The Postal Service apparently wants to keep Doug Tulino on the job very badly.
Tulino has spent his postal career in labor relations and human resources, becoming chief human resources officer and executive vice-president in 2020. Despite little if any experience in field operations or management, he was chosen by former postmaster general Louis DeJoy to serve as deputy PMG. DeJoy claimed at the time that he chose Tulino to help implement those portions of his 10-Year Plan that involved employees. Why Tulino couldn’t fulfill that task as a mere executive vice-president wasn’t explained.
Nonetheless, when DeJoy was ousted in March, Tulino became the acting PMG. Now that the governors of the USPS have selected David Steiner as the 76th postmaster general, some observers might assume that he would be allowed the customary latitude to select his own deputy.
Lame duck insurance
However, it seems that wasn’t part of the plan – or The Plan. In a May 29 decision announced in a Form 8-K filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission on June 4, the governors precluded any chance of Steiner having at opportunity by signing Tulino to a lucrative deal to stick around.
As stated in the Form 8-K,
“On May 29, 2025, at the direction of the Governors of the United States Postal Service, the Postal Service entered into a Retention Agreement with Douglas Tulino, acting Postmaster General and permanent Deputy Postmaster General and Chief Human Resources Officer, providing for certain retention incentives to induce Mr. Tulino to continue in his position of Deputy Postmaster General and Chief Human Resources Officer once the new Postmaster General assumes his position. Under the Retention Agreement as specified by the Governors, the Postal Service agreed to set Mr. Tulino’s salary at $342,280 effective March 24, 2025, the date he began serving as the acting Postmaster General. Mr. Tulino will also be entitled to receive a retention payment of One Hundred Thousand Dollars within thirty calendar days of May 29, 2025, and an additional retention payment of One Hundred Thousand Dollars within thirty calendar days of December 31, 2025, as long as he remains employed by the Postal Service as of those dates. The retention payments will be paid into Mr. Tulino’s interest-bearing deferred compensation account to ensure compliance with applicable statutory compensation caps.”
Protecting The Plan
Such incentives might be chicken feed in a big private corporation but, in the context of the Postal Service, payments of such size are notable. Regardless, the question is how Tulino’s future contributions can be considered so valuable as to warrant such a deal; other executives with significant operational responsibilities haven’t been locked-in with similar agreements.
Did sitting at DeJoy’s right hand for nearly five years provide him unique preparatory training to move into the top job? Apparently not, because he wasn’t the governors’ choice for PMG. Therefore, why could his retention be so important?
A likely reason could be that there’s still significant interest among some of the governors, and some senior postal executives who advise them, in assuring continued implementation of DeJoy’s Plan. To them, having Steiner come aboard and start trying to move the Postal Service in a different direction – such as by altering or pausing parts of The Plan, for example – would be concerning. By keeping Tulino around, and still sitting on the Board, the DeJoy camp would have another vote to curb Steiner’s independent thinking.
Before Steiner’s selection, and aside from the debate over whether he was hand-picked by the president, there were two clearly different views about DeJoy’s successor: whether it should be a DeJoy loyalist or someone with fresh ideas. Though Steiner reportedly interviewed well and showed the governors he would be a good choice, those who want to perpetuate the DeJoy Plan have found a way to add a little insurance to their chances to do so.
As was reported last March, though DeJoy was no longer PMG, the USPS quickly rehired him as a “senior executive advisor” to the Executive Leadership Team and he was still in HQ long after he was supposedly let go. Obviously, though by now he’s been out of the PMG job for three months, it seems Louis DeJoy is never really gone.