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Feud engulfs station

A volunteer fire chief ignores a "cease and desist" order, and the rift between some volunteers and the county worsens.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published September 9, 2005

SEFFNER - The boy in the picture is smiling. He's 5 years old, in black and white, perched on top of a fire engine his daddy patched together out of an old RC Cola truck and an oil drum.

The picture hangs on the wall in the Seffner-Mango Volunteer Fire Department. The boy is Bradley Price.

"I was cute and I was little," says Price, 48, gazing up at the picture. "I don't know what happened."

In April, Price resigned as the department's chief and president of the board amid allegations that he had sexually harassed a female volunteer and that he had posted nude pictures of himself on a dating Web site.

Facing disciplinary hearings and the wrath of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief William Nesmith, Price said, "It was simpler to walk away."

But he couldn't stay away.

Five months after his resignation, Price is back as president of the volunteer fire department board. He also serves as "administrative chief," a post he created for himself, which has him running the station's operations but not responding to calls.

Chief Nesmith has ordered Price to "cease and desist." In an Aug. 8 letter, Nesmith reminded Price that his ability to volunteer has been revoked.

"The intent was that you would not be involved in any operational or administrative function of any HCFR volunteer station," Nesmith wrote.

Last week, however, Price was back at the station for a meeting, greeting young recruits who accepted his presence without question.

"This station's always going to be part of me," he said as he sat at the kitchen table. "And regardless of what happens, I'm always going to be a part of it."

In 1960, Price's father, Henry, founded the Seffner-Mango Fire Department with a band of volunteers. They started with almost nothing, "no equipment and not a whole lot of knowledge," Henry Price said.

Bradley Price grew up watching his dad build fire engines in their driveway. He and his brother came along when the department fought brush fires. They would be given the task of beating out the smaller flames.

When he turned 18, Bradley Price became a firefighter. By the mid 1980s, in his 20s, he had become chief, like his father before him.

In those years, the volunteer stations were more "isolated" than they are today, said Nancy Couch, chief of volunteer services for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

"It's kind of an awkward relationship," Couch said. "We've embraced them as part of our department . . . but it's been an undertaking bringing them under the umbrella."

Officially under the auspices of the county, the status of the volunteers has always been unique: They are subject to the same policies and standards of conduct as their professional peers, even though they're not employees of the county.

Couch added, "There's been tension there and fear that the county is trying to take over."

The county reimburses $25,000 in expenses annually for each of the six volunteer stations. That figure will rise to $30,000 next year.

In recent years, Chief Nesmith has stepped up enforcement of county policies forbidding sexual harassment, nepotism and misuse of funds in the volunteer stations.

He said some volunteer departments didn't take this well. They were run "like a good ol' mom and pop show in years past," he said.

"It's like a child: If you've never said "no' to the child, and then suddenly you say "no,' they don't like that N-O word," Nesmith said.

The most troublesome department, he said, was Seffner-Mango.

Rumors were circling about sexual harassment at the station, yet when his office investigated, the accusers had always vanished, Nesmith said.

"Looking back on it, you could see the ongoing intimidation," he said. "The chief out there was very powerful in the neighborhood, and he used intimidation on these folks."

In April, firefighter Jackie Smith accused Price of sexual harassment. She said he had pressured her into dating him.

At the same time, allegations surfaced that Price had posted pictures of himself, some in uniform and some nude, on the dating site adultfriendfinder.com.

Price denied the sexual harassment charges, saying that Smith had dated him of her own free will. As for the nude pictures, he didn't deny it. But he said he didn't see that he'd done anything wrong.

"I did nothing illegal. I did nothing immoral," he said.

Instead, he said, the charges were part of a vendetta against him - a vendetta powered by Nesmith.

"I am a threat," Price said last week. "A threat against what they want to do. They want to eliminate the volunteers."

His father agrees with him. At 80, Henry Price is still an active member of the fire department and serves as its assistant chief.

"Right now we've got a (county) fire chief fighting against the (volunteer) department as hard as he can," he said.

Few in the volunteer community seem to share the Prices' views.

