This statement is from city of Columbia Street Superintendent Rusty Rowell:
After Mayor Houston’s statement on July 13th, there seems to be some confusion about my certification. I want to ensure the public that I am certified in all the required aspects of my position.
Since Mayor Houston has taken office, the only certification seminars that I have been asked to attend was for certification as a Commercial Class I Rubbish Site Operator. This is a certification that I had already received on March 1, 2009, and that does not expire until March 1, 2012. Since I was already certified, and my child was sick at the time, I did not attend and waste city funds on a duplicate certification.
The transfer of job duties was not my idea. However, like Earl, I will support Mayor Houston and The Board of Aldermen in their decision and continue to perform my assigned job duties.
David Rusty Rowell
City of Columbia Street Superintendent Rusty Rowell provided this scanned image of his certification to the Marion County Informer.
If it were me, I would be keeping a diary daily of all of my work day, and especially notating all supervisor requests and all correspondence. Document everything. I would work on this during my working hours. This would be a “must” from now on.
Very good. Wonder where and if there is such a certification for Mr. Turnage–or will the taxpayer have to pay to have him certified for a job already being performed by one certified to do so?
That’a'boy Mr. Rusty. Now, I wonder if all them people like 2 cents and others will come back from the other article and say I am sorry to you after they commented that you were not certified. Ivan you make a good point. Mr. Rusty is already certified and has no complaints against his job performance. So, why should we tax payers pay for Earl Turnage to go get the same certifications that Mr. Rusty already has. I aint been to college or nothing, but that is stupid.
Why? For no other reason than because this is the avenue the city choose to travel. Their desired outcome, they think, merits their means to get there. Sickening, isn’t it?
The Mayor is the one who owes him an apology, by insinuating he was not certified when making this statement: “Due to personal reasons, Rowell has difficulty attending certain seminars that are necessary to be certified”.
The mayor is only only stating the facts.Mr.Rowell is certified but he must meet continuing education requirements for Renewal/Recertification.Which is what the seminars are for.Do a little research !
Duh. . . I know what continuing ed credit is about. The point you are missing is this: by making that statement, the mayor insinuated that the employee was not keeping up with his certification. And we now know that was an exaggeration, at best. If the mayor had been ‘only stating the facts’ as you say, he would not have made such a vague, misleading statement.
who cares
To James:
almost everyone cares, apparently.
cool it people,mr. turnage did not change mr.rusty’s job. the board did it.and mr. turnage only said that mr. rusty wanted to know why, and he did not know why the board did it.mr. turnage is a man of GOD and would not take part in causing trouble for anyone.
To Cool Down:
Naive I am not; mr turnage very likely knows far more about this than you think
Cool Down enough with poor saintly Earl. Has anyone blamed Earl for the change? I have not seen one post that blames Earl. Rusty did not want to know why- Earl said Rusty did not understand why. Earl aint got no business talking about or for Rusty- that is against city policy! This article was actually nothing about Earl. It was Rusty proving that he has the certification. Now people have every right to wonder if Earl is certified and if not why we are having to pay for him to be certified when Rusty already is certified. That is a waste of money. Question Earl was there long before Rusty was hired. So, why is it that Earl was not moved up instead of rusty hired?- Leave God out of this. This is about who can and should do the job not who is the better Christian.
Any time I have ever needed someone from the city to do anything for me I have called Rusty. He and his crew have been johnny on the spot to come to my rescue. Rusty is doing a very good job with what he has to work with. If he was suppose to go get certified and didn’t, that would be another question. Since he has shown that he was and still is certified, I believe he is due an apology from the Mayor and aldermen. Leave a good man alone while he is doing a good job for the city.
Well said and amen, whoda thunk it.
