David Mann

Q. Who are you, and what do you do?

DM. I am David Mann and I am a Senior Mapping Technician for the City of Columbia. I help maintain and update the City’s wastewater network within GIS and provide analytical support for Clean Water 2020 and City staff.

Q. What is the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your work bio?

DM. I love to travel. At times growing up, I lived in Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, and England because of my parents’ occupations and every couple of years my sister and I plan trips together. Our most recent trip was to Barcelona in December 2016.

Q. What’s the best experience you’ve had working for the City of Columbia?

DM. The best experience I’ve had with the City was also a tough experience for a lot of people who lived it – “it” being the flood. At the time, I was just getting used to working with the CW2020 program and then the rain came. It was a great learning experience for me early on in my career, having to be flexible to ever-changing projects, priorities, and deadlines.

Another great experience would have to be training and completing my first (and still only) half-marathon with John Riggs and Bill Davis amongst others. It was refreshing to get to know upper-level City staff in a different light than the occasional map request and to accomplish a personal goal with the help of colleagues.

Q. Oreos or Chips Ahoy, and why?

DM. Chips Ahoy with my lunch, Oreos with my milk.

Phillip Allan

Q. Who are you, and what do you do?

PA. I am Phillip Allan and I am a Senior Mapping Technician for the City of Columbia. It’s my job to make sure that all the wastewater assets such as manholes and pipes, and their condition, are in their correct location in our Geographic Information System (GIS) database. My current focus is on the sewers west of the Congaree River and those that are near the Downtown/Vista area.

Q. What is the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your work bio?

PA. I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is an organization that is dedicated to recreating and reenacting the arts, sciences, and fighting styles of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. I participate by going to events all over the Carolinas in a period-inspired doublet outfit and compete in sword fighting tournaments. 

Q. What’s the best experience you’ve had working for the City of Columbia?

PA. The best part of my job is getting to go out into the field and find a manhole that I found in an old record drawing. It’s all the joy of solving a puzzle, but in real life!

Q. Cowboys or aliens, and why?

PA. Aliens, definitely! I grew up watching all kinds of science fiction shows like Star Trek. Alien cultures are fascinating to think about.