"We're better equipped, better trained and better managed than we have ever been," said Ben Fisher of the Lutz Volunteer Fire Department. "As far as I'm concerned, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is doing a good job for us."

Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department Chief Teddy Biesecker, who also heads the Hillsborough Volunteer Fire Services Association, said his organization recently gave Chief Nesmith a vote of confidence.

"He's been taking pretty good care of us," he said. "He doesn't make life difficult for us."

Biesecker, who succeeded Price as president of the volunteer association, said he knows Price well.

"I think Brad's personality - he's very strong minded and isn't afraid to speak," Biesecker said. "And that was part of his downfall."

In April, before Nesmith could hold a disciplinary hearing, Price resigned as chief and as president of the volunteer board. A new chief, Bob Van Etten, took command.

For Nesmith, the case was closed. "We reached our goal," he said.

But in June, the Seffner-Mango volunteer board went ahead with its own discipline review and found the sexual harassment charges groundless. The board also found that Price had not committed any infraction by posting nude pictures to the Internet. It found fault with Price only for posting a picture of himself in uniform.

Nesmith pointed out that the volunteer board included Price's father and several of his close friends. "They gave him a slap on the hand," Nesmith said.

Meanwhile, between April and July, the station lost nearly 10 firefighters - a fourth of its complement. Firefighters seemed to have different explanations for leaving: some volunteers left in disgust at Price's action, some left in solidarity with him, some left for their own reasons.

Steve Boynton, who now volunteers for the Bloomingdale station, said he is glad he left Seffner-Mango, which he described as cliquish and petty. "They treat me 100 percent more respectful here," he said.

But he praised Price. "My leaving had nothing to do with him," he said.

The exodus alarmed Price, he said.

"Morale went way down," he recalled. The station was "suffering."

He felt he had to come back. "My entire life, I built this place up and up and up," he said. "I can't sit back and watch it fall."

At the start of July, the board of directors voted him back in as president.

Soon afterward, the fire chief who had been running the station since Price's resignation took Price aside.

Chief Van Etten had been a professional firefighter, a battalion chief in the county department. He had volunteered for Seffner-Mango for years after he retired from the county.

He didn't waste words.

"I told him he was a pervert and a degenerate," Van Etten said.

"I said, "Brad, I lost all respect for you,' " Van Etten said.

From there, the two men were constantly at odds, Van Etten said.

As president of the board, Price was supposed to only have control over the business side of the station. But Van Etten said Price constantly undermined his authority as chief.

The station was run like "a dictatorship," he said.

At the end of July, Van Etten quit the force. Price appointed himself "administrative chief."

"I don't think he's good for the station," Van Etten said. "He leads by intimidation. . . . The Price family has ruined that organization since it's been in existence. I think it's time for them to back down and bring the station up to where it needs to be."

Others, however, are glad Price is back.

"I consider him more or less like a second father," said firefighter Josh Rosenberger, 22.

The sign outside the Seffner-Mango Fire Station reads: ACTIVELY SEEKING VOLUNTEERS.

The department is slowly building back up to its full complement, firefighters say.

There's no shortage of young would-be professional firefighters who are eager to get some hands-on experience.

"They tell me morale has come up and attitudes are changing," Price said. "From what I see, things are calming down."

But it's questionable how long it will stay that way.

When Nesmith found out that Price had become "administrative chief," he sent a terse letter.

"You will have to cease and desist any further activities in your administrative chief role immediately," Nesmith wrote. "I request that you respond to me in writing stating that you will comply with this direction."

Nearly a month later, Nesmith said, he hasn't heard from Price.

Last week, Price was sitting at the red linoleum table in the station's kitchen.

All around him, younger firefighters were digging into a fried chicken dinner. But they ate in silence. They were listening to Price criticize Nesmith.

"He is so afraid of the fact that I can make this place survive and stay afloat," he said.

The recruits didn't object.

"These guys treat me the same," Price said, looking at them. "I'm still Chief."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or by calling 661-2442.

[Last modified September 8, 2005, 10:43:08]