Audit points to serious staffing problems as key source of crippling mail issues across region

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- 8News is continuing to connect the dots as to why mail service in our community has been messy and unreliable for years.

A recent 31-page audit by the United States Postal Service's Office of the Inspector General revealed that Central Virginia's Sandston Processing and Distribution Center was rampant with unstable leadership and low employee availability.

8News spoke with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine about this Monday. The leader has become a major figure in the movement to crack down on Virginia's mail disruptions throughout the years.

"[Louis] DeJoy was giving us reports about incremental improvement, but the last meeting we had with him was in October," Kaine said Monday when asked about communication with the U.S. Postmaster General.

It's been about three months since lawmakers' last formal meeting with Postmaster DeJoy. These meetings stemmed from legislators' calls to hash out why Virginia's mail system is the third worst in our country.

The audit, released on Monday, Jan. 27, prompted lawmakers to cry out for a "check-in." The lengthy report revealed the Sandston center accumulated around $2.3 million in "questioned costs." 8News combed through the document and found this essentially means money wasted due to a slew of problems.

"So, we've got to sit down," Kaine remarked in reference to the discoveries from the audit.

While mail issues aren't necessarily rare, nor exclusive to Richmond, the audit focused on diving deeper into the Sandston distribution center. The previously local facility expanded to a regional one in 2023 and it's been a rocky transition. This audit acknowledged that the facility is finally stabilizing, but it still needs some help.

One core piece of the report revealed that three of four senior leadership positions are consistently empty. This means the processing hub has been missing people who play critical roles in making sure mail is sorted in a timely manner.

Also regarding staffing concerns, the report found that 19% of employees are, on average, not showing up for work at the center.

The report outlined a series of more technical issues including trailer scanning problems and transportation difficulties.

In response to the cumulative spectrum of trouble, inspectors made six recommendations. The postal service agreed with five of the six recommendations, which were left relatively vague to outsiders in the report. Holistically speaking, the recommendations appear to primarily place responsibility for change on the Regional Processing Operations and Logistics vice presidents.

Regardless, Kaine said that it's still time for a sit-down. He explained that Virginia's mail headache is bigger than just Sandston.

"It's also serious problems in the Blacksburg area," the senator elaborated. "It's not uncommon that there might be a spike in [problems] in Charlottesville for a month and then it gets solved sometimes just personnel turnover, but it's a persistent pattern."

The audit and subsequent responses from the postal service show that the system is confident it will be on track to save money by the end of the year.

However, Kaine referred to a recent incident in the Church Hill community to make it clear that, despite appearing to be on the right track, Sandston still has concerns that need fixing.

"This incident in the last 10 days where mail was -- including tax bills and things like that -- was discovered on Church Hill, is an indication that they still have major problems," Kaine reflected.

Again, the report is 31 pages of technical issues and resolutions, so the key thing residents need to know is that the postal service agreed with a majority of the recommendations and they're working to fill those gaps.

As for potential meetings with lawmakers to work toward long-term solutions and communicative obstacles, a spokesperson for USPS told 8News that they will communicate directly with lawmakers about setting up a check-in meeting, rather than discussing it with the media.

To read the report, visit the USPS Office of the Inspector General website.