Former CSAC member endorses Bailar’s comments on stamp program

A former member of the United States Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee has endorsed former postmaster general Benjamin Bailar’s criticism of the current stamp program.

Cary Brick, a former congressional staffer who left the committee last year, said in an Aug. 7 statement that he also fears marketing officials are having too much influence on stamp selections.

“The bottom-line fact is this: the Committee has been hijacked by the Postal Service’s marketing geniuses who believe that stamp subjects should be selected and designed with what they hope their potential sales revenues will bring into the coffers,” he said in a statement.

“They apparently are convinced that 49-cent stamps will bring the Postal Service into the black. What nonsense.”

Brick also said the response of USPS officials to Bailar’s criticisms missed the former postmaster general’s key point.

“To the dismay of many of those who follow closely the stamp subject selection and design process, both inside and outside the Postal Service, the integrity of the stamp program has been compromised,” said Brick.

“The Postal Service’s marketers seem to equate postage stamps with super sized soft drinks and fast food burgers.

“The former should not be profit-driven; sales of the latter feed the profits of the ‘you want fries with that?’ crowd.

“Those geniuses are doing the Postal Service in general and their boss, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe, a major disservice. Neither deserve it. Their actions deserve ‘return to sender’ treatment.”

In an interview with the Washington Post, Bailar acknowledged he has not attended recent meetings of the stamp committee because of his wife’s illness, but he told the newspaper he had been reading the committee’s minutes and was well aware of its current agenda.

Janet Klug, the CSAC chair, had suggested in an interview with Linn’s that Bailar was unaware of the progress the panel has made in recent meetings.

The report on Bailar's comments about CSAC appeared on the front page of the Aug. 25 Linn’s.