Category: Content

We Still Believe

Jay Killackey
Executive Vice President

Last year NAPS lost one of its best, Andrew Sozzi, our former Northeast Region Vice President. Andy was beloved by many in our organization. As much as the leadership of NAPS was familiar with Andy, what most of you don’t know about Andy, I want to share with you during this holiday season for Andy was a special person in the eyes of some of the neediest kinds in New York.

During his life, Andy was the cornerstone of the New York Post Office’s “Operation Santa” program where he donned a big red suit and greeted needy children whose only hope for a happy holiday was the generosity and caring of postal employees and citizens of New York who donated their time and gifts to make the Christmas holiday a little brighter for those less fortunate. Andy’s large girth made him a logical candidate for the job, but even more it was the size of his heart that made him perfect for the job.

Andy was always a giving and caring person. As an only child, he committed his time to caring for his widowed mother. Not having a family of his own, he adopted hundreds of children every year as he greeted children who longed to meet Santa and ask for something special for Christmas. The Operation Santa program has had the daunting task of accepting and reviewing upwards of 30,000 requests for assistance in an average holiday season. This put a great strain on organizing and collection donations of cash and gifts, but it was a labor of love for the employees of the New York Post Office.

After a long day at work, Andy would so enjoy donning “the suit” to greet wide-eyed children and attempt to make their wishes come true. Anyone who knew Andy was aware that he liked the temperature cool and he regularly built up a thick sweat when he was forced to wear a suite and tie for work. It didn’t matter how hot that Santa suit got as Andy worked the long line of children anxious to see Santa and hear his bellowing laugh and the warmth of his hugs.

Looking at the material from those happy days with Santa provided from his friends in the New York Post Office caused me to reminisce about the man that we thought we already knew and brought a new dimension to his memory.

Throughout the country, post offices are sponsoring Operation Santa programs every year. Perhaps you might consider checking in with the group in your hometown to see if there is something that you can do in Andy’s memory to make Christmas a little brighter for a child less fortunate.

Having just returned from our winter board meeting at NAPS Headquarters, I was quite frankly surprised at some of the motions the board entertained. Most notably, a resolution from Utah to buy the three resident officers condos while they are in office, which was soundly defeated by the body at the convention, was re-introduced by a Board member at our meeting. In attempting to explain why he was re-introducing the motion, he alleged that the membership was not fully informed about the resolution at the convention.

Needless to say, the motion failed again. Two of the three resident officers voted No because they realize that it’s not right to go against the vote of the convention body. While some on the Board are persisting on wanting to purchase the condos, the motion was again defeated. One resident officer voted YES and the other two abstained, or refrained from voting, which was quite different from the first vote.

Members persisting who spoke in favor of the motion stated that, at a cost of 2.1 million dollars, it would be a good investment for NAPS. They cited NAPS’ purchase of our Headquarters building as an example. However, that is not a valid comparison. Our building was purchased for somewhat over 3 million dollars, which much less than its actual value at the time. The ideal circumstance had presented itself because the builder had defaulted, as had the bank which had financed it. When NAPS purchased it in the early 90s under the leadership of Vince Palladino, it was purchased from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which was quite anxious to get it off its hands. Additionally, Vince often recounted how, when NAPS showed up at the auction, we were the only ones who seemed to have the money needed to buy. Consequently, NAPS ended up with all four floors, whereas the original intention had been to purchase only one.

Those in favor of purchasing the condos contend that while the resident officers are serving NAPS, they would be required to pay $1,600.00 a month rent. Do the math: at that rate, it would take 46 years to pay for the condos. While I don’t think that investments that benefit NAPS are a bad thing, I know that I will never go against the membership wishes. I definitely will continue to vote NO on this issue. The board member who wants to vote Yes should not attempt to use the executive board to obtain, through the “back door” method, approval of a resolution that was defeated by the membership at the convention.

Jimmy Warden and I have been investigating the contracts of Martin Communications our publisher of the Postal Supervisor and soon to be ex-event planner for NAPS conventions. His last convention will be in 2014 at San Diego California. After examining all paperwork and bills submitted by Martin Communications we found a lot of irregularities. Our findings were turned over to the 3 resident officers at NAPS. They agreed to gather questions from the board to ask Ray Martin to try to find answers. This did not happen as they turned the questions over to him and he had to answer to the board. Jimmy and I led the charge with questions that Ray Martin did not answer correctly or could not answer at all, using such terms as “there were a few OVERSIGHTS,” “I DON’T REMEMBER,” “ABSOLUTELY NOT,” and other similar, evasive non- answers.

Our comparison check with another large printing firm using the NAPS bills submitted by Martin communications resulted in a finding that he has been overcharging us by 10-40%. When asked about this, Mr. Martin told me a contract is a contract and if I disagreed, I should get my lawyer and he will get his. To my surprise a board member who I had considered a friend, accused me of being unprofessional and having gone “over the top” in order to get answers. In my opinion I did not go over the top, what I was trying to do was get answers from someone who was not being truthful. The investigation will continue until we can get the truth.

–Tommy Roma

Tommy Roma
Northeast Region Vice President

We are now getting ready to head to Reno to conduct the business of NAPS at our 2012 national convention. This will be the first year that a long-time convention attendee will not be sitting in the delegate area. The person that will be missing this year is my personal friend, Andy Sozzi.

Andy loved NAPS and served with distinction as an officer and president of the largest NAPS branch in the country, Branch 100. Andy was elevated to serve on our national executive board as the Northeast Region Vice President, the job that I proudly serve in today.

Andy and I developed a strong bond over the years even though we came from different backgrounds. Andy graduated from the prestigious Fordham University while I got my degree on the streets of Brooklyn. Together we became the “one-two punch” for members in the New York Area and the lessons that I learned in diplomacy from Andy, coupled with my street-sense have helped me in following in his footsteps in the NAPS Northeast Region.

I am proud to have worked so closely with Andy and to have gained so much from his skills. When times were tough, Andy brought his objectivity and rallying skills to bring successful outcomes to difficult situations. Many times when I wanted to fly off the handle, Andy would calm me down, dissect the problem and, by the time we were done, the problem was solved.

Now, working with my team of Area Vice President in the Northeast; Jimmy Warden, Cy Dumas and Hans Aglidian I am remembering what Andy taught me. Our team of leaders in the NAPS Northeast Region is continuing to serve the interests of our members and it’s not a coincidence that we lead the country in NAPS membership percentage.

We recently held a successful one-day meeting in New York City, where branches from throughout the Northeast Region met with postal executives from postal headquarters, the Northeast and Eastern Regions. Our meeting included an opportunity for face-to-face dialogue between local branch leaders and their respective District Managers, where local issues were discussed and resolved.

Both the Postal Service and NAPS are going through some trying times, but as long as we keep the focus that my friend Andy fostered in his work for NAPS, we will weather the storms we now face and will face in the future. I know that Andy will be watching us in Reno this year and rooting for our continued success.