Court documents and interviews reveal the conditions at the Manchester Fire Department, above, at 37 Readfield Road, that led to the resignation earlier this year of the fire chief and a selectman, had been festering for years. Jessica Lowell/Kennebec Journal file

MANCHESTER — A confrontation that had been poised to boil over for years, with the town’s beleaguered fire chief at the center, finally erupted in September.

That’s when resident David Dale asked members of the Manchester Select Board if taxpayers had footed the nearly $17,000 of legal bills in a harassment case that Frank Wozniak, the fire chief, had brought against a former firefighter.

Former Manchester Fire Chief Francis R. Wozniak in 2019. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file

“We will defend our employees from any sort of verbal acts of violence against them,” Garry Hinkley, chairman of the Select Board, said during a tense exchange.

“One hundred percent — if it’s merited,” said Josh Black, a resident and former Manchester firefighter. “(But) there’s no merit behind it.”

By the time of this meeting, during which a shouting match ensued between Town Manager Debora Southiere and Josh Black and his father, John — both former Manchester firefighters — about the future of the fire department and the legal bills, Wozniak had resigned, as had Selectman Bob Gasper following a contentious meeting a month before.

Many of the concerns residents brought up at the two meetings were similar to questions the Black family had been asking town officials about for months: proper use of Wozniak’s town-owned fire truck, training for fire department staff, proper record-keeping and maintaining labor standards.

But the conditions that led Gasper and Wozniak to resign, and for John and Josh Black to become the vocal opposition to Wozniak’s leadership, had been festering for years, according to court documents and interviews with the parties. Much also centered around personal animosity between John Black and Wozniak.

HARASSMENT CLAIMS

Bob Gasper, seen in 2020, a selectman and volunteer firefighter, resigned in Augusta citing concerns with the direction of the town. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file

On Feb. 1, Wozniak filed a request for a protection from harassment order against John Black in Augusta District Court. He claimed Black, 70, had been intimidating, harassing and stalking him for a decade. He wrote in the complaint that the harassment had worsened in recent months — to a point where Wozniak was concerned “at some point someone will get hurt.”

Court filings say Wozniak agreed to drop the case Aug. 23, the same day he resigned following two months on paid administrative leave for being charged with impersonating a public official. A hearing to dismiss the harassment case was scheduled for Aug. 30, just a week later.

John Black denies the claims and said he was a vocal critic of Wozniak’s performance as fire chief. Black had spearheaded pushback against Wozniak and what he saw for years as fire department mismanagement during meetings and in communication to town leadership.

Black said his main concerns about Wozniak’s leadership were safety and the use of public property for work outside the purview of the fire department.

“The big deal was, when you go around a corner and there’s a fire truck running traffic for a guy digging a ditch,” Black said. “That stuff, you don’t do that.”

Early on Jan. 2, Wozniak drove to a Manchester Irving station in the town-owned pickup he often used as his personal vehicle, a practice which Black had complained about to town officials months before. Anna Carll, Wozniak’s fianceé and the town’s animal control officer, drove separately to the same station and parked at a nearby pump.

Carll testified later in court she did not feel comfortable going to the station alone because Black and his friends drink coffee in the attached Circle K convenience store most mornings. 

Wozniak testified he recognized John Black and some of his friends in the window and pointed in their direction, leading Black to exit the Circle K and confront Wozniak at the gas pump. Wozniak testified he didn’t recall responding to Black, but Black, who is retired from the fire department, said Wozniak told him he couldn’t “wait until this afternoon when you (Black) have to take your fire plates off.”

Months later, Black said Southiere asked him to return his firefighter license plates — which he said no other retired firefighter has been asked to do as far back as he can remember. State law allows retired firefighters to continue to use the plates “upon approval by the fire chief, assistant fire chief or acting fire chief.”

“If that wasn’t personal, I don’t know,” Jean Black, John’s wife, said. “This whole thing, ‘What can I do to get back at him for what he said, what he wanted.'”

Wozniak and Carll also testified that Black took photos of them in Manchester’s Longfellow’s Greenhouses on one occasion. They testified Black walked in, took photos of them with his phone down by his side and then left.

John Black denies the claims. He said he was in the store to check on the walking sticks he sells there, like he does several times a week, and he did not interact with Wozniak or Carll.

Wozniak also cited a Seniors Club event at the Manchester Fire Department building at the end of January as a reason for requesting the order. Black attended the event, but he did not interact with Wozniak.

