FLUMMERY AND DUPERY FROM "TARBALL" REP. JOHN LUIGI MICA ABOUT MOVING ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA POST OFFICE

On May 14, 2010, I filed an FOIA request with the U.S. Postal Service about the St. Augustine Post Office move proposal. Today I received an answer from the USPS regional purchasing officials in Georgia. See below. The answers and enclosed documents strongly suggest that the news story in the St. Augustine Record last week (below) was premature and jumped the gun.
It also appears that someone (perhaps Flagler College or Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA) thinks it has a done deal.
Based on USPS’ FOIA request, such is not the case.
Here are the USPS’ responses (in bold) to five of the six items in the request:
1. Discussions about moving the St. Augustine, Florida Post Office, including communications with Rep. John Luigi Mica, Flagler College, the City of St. Augustine and the owners of the Ponce de Leon Mall in St. Augustine. USPS response: “Attached is a copy of all correspondence on the relocation of the St. Augustine Postal facility. As you will note, all correspondence has been in email form.”
2. Negotiations on sales and purchase prices of the current Post office and proposed new Post Office location. USPS response: “No negotiations have been held.”
3. Cost-benefit analysis and Evaluation of alternatives, including leaving Post Office boxes and a Revenue Unit at the current location and moving the sorting and delivery function to another location. USPS response: “The only cost analysis that has been conducted is in the correspondence included in #1”. Ed's note: Review of those E-mails shows no such consideration – the E-mails are between Hull Storey Gibson (Augusta, GA shopping center owner of the Ponce de Leon Mall and USPS officials in Duluth, Georgia).
4. Environmental Impact Statements on the carbon footprint of forcing people to travel miles away when our Post Office is now centrally located. USPS response: This does not exist.
5. Discussions regarding compliance USPS competitive bidding requirements for the purchase of new land and sale of the Post Office. USPS response: “This does not exist.”