New Redondo Beach postmaster starts, oversees two pilot projects

The Redondo Beach main Post Office has its third postmaster in the past year. Photo by Garth Meyer

by Garth Meyer

He grew up in L.A. and once battled a Polar Vortex in -35 degree wind chill to deliver mail in OshKosh, Wisconsin. 

Now he has another task, as the new postmaster for Redondo Beach and Hermosa. 

Brian Cuellar started Feb. 26, after a year as postmaster at Venice Beach. He then transferred to Redondo, the base of operations for zip codes 90277, 90278 and 90254.

“This is where I plan to stay,” Cuellar said. “I’m very customer-service oriented. Everything our parents and grandparents came to expect from the Postal Service, that’s what I plan to implement and maintain here. We have a great staff overall.”

What about Hermosa Beach?

“We don’t really have any issues there, so I want to maintain that,” he said. 

Cuellar begins after complaints in recent years led to involvement by Congressman Ted Lieu’s office and, in 2019, a summons from the Redondo Beach city council for the Los Angeles County Post Office Manager of Operations to respond to swelling complaints about late mail delivery, stolen gift cards and long lines at the Redondo post office. 

Michael Coleman, county manager of operations, and Post Office Area Manager Art Santana both spoke to the council.

Today, to address late delivery issues, Cuellar oversees two new pilot projects. The SDUS (Small Delivery Unit Sorter) uses upgraded, proprietary technology, Cuellar said, to cut processing time by more than half. It has been in effect for a month.

“I championed this, to get this to happen here in Redondo,” said Cuellar, in his sixth year as a Postal employee.

The new equipment eliminates almost all hand-sorting of packages to improve accuracy and efficiency. 

“We’ve seen results already. A really big uptick in compliments versus complaints,” Cuellar said. 

The other pilot program, starting April 18, is “USPS Connect Local.”

Mail dropped in Redondo to be sent to Hermosa Beach will no longer go to the distribution center in South Central L.A., a day’s turnaround. Instead it is flagged by the computer to stay in Redondo Beach, processed and delivered same-day to Hermosa.

“We’re working on the details now,” said Cuellar. “All of this is going to make us a lot more efficient, a lot more dependable.”

On March 23, a hiring event at the Redondo Post Office drew 45 applicants for carrier assistant jobs, the entry-level to becoming a mail carrier. The Post Office aims to hire 10 to 15 people.

“In the last six months, I’d say things have improved,” said District Two city councilman Todd Loewenstein (District Two includes the Main Post Office). “Delivery is more reliable. I’m hearing fewer complaints. To me, it seems better.”

Before, when Loewenstein looked into it, it was frustrating.

“Every time I’d call, it was somebody new,” he said of the postmasters.

Carriers in the three zip codes still do routes at night, in some cases, to handle mail volumes that increased during the pandemic. 

“As the carriers say, ‘Rain, sleet or snow, day or night, we’re out delivering,’” Cuellar said, the third postmaster in the past year. 

“I chose to come here. I see the potential. Honestly, we’re just going back to the basics,” he said. “Communicate, so everyone knows what is expected. If there’s an issue I’m going to let you know, and if you are doing something great I’m going to let you know that too. It’s okay to praise people once in a while.”

Cuellar’s mother is a postal worker. He has a degree in social work from Azusa Pacific. 

Fifteen people work in the distribution unit in the back of Redondo’s Post Office, from which 10,000 – 15,000 packages per day are delivered, along with 35,000 – 40,000 publications, and 100,000 pieces of letter mail. 

Cuellar noted a goal to get staffing back to 100 percent in each department at Redondo. 

On Tuesday morning, a cell phone rang in the lobby.

A man in line answered.

“You called me when I’m in line at the Redondo Beach Post Office. There’s three people in front of me, six or seven behind. It’s like this every time I come here. Ridiculous. They got one clerk.”

Minutes later, a second clerk’s window opened as scheduled.

The Redondo Main Post Office has 135 employees, including about 100 carriers on 89 routes. 

“The office, the employees, with some guidance, some leadership, we can make this office great,” Cuellar said. “We can make this a model station.”

Back to 2019, the two county Post Office representatives who spoke to the city council told of systemic problems, such as the closure of Post Office processing facilities, how email and digital messaging had been expected to reduce Post Office mail, and how the growth in package shipments had not been anticipated.

Michael Coleman, the County Post Office Manager of Operations, told the council he had increased the number of carriers and got a new package processing machine. ER

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.