“I imediatly (sic) felt very anxious and like I couldn’t do my job with him here,” Wozniak wrote in his complaint, submitted two days later on Feb. 1.  “It made it so I was not able to be at my place of work without a confrontation. His intention being here is to torment me and threaten me.”

He was granted a temporary restraining order the same day.

Wozniak also cited several instances where he said John Black showed up at scenes the Manchester Fire Department responded to, alleging Black shouted at him on one occasion and filmed the scene on another. Black, now a member of the Readfield Fire Department, said he never yelled at Wozniak and took one picture of Wozniak placing cones at a scene without gear on.

“In every scene I ever went to, I took maybe one picture, two pictures,” Black said. “I saw him on a scene one day, fire chief, with no gear, putting cones out in (U.S. Route) 202. Wait a minute — you’re supposed to be a professional, you’re a full-time fire chief and you’re telling me you can do that and there’s nothing wrong with that?”

‘VACATE THE CASE’

In court in April, JOhn Black and his attorney, Walter McKee, argued Wozniak didn’t provide enough evidence to justify granting his request for a permanent protection from harassment order.

McKee argued Black’s monitoring of Wozniak was “consistent with a responsible citizen concerned about work done by a town official,” primarily off of town property.

The hearing was not completed that day, and a second hearing was not scheduled.

Black later said he never understood Wozniak’s claims — he recognized he was critical of Wozniak, but he said he didn’t deserve to be put through a case like the one Wozniak brought.

“I mean, when you put people through something like that, it’s like a tragedy,” he said. “It’s always on your mind. You’re looking around the corner and make sure the next sheriff ain’t going to show up, or state trooper. ‘What did I do now? I haven’t done anything.’ That hit home.”

In mid-August, McKee filed a motion to dismiss after four months of inaction, and on Aug. 15, Wozniak emailed his lawyer and Southiere that he thought the legal team should “vacate the case.”

While he remained concerned about Black’s actions, he dropped the case, he said, partially because the town attorney told him town officials would no longer pay his legal bills. Invoice records show Manchester officials paid Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, a Portland-based law firm, $16,925.75 over 11 months to represent Wozniak.

Wozniak said the town attorney told him Aug. 21 that town officials would no longer pay his legal bills, just two days before a scheduled meeting with Southiere and other town leaders. By this point, Wozniak had been on paid administrative leave related to the police impersonation case for nearly two months, and he said he thought he would be fired in the meeting.

Southiere declined to clarify the nature of that meeting, citing personnel issues.

Wozniak said he received no communication about the case between the Aug. 15 email and the Aug. 21 call. Instead of attending the Aug. 23 meeting, Wozniak resigned and agreed to drop the case on that same day.

“I am so over all of this and just want my life back,” Wozniak wrote.

A POST-WOZNIAK DEPARTMENT

After Wozniak’s resignation — and amid tense exchanges in Select Board meetings — Southiere has maintained she wants to move the department forward into a post-Wozniak era.

The department remains without a permanent chief and is staffed with just seven firefighters, well below the department’s maximum roster of 30 firefighters during the tenure of Wozniak’s predecessor, Bug Cram, but up from the minimum of five at the end of Wozniak’s tenure, according to Southiere.

Manchester has already received three applications for the chief position after posting the job in October, and two former Manchester firefighters have rejoined since Wozniak’s resignation — signs Southiere said show a renewal is coming.

“I think we’re finally going in a positive direction,” Southiere said. “We’re plugging along now.”

Wozniak said he questions whether seven firefighters are now on the crew, and that at least seven firefighters have or will resign in solidarity with him, though Wozniak failed to provide specifics on which firefighters these would be. Wozniak said while he was chief, he had kicked out one of the returning firefighters for insubordination.

Southiere said she has taken a step back from involving herself in the fire department, leaving future improvements to the new chief, who she hopes will have a distinct vision for the department.

But her own goals remain: reinstating the youth firefighter program, bringing back the women’s auxiliary — which was discontinued under Wozniak’s tenure — and filling the department’s roster.

John Black said he has been pushing for those ideas for years, especially while Wozniak was chief.

Regardless, he said the priorities of the next fire chief will be crucial in implementing the renewal that he and Southiere each envision.

“They need the right person to be the next chief,” Black said. “They need a guy that’s going to be respectful, honest and reliable, and look at the firefighters he’s got and the ones that would like to join — young people. In my eyes, is that going to happen? I’d like to see who it is.”