Checks go in mail, dont come out ...

Thursday, January 27, 2000

By ANDREA SIMAKIS - PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

For hundreds of people awaiting $6.5 million in Cuyahoga County funds, the check is in the mail. Maybe.

On Jan. 18, the county auditors office cut 1,500 checks to pay a wide variety of county vendors, from day-care providers to attorneys representing indigent clients. The Postal Service picked up most of them from the auditors mailroom the next day.

Then they disappeared.

Nearly a week later, the checks are still missing, county phones are still ringing, and postal employees are still searching.

"We have turned the building upside down, looked in every nook and cranny, but we have not been able to locate the checks," said Mark Reynolds, spokesman for the services Cleveland district. "We just cant put our fingers on them at this time."

While the search continues, Lynn Price frets.

She is one of hundreds of women under contract with the county to provide day care for low-income and welfare mothers. They were expecting their checks to show up on Jan. 20 or 21, but still hadnt received them yesterday.

For Price, who cares for six children daily in her East Side home, the delay is critical.

"This is my only income," Price said. "Ive been borrowing money from my girlfriends to get gas and pay for the kids snacks."

Edna Shepherd is in the same predicament.

"House notes are going unpaid, car notes are going unpaid," said Shepherd, who also cares for six children. "I havent paid any of my utilities, and if they turn my lights and gas off, I cant have mothers bringing their kids over."

At first, Shepherd and Price thought the problem was theirs alone. But when they began talking among themselves, and realized how many shared it, they started burning up the phone lines to the county.

For county officials, who have spent days trying to figure out what went wrong, making everyone whole won't be easy. They can't simply reissue the checks, because some of them might have been cashed already.

"There is plenty of opportunity for fraud and abuse," said County Administrator Tom Hayes.

To ensure that opportunity is not exploited, the county treasurer's office is feverishly checking the books to determine whether any of the 1,500 checks have cleared.

Officials already have determined that 60 day-care providers have made legitimate claims and have promised to issue new checks today.

They have promised to cut new checks for other intended recipients as well - provided they call first so the treasurer can verify that their checks have not cleared.

Anyone who still has not received an expected check should call the county auditor's office at (216) 443-7323.

The Postal Service's Reynolds said the checks eventually would be found, that no one pinched the county's mail. In fact, he said, the checks "may be on their way."

E-mail: asimakis@plaind.com

Phone: (216) 999-4565

)2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.

-- Powder (Powder47keg@aol.com), January 27, 2000

Answers

In my corporate B.S. dictionary-

"Checks in the mail"= I don't have the money and I never sent the check. Used when person or persons need more time to scrape up the dough or in the case of Y2K- when we can fix the payroll computer!

-- Sam (Nospam@111.com), January 27, 2000.

Would be nice if someone inside the Post Office would post here. I also live in the Cleveland area, and have noticed some bulk mail is coming late, most obvious was weekly newmagazine which arrived six days late. Seems like before the roll, there was a post person willing to talk about system problems?

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), January 27, 2000.

Speaking of delays..I just got my AT&T cable bill and was charged a late fee. I called AT&T and found out that although I sent the check on 1/7/00, it didn't get posted until 1/21/00, two weeks later. AT&T said that it was the Post Office's fault, that it only took them 2 days, at most, to post checks. So I called the Post Office ready to file a complaint, but, of course, they blamed AT&T. AT&T did take off the $2 fee, but I was told they can only do this once a year! Anyway, this time I am sending it certified mail and see what happens. I know I will have to pay the couple of bucks for this, but at least I will have something to go one the next time I get charged a late fee, which has been happening a lot lately with my cable bill. I just hadn't really checked into it before.

-- Darla (dnice@hgo.net), January 27, 2000.

I was one postal employee who posted about delayed mail a week or so ago. There was someone else before rollover who said they were having a problem with in office sorting machines. Let me say this, tho....if it gets to your carrier, it gets delivered, so please, don't take it out on us. We're only a drop in the bucket out of 700,000 employees, and a bunch of computerized sorting machines.

Also...keep in mind that adverse weather conditions in ANY part of the country can delay mail, as sometimes the main hub might be in one of those areas hit by hard weather, even if no where near you or the sender. If roads and airports are closed, things get delayed, including the mail.

-- Kat (kat3@crosswinds.net), January 27, 2000.

"....we have not been able to locate the checks."

SCREW THAT dude! Where's the MAILMAN? Tahitti?

I knew a mail dude who got caught with 5 years of mail bags in his attick. Lived 3 blocks up the street from me. Some days he just didn't feel like delivering, and it kinda turned into a habit. True story, Forest Park, Norfolk, VA, around 1972. Every now and then I see another story break out of yet another mailman-gone-bad.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 27, 2000.

My regular east coast to west coast mail took a WEEK instead of a WEEKEND....(happened only once in all of 99)....any other reports....

-- INever (inevercheckmy@onebox.com), January 27, 2000.

Pardon me while I defend my trade...

There are over 42,000 rural routes in this country. I have no clue how many city routes there are, but I'd bet at least 3x that. Out of all those routes you hear of even 100 "mailmen gone bad", and I say that's still a pretty good percentage of "mailmen stayed good". We're out there in the rain, sleet, snow, ice, heat, after hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. We put up with dogs, kids on bikes, idiot drivers, etc, and in the office we've got to put up with rules and regulations unlike any you've ever seen, unless you work for the Feds. I deliver over 2000 pieces of mail per day, and so does every other carrier in this country. If a piece is delayed by a few days, look at it and see if you can determine why. Is the zip code right? Was there a holiday weekend or some other reason to delay mail? And the very very few carriers who have dumped a bunch of mail in their basements or whereever.....well, they're just plain jerks, same as any jerk in any other profession.

Thank you for letting me vent

-- Kat (kat3@crosswinds.net), January 28, 2000.