DeJoy and other postal officials receive big bonuses

Washington Postal Scene by Bill McAllister

Louis DeJoy remains one of the most controversial United States postmasters general, but he also is one of the highest paid.

Thanks to the USPS board of governors, the former North Carolina logistics executive had a compensation package totaling $480,985 for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

A performance bonus approved by the board pushed DeJoy over the $400,000 salary of President Joe Biden. Plus DeJoy's base salary of $305,681 is “the highest ever paid for the top job at USPS,” according to a Center for Public Integrity review of the agency’s financial disclosures. Founded in 1989, the center is a nonprofit investigative news organization.

The center disclosed DeJoy’s pay package Nov. 16, citing a newly filed USPS financial report that revealed the compensation DeJoy and his senior staff received during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

According to the USPS filing, DeJoy’s salary was boosted by a $75,865 performance bonus and other benefits. That, however, was not the biggest 2021 compensation package reported by the Postal Service. Jacqueline Krage Strako, chief commerce and business solutions officer and executive vice president, received benefits valued at $616,447.

Deputy Postmaster General Douglas Tulino, a career postal executive and the agency’s chief human resources officer, received a total of $595,692. Executive vice president Scott Bombaugh, chief technology officer, was granted $532,090. Joseph Corbett, chief financial officer and executive vice president, received $450,169.

Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., chairman of a House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the USPS and a DeJoy critic, reacted sharply to the bonuses.

“After a year of self-dealing and deliberate sabotage, the Postal Board of Governors rewarded Postmaster DeJoy with a bonus!” he told Linn’s. “No one in Congress and no American supports this.”

“This is a failure of leadership and yet another reason DeJoy and [Ron Bloom] the chairman of the board must be removed immediately.”

The new USPS report also disclosed that on Sept. 9, 2020, the board of governors “clarified and update policies” about separation payments, which seemed to be a reaction to congressional demands that DeJoy be fired.

The updated policy allows that the postmaster general, deputy postmaster general and postal officers “are entitled to a separation payment in the amount of one year’s salary if either is asked to separate from the Postal Service for any reason other than for cause and they are otherwise ineligible for immediate retirement.”

It also says that dismissed officers may receive outplacement job services and financial counseling at the agency’s expense.

The Center for Public Integrity said that the benefits paid to DeJoy and four of his senior deputies added up a total of $370,622 in extra income.

The center’s Nov. 16 report quoted Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, as questioning the payments to DeJoy.

“[DeJoy] seems like the last person who should be the recipient of an unprecedented salary increase and bonus,” Bookbinder said. He cited DeJoy’s plan to slow mail deliveries and questions about stocks DeJoy held that may have created a conflict of interest.

Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said that the bonuses reflect improvements related to DeJoy’s Delivering for America plan.

“Postal Service executive compensation incentives are tied to meeting organizational performance objectives through our pay-for-performance program,” he said.

“In just the last fiscal year alone, the Postal Service saw a 5.3 percent increase in revenue, a smaller net loss and the strongest service performance for all mail categories since the previous year,” Partenheimer said.

“These improvements are largely the result of significant organizational leadership focus on implementing core elements of the Delivering for America plan.”

The Center for Public Integrity noted that the pay of the postmaster general can be set up to 20 percent higher than the pay of the United States vice president. That pay is $235,100 a year.

The center also said that the board of governors “has broad discretion in rewarding the postmaster general with perks and performance bonuses.”

This is an updated version of a previous story about compensation figures for Postmaster General DeJoy and other USPS officials.

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