GRAND FORKS — Late and irregular newspaper delivery threatens the future of the industry, the director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association said Monday during a roundtable discussion with representatives of the United States Postal Service.

Cecile Wehrman, the executive director of NDNA and a weekly newspaper publisher herself, said weekly newspapers are particularly vulnerable to what she sees as poor service from the USPS. Weekly newspapers are typically their community’s only provider of news, she said, and some have either limited or no online offerings. When those newspapers arrive late, it impacts their ability to inform community members about important information and events.

“Over the next 10 minutes, I’m going to detail the impact of poor postal service on our industry,” Wehrman said as she took the floor during the meeting. “But there’s a bigger issue at stake here, and that’s the public’s right to be informed. When citizens are prevented from receiving timely information about city, county, state and school government actions, that’s a blow to the heart of democracy. Especially in this election season, the role of newspapers in informing citizens is critical.”

U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) kicked off the discussion, bringing together three representatives from the United States Postal Service as well as Wehrman, Secretary of State Michael Howe, Horace City City Manager Brent Holper and Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski to discuss issues ranging from newspaper delivery to postmarking mail-in ballots. The meeting came as the USPS plans changes to how mail is processed across North Dakota and there are numerous reports of mail delivery issues across the states.

Representing the USPS were Michael Gordon, the Postal Service’s government liaison, Angela Bye, Minnesota-North Dakota district manager, and Kathy Hand, a senior processing division manager.

Wehrman outlined a number of concerns and complaints sent to her by newspapers across the state.

Their concerns included “entire runs of newspapers disappearing without anyone to call, no way to find them, and not even a reason for the lack of service (and) subscribers canceling their subscriptions because they are tired of receiving their weekly newspapers seven to ten days late, or even several at once.”

Moreover, she said, “untimely delivery and high postage costs even jeopardise the newspapers’ right to publish public notices, one of the main reasons for newspapers’ existence.”

She said: “If newspapers don’t come out, there’s no way to change that.” She also said that newspapers pay extra for services they don’t receive.

“The Postal Service is making (the newspapers) look bad and we have no one to turn to for help,” Wehrman said. “The poor Postal Service is destroying the relevance of the newspapers with every late delivery. Add to that the rate increases of up to 53% in the last three years and the newspapers can’t take much more.”

The newspapers assume that the USPS offers next-day delivery, Wehrman said. But USPS representatives at the meeting said that was unrealistic. Two to nine days is the agency’s standard.

“There’s clearly a difference of opinion here. I understand that,” Hoeven said. “But we’re actually here to see if we can help solve some problems. When Cecile’s members have a problem – and you hear this from other people – and they call the local post office and can’t get through to anyone who can solve the problem. That’s a problem. First, I try to create some consistency of expectations.”

USPS officials, however, defended the agency’s service, saying they don’t believe the problems are as bad as Wehrman claims. Most service problems are the result of compounding circumstances, such as staffing issues and declining revenue, they said.

“We’re reaching more places with less mail every year,” said Michael Gordon, postal liaison officer. “This has obviously led to financial and operational problems.”

One of the biggest problems, Gordon said, is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which required the Postal Service to pay at least 50 years of benefits in advance for its employees and regulate postage rates so that they cannot exceed the rate of inflation. While the Postal Service is part of the government, it functions more like a business and must make money since it receives no direct funding from Congress and must finance itself.

An audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota Postal District found numerous problems and 131,000 delayed mail items in both states. To resolve the issues, Bye said the agency needs concrete details when problems occur so the USPS can track them down and be notified when they occur.

But Bye told Wehrman: “On no route, in none of my facilities, does mail sit for days.”

She also said she hasn’t had any problems with North Dakota “in the last four or five months that I can remember,” Bye said. “I’m not saying they don’t exist.”

At the locations she oversees, “it’s not like it used to be. Mail is sent there more often than not,” she said.

At Hoeven’s urging, a dialogue to resolve the issues was initiated during the meeting. Many people said that they simply had not received a clear answer from the post office about their delivery problems.

It was also acknowledged that the meetings held previously were less than desirable. For example, when the USPS held a public meeting in December, few people knew about it – not even Mayor Bochenski knew about it – and the USPS representatives in attendance refused to answer questions from the audience.

“I apologize if the first few (meetings) were difficult for you,” said Hand, who also attended a meeting in December. “It was very frustrating and after that we went back and said, ‘This is very frustrating for the public,’ and those rules were relaxed a little bit.”

Secretary Howe addressed the issue of unpostmarked mail-in ballots. Under North Dakota’s Century Code, a ballot postmarked the day before the election can be accepted regardless of when it arrives in the county. The problem arises when there is no postmark, which was particularly common during the primary compared to previous years.

“We’ve received reports from several counties, east and west, that mail-in ballots are not being postmarked, and that’s unusual,” Howe said. “The United States Postal Service is a great partner and some long-time employees have said, ‘Yes, that’s unusual.'”

Postal Service officials said if they could get concrete information about what led up to these incidents, they could conduct further investigations to ensure they are operational for the November election.

“We always try to postmark every ballot, whether there’s a stamp on it or not,” Gordon said. “We have 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and they all have different voting rules … which makes it very difficult for the Postal Service because you have a ballot from North Dakota, but you can vote by mail in another city.”

The panel also discussed problems with mailbox facilities in Horace and the city’s problems ensuring mail is delivered. The problems stem from mailbox facilities, a group of mailboxes for a neighborhood, that are often not placed in a location where the post office can deliver. The post office said it will continue meetings to ensure its standards are implemented and enforced consistently throughout the region.

Hoeven had worked with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to arrange Monday’s meeting. He called on the USPS to be transparent about planned changes and to answer any questions or concerns voters may have.