Proposal: Revamp handling of mail

Trumbull County offices paid $66,800 to a Warren company for mail services in 2005.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County officials are taking steps to create a centralized mail processing center for all county offices, hoping it will save money.
Tony Carson Jr., county administrator, said the primary motivation for creating the center is an expiring lease on one of the county's postage machines. Officials wanted to see whether postage machines in departments across the county could be replaced at the same time with a few that would provide better bulk rates.
Problems that hampered the Family Court last month are another factor.
Trumbull Presort Mail Service Center Inc. at 468 High St. N.E., a private company that was providing mail handling services for the Family Court, suspended those services for a week in April. Presort then announced it would discontinue the service as of June 1.
Tom Mahoney, director of the county's Department of Job and Family Services, noted that he'd ended the Child Support Enforcement Agency's use of Presort early this year because it was too expensive.
In all, county offices paid $66,800 to the company in 2005.
In addition to stamping mail with postage at bulk rates, the company provided sorting, pickup and other services.
Carson said he had no comment when asked his opinion of county agencies using Presort.
Notified of stoppage
Anthony M. Natale, administrator for the Family Court on South Main Street, said he was recently notified by Danette Prince, one of the Trumbull Presort owners, that the company would no longer provide mail sorting and delivery services to the court.
Natale said he has never been given a reason for Presort's decision. "This kind of came out of the blue," Natale said. "She has been here forever."
Prince declined to discuss the issue -- other than to say that Presort is not going out of business.
Natale said Prince has been coming to the Family Court for about 20 years to take the court's mail, sort it by ZIP code and stamp the mail with the proper postage. In 2005, Family Court's bill for Presort services was $31,175, according to records from the county auditor's office.
The other large county user of Presort services was Child Support, which paid Presort $28,393 in 2005, records show. Mahoney took over Child Support Enforcement Agency operations early this year when it merged with Job & amp; Family Services.
"We've never used them [Presort] in welfare," Mahoney said of the J & amp;FS agency. "We always thought they were too expensive."
Handled by workers
Mahoney said the agency sends a large volume of mail and has full-time workers who handle it. Those same employees now provide mail services for Child Support, he said.
"We never understood the concept," Mahoney said of paying a private company to handle the mail. "I said this is nonsense. We don't do it, and why are you?"
Mahoney said he believes Child Support used Presort since 1993 and paid about $2,500 per month for the service. He added that he thinks ending Child Support's relationship with Presort should save a significant amount of money over time.
Natale said there was a payment dispute this spring between Presort and Family Court, but he doesn't know whether that's the reason for the service being discontinued. Prince had asked the Family Court in recent months whether it could pay for services in advance. Natale said that wouldn't be legal for a government operation such as Family Court.
Prince withheld services for a week in April over what she felt was slow payment, Natale said, even though the court had paid the company that same way for 20 years. He said Prince told him costs had risen and she could no longer "front" the costs of the court's services.
Normally the payments were sent to Presort at the end of each month for invoices given to the court at the beginning of each month, Natale said.
Seeking postage machine
Natale, who is also an attorney, said the Family Court is in talks with Pitney Bowes to get a postage machine so that the mailings can be done in-house after June 1.
Natale said he believed the use of Presort was in the best interests of the court because no employee had to be assigned to the task. "Our analysis seemed to say that we were saving money," he said.
Natale said he would be happy if the county provided centralized mailing services that would accommodate Family Court, but he will need something as of June 1, so he cannot wait for the county.
Other agencies have used Presort in smaller amounts, including the Sanitary Engineer's office, $3,128; Emergency Management Agency, $1,075; and Auditor's office, $357 for one mailing in 2005 dealing with tax valuations, Auditor Adrian Biviano said.
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said one of the complications of having one centralized mail handling center is that offices such as the Clerk of Courts and Prosecutor want to handle their own because of legal requirements of some of their mailings. A year ago, the county Clerk of Courts office leased a new digital postage meter, for 60 months at a cost of $23,405, from Pitney Bowes of Shelton, Conn. for use by all of the clerk's departments, including auto title.
Carson said those obstacles will have to be overcome if the county is going to provide the centralized service -- because all of the county offices will need to participate for it to work.
runyan@vindy.com