Council member Fred Latham cast the dissenting vote.
The controversy surfaced earlier this year when irate homeowners in new subdivisions called council members to say they could not receive their mail because the cluster boxes required by the postal service were not installed.
Cases were noted where the first homeowner to move in was having to pay to put up the cluster box for the 16 empty lots around them. The units cost about $1,200 installed
Thomas Dann, director of planning for Killeen, told the council mailboxes on doorsteps or curbside are a thing of the past. U.S. Postal Service regulations now require the centrally located boxes in new subdivisions for more efficient delivery.
Dann said the postal service operations manual says the “customer” is responsible to put it up but does not specify who the customer is - developer, home builder or home buyer.
He said Congressman John Carter, R-Round Rock, and State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, researched it and found the U.S. Postal Service can mandate how mail will be delivered.
Dann offered the draft of a proposed ordinance making developers responsible for erecting the cluster boxes.
Latham, a real estate broker with an ongoing business relationship with developer Gary Purser who was present to protest the ordinance, chastised Dann from the dais.
“I continue to be disappointed by some of the actions taken by your department,” Latham said. “I think the customer has been and will continue to be the person that lives in the house.”
Dann said two postal representatives were present more qualified to answer the council’s questions - Killeen Postmaster Jefferson Davis and James Coultress, a spokesman from the Rio Grande District that includes all of San Antonio and Central Texas.
Mayor Tim Hancock dismissed the idea. He told Dann it was not a public hearing and only those would speak who had signed a speaker’s list prior to the meeting.
Tom Harper, co-chairman of the government relations committee for the Central Texas Homebuilders Association, said the issue sprang from an emotional frenzy because new homeowners were not getting their mail.
“When the postal service ceased to offer curbside service as an option in new subdivisions it gave them an opportunity to identify the builder and developer as the customer to put up cluster boxes,” Harper said.
Purser told the council he had a problem with the way the ordinance was written. He said it called for the postmaster to be the inspector for the installed cluster box and not a city inspector who he thought was more qualified. Purser said he also had a problem with the engineering requirements of the boxes.
Hancock relented and allowed the postal representatives to speak. Coultress said the district delivered millions of pieces of mail per day and were mandated to find the most efficient method since they operated at cost.
He told the council that once the cluster boxes were erected, the postal service would take over responsibility for maintenance.
Council members one-by-one bridled at the prospect of Killeen being powerless in the face of federal authority. None said they wanted to force developers or builders to be responsible. But in the end each said they had to vote for the greater good of the residents.
Council member Otis Evans said it was like the case of parents arbitrating the dispute between an older and younger child.
“In the end they made the decision that brought peace and quiet,” Evans said.
City attorney Kathy Davis said the postal service’s authority comes under Section 39 of the United States Code that is backed by the U.S. Congress. She said all case law she found required developers to be responsible.
“I was told Killeen is the only city in the Rio Grande District where the matter became an issue,” Ms. Davis said. “Everyone else went this route a long time ago.”
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