 Hi, my name is Sharon Nelson, HR manager responsible for talent acquisition for the City of Columbia. Talent in the City is our effort to highlight and showcase the departments with the City of Columbia, the department's impact players, as well as the talent who make the City run every single day. These impact players and departments oftentimes don't get the spotlight that they deserve, but without them, the City of Columbia would not run as a beautifully oiled machine that it is. Well, speaking of well-oiled machines, who do you think keeps all the city vehicles oiled and gassed and the tires rotated and all that good stuff? The maintenance, rather well, the City of Columbia Fleet Services, they're responsible for all that good stuff, and today, we're going to talk to some of the folks that make it happen. I'm Dodie Wells, and I'm a partial supervisor for the City of Columbia. I am Bobby Johnson, and I am the Heaviside Fleet Service Manager. Well, I started out working as a light mechanic at Westin Auto, and then I moved on to Sears. I was looking for a change that I tried to see there. I started at the City of Columbia in 93. I did an internship through Hayward Career Center. I did that for two years, and then once I graduated, I actually went into the military and then came back to the City of Columbia in 1998. Well, what I do is in the parts room, I just hold all the parts for fire trucks, police cars, trash trucks, garbage trucks, anything from a weed eater to a fire truck, you know, to get all the parts. Well, we have Bendix training, Brake training. We had ASC certifications that we had to obtain. A lot of the city training is on hand, and it's training to train. So we have forever training and always growing. We're a big family. The guys and gals, because we have male and female, it's a very family-oriented environment. We all eat together. We all work together. We do after-hours stuff together. So, you know, being a family is an understatement. We actually spend more time here than we do with our real families. So it's a blessing. We're a municipality, and coming from the private sector, you'll be working on commission. We don't have any commission at fleet service. Everything is hourly, and we don't deal with the public per se. Not all of us. Not none of the techs. Our upper management does, but as far as the techs go, we have a chain of command, and pretty much everything goes through the chain of command. I guess it's less headache because, you know, it's more, we all come from the same. So you know, it's a lot more respect, and it's more a relaxed work area. Alrighty, well, we're going to talk to Tyrone Goodwin, who is the fleet administrator for the fleet services, who's going to tell us a little bit more about what you can expect in this department. We do light side technicians here on this side. We do oil changes, tire rotations, battery swaps, light swaps, belt hoses, any maintenance that the vehicle needs from the city. Also, we have a heavy side that does your solid waste trucks, fire trucks, the Holies cars, waste services, trash trucks. We do it all in-house. We do offer in-house training as well. We do internship with Richland School District 1. Tell us a little bit about the importance of these jobs and how they kind of contribute to the success of the city. Yeah, we're pretty much in control of everything, and we're held responsible for everything. So anytime one breaks down, whether it's here or on the highway, we do have transportation that actually goes out, tows the vehicle in, bring them here. We service them, get them back as quick as we can. That's on the heavy side as well as the light side. Awesome, and tell me about the experience that you kind of require people to have for these jobs. On the light side, really no experience is really needed, but if you've got ASC certifications, that helps a lot with the pay grade. But we do offer on-site training here, and we train as long as it takes to get you in. A little less pressure on me. I dealt with the general public for 34 years at Jim Hudson Automotive, but here I'm dealing with the straight managers in each department for each division, and I got about 22 technicians that I'm in charge of as well. Awesome. Talk a little bit about the workflow. I understand that you all are actually getting pretty staffed here. Yeah, we are picking up the pace a little bit. We was understaffed a little, but with the pay increase that they offered the city, so that's bringing some more guys in that's willing to train, and we also are still looking. So if you're in the chance or in the market for a mechanical experience job, we hear it. I would say if you're looking for a career and you want a low stress work environment, great benefits, whatever you try to accomplish, you can get it done through the city. Whatever your goals are in life, you can get all that accomplished through the city. All you have to do is come, be a part, and work your way through, and you can start from the bottom and work your way all the way to the top if that should go. For more information about this position and its department, please visit www.columbiasc.gov.