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WZTV FOX 17 News :: Newsroom - WASTE WATCH: Postal Party
by FOX NEWS' Eric Rasmussen

SAN FRANCISCO, California - Next month the U.S. Postal Service is holding its national forum. Despite the fact the postal service is dealing with financial issues right now, officials are planning to spend $2 million on the forum. The National Postal Forum Conference in March will tee off with a golf outing at Harding Park in San Francisco. The 4-day conference will draw 4000 people to the Moscone Center. 400 of them will be staffers of the U.S. Postal Service, including the Postmaster General. Documents obtained by our Washington, D.C. bureau show the travel, $220,000 in exhibit space and other incidentals will cost the Postal Service $2.2 million. The advertised hotels, such as the Marriott Marquis and the Intercontinental, go for nearly $300 a night before the government discount. Internal Postal Service documents show beyond meetings and a golf tournament there will also be music entertainment and a Taste of San Francisco Banquet at the Marriott, featuring the foods of Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown. At a time when the Postal Service is under fire for losing money and scrapping some Saturday mail service, one watchdog group says the government shouldn't pay to fly executives into town.

"They need to be concerned about the optics of this," says Citizens Against Government Waste's Leslie Paige. "They need to be concerned about ratcheting back some of what could be perceived as luxurious activities."

The Post Office says the conference in San Francisco will make money by creating future business and new sales leads. The other attendees are giants in the shipping world. The Postal Service says its execs would have to pay their own fees for the golfing, and will shoulder other costs. Organizers of the National Postal Forum say the event is designed to educate businesses about the services and products they offer. The Postal Service also says it earned $73,000 for every dollar it spent to send employees to a conference with clients at an Orlando resort last year.
WASTE WATCH: Postal Party

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