WOW! Proof of certification…pictures are worth a 1000 words! However, the expiration date states March 1, 2012 and NOT life time certification. For those that do NOT know, certifications have to be renewed and that means the person certified has to be recertified. I am positive several will say “well Mr. Rowell is certified through March 1, 2012″ BUT you also do NOT know the terms of recertification. I am sure a 1 day training/conference is NOT all there is to it! How many hours of training and how many days of training are required for recertification? Oh, since Mr. Rowell did NOT attend the training/conference for 1 particular day due to unforeseen problems, has he attempted to attend any of trainings/conferences for recertification before or after the date in question? Just because he could NOT attend one day does NOT mean he has been given a “free pass” by State of Mississippi! How many hours of training/conferences are required for this type of certification? I recently asked someone and was told it is around 30 hours! SO, how many days of training would that require of an individual for recertification? He was unable to attend 1 day of training but what about the other required days? Did he attend any of those days? How about when is the next training/conference? Has Mr. Rowell enrolled in it for recertification? I am sure they are not offered all of the time and time is ticking…
Anyone that holds ANY type of certification knows that you must have completed ALL requirements for recertification long before the current certification expires OR guess what?? You are no longer certified! Personally, I must be recertified long before my current certification’s expiration date or I will NOT continue to be employed.
By far am I one that ever takes the side of the Columbia Board of Aldermen or the Mayor, but in this case, things do NOT appear as if they have made a mistake. The ones of you that are complaining about the cost of these trainings/conferences to the City of Columbia do NOT have a clue as to what could happen to OUR City if people are NOT certified within the areas they are in charge! The Mayor and Board of Aldermen do NOT make up the rules and regulations set forth by the State of Mississippi OR the US Federal Government. If you have an issue with these rules and regulations take it up with the right people!
Josh could probably research the terms and conditions of recertification such as the required hours and print it on this site. THEN, we can ALL see who was right and who was wrong in this particular situation.
I guess Rowell is no true Scotsman(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman) now;) Using an ad hoc hypothesis is not going to make you look any better, 2 cents. You were wrong, but instead of admitting it, you turn to intentional logical fallacy in an attempt to save your original “he is not certified and should be fired” position from being wrong!!!!!! Just admit you were wrong and move on. In two years, you can come back and “demand” to see whether or not Rowell has his certification.
I have several certifications-none of which I enroll for or renew until they come due.Do you renew your driver’s license before they are due?The point here is that Rowell is certified and not yet due to re-certify.First, it was that he isn’t, now people areworried aboutwhen he needs to renew? Ridiculous.More importantly, be worrieed about the certification that Turnage does not have but is required to in assuming his new duties.Mayor stating the facts? You better re-read.
This is a link to all the questions about recertification.
http://www.deq.state.ms.us/newweb/MDEQRegulations.nsf/259144e4c2c8c7d986256b9900677952/9388a99a130bb44886257021006e05b2?OpenDocument
IT SEEMS LIKE THE MAYOR AND ALDERMAN ( AND WOMEN ) WOULD HAVE MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN THIS. WHY DONT THEY WORRY ABOUT SOME OF THE STREETS IN COLUMBIA? I DONT KNOW IF ANYONE HAS BEEN UP NORTH MAIL LATLEY BUT THAT STREET IS AWFUL.SOLID HOLES FROM NORTH MAIN AND HWY 13 TO HWY 35 BY PASS. SEEMS LIKE SOME ONE IN POWER COULD USE A LITTLE ENERGY TO GET THIS STREET FIXED OR AT LAEST FILL IN SOME OF THE HOLES.
I am not too worried about the certification,it’s the jobs that haven’t been done. And, the lentgh of time it takes to get it done.
The mayor makes a statement that infers Supervisor Rowell is not certified. Some readers called for Rowell to be fired and accused him of not doing his job. Rowell responds with the proof that he is certified and will be until 2012. It turns out that Rowell was certified. Yet, citizens like 2 cents are still not satisfied. He is certified; so, why is 2 cents worried about recertification hours? Worry about that two years from now when/if he fails to achieve them. This sounds more like an all out witch hunt. We all need to keep in mind that these are human beings! I would agree with the above comments in wondering if Turnage is certified? If he isn’t, this is hardly the time to pay for him to get certified when several MCI articles back we are about to have water and property taxes increase to pay for what we MUST.
I have a wonderful bossman. I got ya back, along wit the city workers. He’s doing good job.