At first, Potter tried to be reassuring. Three days after anthrax was discovered in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Potter held a news conference at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington to declare that the letter had been well-sealed and posed little risk to workers. But by Monday, Oct. 22, two Brentwood workers were dead and two others were infected with the dangerous bacteria. Potter and other government officials faced a storm of criticism for failing to protect the postal workers. By last week, the blunt-spoken Potter made a startling admission for any postmaster general. “The threat is in the mail,” he said during a round of television appearances. “There are no guarantees that mail is safe.”
Potter’s remarks were frightening, but they were also a welcome bit of straight talk in the murky uncertainty of the anthrax scare. It’s that candor and straight forward style that may help Potter weather the crisis. As officials began the predictable blame game over who was responsible for the postal deaths, Potter declared that it was not the time for fingerpointing–a statement he reiterated on Tuesday during back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill. “The mail and the nation have never experienced anything like this,” Potter told a Senate committee. He explained that he had been relying on the best advice of health officials, who’d told him anthrax would not escape unopened mail and that no testing of the Brentwood facility was necessary. But Potter brought in two groups to do testing anyway. The first tests came back as false negatives–an unfortunate result that led to his decision to keep the Brentwood office open, he explained.
An unpolished speaker with a thick New York accent and a beefy build, Potter still seems uneasy in the spotlight. He favors folksy expressions, telling Congress that the crisis made the postal system’s long-term viability “a very difficult row to hoe.” And, repeating his suggestion that people wash their hands after opening the mail, Potter explained that people should use soap and hold their hands under water for at least 20 seconds–perhaps reciting the alphabet as a way to mark the time.
Potter first gained visibility within the Postal Service as head of labor relations helping to negotiate several big union contracts. “He’s known as an operational whiz,” says Robert McLean, executive director of Mailers Council, a trade group. Potter will need to tap that expertise as he grapples with the logistical fallout from both the anthrax scare and the Sept. 11 attacks. He has to solve problems like how to get mail delivered in Washington without the central Brentwood facility and how to reroute packages when heavy parcels are no longer allowed to fly as cargo on passenger planes. Potter, 47, is a no-frills guy who knows the system from the ground up: he’s a 23-year veteran and second-generation postal worker who started his career as a distribution clerk in New York’s Westchester county. “He’s not a real flashy man. What you see is what you get,” says McLean, who has known Potter for years.
Potter’s background could inoculate him against charges of indifference toward postal workers. “He at least may have some common ground with the rank and file,” says Rick Merritt, executive director of PostalWatch, a consumer watchdog group. At hearings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, postal unions rallied behind Potter. “He’s done a remarkable job,” says Vincent Sombrotto, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. “He said that he’s concerned with the safety of the postal employees that are employed by the Postal Service, and he was going to do everything possible with our help.” Even a Brentwood postal worker was charitable. “The postmaster general is doing everything humanly possible that he can do,” said Denise Manley. Some workers are less sanguine: unions in several states have filed suit against the Postal Service.
In the past few weeks, Potter has been scrambling both to maintain good relations with employees and reassure a nervous public. He made a film about the anthrax scare to show to employees in postal facilities around the country. But the situation was changing so quickly, says William Quinn of the National Postal Mail Handlers’ Union, that Potter had to scrap the first film and make a new one. Potter has also instituted daily morning meetings with union leaders at Postal Service headquarters to keep workers in the loop. This week he told Congress he’ll need several billion dollars to install special irradiation devices that could kill anthrax spores in the mail. “Jack has been like Rudy Giuliani. He’s everywhere,” says McLean. And as the postal crisis plays out, the nation could hear plenty more of his straight talk.
