Chicago USPS postmaster replaced following mounting calls for her resignation over mail delays

CHICAGO — Chicago’s embattled postmaster has been replaced after months of outcry about mail delays, according to an internal announcement.

Wanda Prater, the leader of the U.S. Postal Service’s Chicago district, left that role Saturday following complaints from congressmen, aldermen and the local mail workers union about delivery delays. Taking the helm is Eddie Morgan Jr., who most recently served as postmaster of Kansas City, Missouri.

The announcement follows a postal agency inspector general audit of four South Side USPS sites from September 2020 through January at the request of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat whose district includes the region. The Auburn Park, Henry McGee, Ashburn and James E. Worsham stations had a cumulative 62,866 letters, flats and packages delayed during investigators’ visits on Sept. 21 and 22, the report found.

In February, Rush called on Prater to resign and said the delays amounted to an “absolute, abject, total, undeniable failure.” A flood of other congressmen and aldermen joined him.

On Wednesday, Rush announced Prater’s ouster in a news release that called the Chicago district’s lack of a response to the inspector general report “unacceptable.”

“I appreciate Ms. Prater’s service to our city and acknowledge the barriers she broke in her career; however, it is time for us to move on,” Rush said in a statement. “I look forward to meeting Mr. Morgan — who is also African American — in the coming weeks and working together to correct past issues and move forward in a constructive manner. My constituents depend on the prompt delivery of their mail, and they deserve no less.”

Morgan, the new postmaster, has been with the USPS for more than 22 years and began as a mail processing clerk in suburban Detroit before stints throughout the West and Midwest.

Mack Julion, Chicago chapter president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Wednesday the new leadership was a promising sign for rank-and-file workers grappling with what he said were staffing shortages and mismanagement.

“What we’ve seen in Chicago over the past two to three years under Wanda Prater has been unprecedented in terms of the failure with the deliveries and the overall service,” Julion said. “I wish her well in her future endeavors, but it was obvious that a change was needed in Chicago.

He added, “I would just say to our customers: Just be patient.”

USPS Chicago district spokesman Timothy Norman did not immediately respond to request for comment Wednesday night.

Prater will helm the Milwaukee USPS district, according to a letter from Elvin Mercado, the Postal Service central area’s vice president. The Wisconsin city’s territory has just over 1,200 employees and 700 city routes, compared with Chicago’s over 4,300 employees and 2,100 routes. Prater had been Chicago postmaster since 2018.