Kevin J. O’Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that a federal jury in New Haven has found GINO PASSARO, age 39, of Prospect, Connecticut, guilty of one count of stealing postal funds. The jury returned its verdict October 25, after a one-day trial.

According to the evidence presented during the trial, PASSARO was a Customer Service Supervisor at the United States Post Office in Branford, Connecticut. Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2005, a video camera captured footage of PASSARO twice entering a locked vault in the Branford Post Office. PASSARO used his combination to open the safe and then used a foot-long screwdriver to pry open cash drawers, from which he took less than $1000 in cash.

Passaro is scheduled to be sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis on January 12, 2007, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of one year and a fine of up to $100,000.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William J. Nardini.

There doesn’t seem to be much common ground between major mailers and some postal employees, especially APWU members. But here’s something both groups would probably agree on- Lawrence Buc’s suggestion, in rate case testimony on behalf of the DMA, that the USPS probably has too many supervisors:

According to the Postal Service, Cost Reduction Programs enable it to save 9,951.1 clerk and mailhandler workyears in FY 2006 through what the Postal Service labels as Section 1A programs. Cost reduction programs also enable it save 8,955.9 clerk and mailhandler workyears in these programs in FY 2007, and 5,106.4 clerk and mailhandler workyears in the Test Year. However, the Postal Service claims that these truly impressive savings in craft labor will not enable it to save even a single supervisor workhour in any of these three years.