By Patrick Tepoorten

The latest controversy to hit the city of Harris is the existence of postcards sent out on behalf of City Clerk Kim Hugger, as she faced allegations of incompetence two weeks ago.

The postcards read, in part, ìThe Mayor and the City Council have come up with some trumped up charges to suspend Kim because she was honest and forthright in reporting activities of the Mayor and Council Member.î

The problem, according to Mayor Rick Smisson, who called the postcards an ìattack piece,î is that the postcards were never addressed. In fact, the postcards contain neither a recipient or return address. Also at issue for Smisson is the fact that the cards were never sent to St. Paul for processing. Rather, postcards containing no mailing information whatsoever were hand cancelled in Harris and delivered to residents without addresses included.

ìIf they had been sent down to St. Paul they would have been kicked out of the system,î said Smisson on Tuesday, May 9.

U.S. Postal Service Communication Specialist Pete Nowacki confirmed on Monday that sending mail without some form of address is indeed a violation of Postal Code, Section 1.3. That section clearly states that mail must have an address of some kind, even if it is of the simplified mass mailing type. ìThey shouldnít have been accepted as is,î said Nowacki of the address-less postcards.

He also stated that, in this case, a return address was not required, nor was sending the postcards to St. Paul for processing. He suggested that hand cancelling local mail is quite common.

Harris Postmaster Shirley Marshall stated on Monday that there is a simple explanation for the situation, but that postal regulations forbid her to speak with reporters on the subject.

Huggerís employment with the city has been terminated.