. I'm confused. Ron Bloom was removed in 2021 and
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 09:49 PM
Aug 2022

The tweets you linked simply described an upcoming Board meeting.

Here is a Nov 2021 WaPo story about Bloom’s departure:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/19/usps-biden-bloom-dejoy/

summer_in_TX

(2,685 posts)
23. I looked but can't find a public agenda. But here's what I did find:
Sat Aug 6, 2022, 11:14 PM
Aug 2022

You can watch the next meeting of the Postal Board of Governors this Tuesday, 4 p.m. ET live.
https://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/briefings/welcome.htm


Most of Biden's appointees were confirmed after the May 5 board meeting. (Just one was appointed during his first year, Stroman, who had also served under Obama.) This will be the first board meeting with all of Biden's appointees.

Here's the current makeup and alignment of the BoD:
~PG Louis DeJoy, Appointed by the Governors of the Postal Service, DeJoy began his tenure as Postmaster General in June 2020
~DPMG Douglas Tulino (Appointed by DeJoy and the other board members), current Deputy Postmaster General and Chief Human Resources Officer (Appointed to the position May, 2021 – Labor relations and HR background) - assume to be an R vote
~Roman Martinez IV – R, 2024 (Chair) (Trump appointee)
• Anton G. Hajjar – D, 2023 (Biden appointee, unfinished term)
~Robert M. Duncan – R, 2025 (Trump appointee)
¿? • Derek Kan, D, 2028 - (Biden appointee, confirmed May 12, 2022)-But may be an R, worked for McConnell and his wife.
• Amber F. McReynolds – I, 2026 - National expert in ballot tracking and voting by mail, appointed by Biden, confirmed May 13, 2022
¿? Donald L. Moak – D, 2022 (Trump appointee)
• Ron A. Stroman – D, 2028 (Biden appointee, confirmed to unfinished term, then reconfirmed to full one May 12, 2022, previous Obama DPMG 2011-2020)
• Dan Tangherlini – D, 2027 (Biden appointee, confirmed May 12, 2022)
~William D. Zollars – R, 2022 (Trump appointee, confirmed June 2020 unfinished term)

Governors serve for staggered seven-year terms, that end on Dec. 8. But they can continue serving until their successor is appointed and approved. The GM serves on the board but has an indefinite term-length.

The nine governors select the Postmaster General, who becomes a member of the Board, and those 10 select the Deputy Postmaster General, who also serves on the Board. The Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors for an indefinite term and the Deputy Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors and the Postmaster General.


I expect any vote on DeJoy to be close. Moak is a Dem, but appointed by Trump and has been very quiet. So his opinions aren't known. Supposedly Kan is a Dem but he's got ties to Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao. There are 4 Biden/pro-democracy votes. But McReynolds is likely to be concerned about any ill effects of a change on the mail ballot process.

There are 3 or 4 sure Republican votes (4 if the DPMG can vote in this matter).
I would anticipate that DeJoy isn't allowed to vote on the matter.
Moak and Kan are wild cards but may not vote to remove DeJoy.

I'm on tenterhooks for that meeting.

FelineOverlord

(3,554 posts)
24. Too bad there can't be protests outside the meeting demanding DeJoy be kicked out
Sun Aug 7, 2022, 12:12 AM
Aug 2022

I have no idea where the meeting is, though.

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