Winter Haven Fire Chief a Man of Many Firsts

Tony Jackson, Winter Haven's fire chief, was able to settle an adversarial relationship between his department and Polk County, ending a bitter wage dispute.

By RYAN E. LITTLETHE LEDGER

WINTER HAVEN | Growing up in one of the key battlegrounds of the civil rights movement, Winter Haven Fire Chief Tony Jackson attended blacks-only schools, was shot at by white men in a passing car, and felt the walls of his house shake when a bomb was infamously hurled into an all black church, killing four girls in a church washroom. But instead of being bitter, Jackson blazed a trail through the ranks of Birmingham's Fire Department. He was one of the department's first four black officers and was the first black captain, the first black battalion chief and the first black assistant chief, eventually rising to deputy chief before taking his current job in Winter Haven."(Living through the civil rights movements) sorta served to motivate me to become successful in life," Jackson said. "That might sound a little bit funny, but it actually did. I could have gotten bitter about it. I could have been a bigot myself, but I guess I was a dreamer."Jackson transformed those experiences into the gusto and moxie needed to overhaul the Winter Haven Fire Department when he took the job 13 years ago.He overcame an adversarial relationship between his department and the county, ended a bitter wage dispute with the union and earned such high respect of Winter Haven firefighters, that a year later, they voted to end union representation, putting their faith in Jackson and the rest of the fire administration — a trust and faith that still stand today.

EARLY LIFEJackson was born to Robert Gene Jackson and Bobbie Jackson in 1951. His father worked in a steel mill and his mother was a housewife, but Robert Gene died in a car accident two months before Jackson was born. His mother never remarried.He graduated with an associate's degree from Jefferson State Community College and jumped around a number of jobs before apprehensively taking the firefighter's test in Birmingham. Two years later, he was hired. "Firefighters tell you, ‘Nah, man. I was never scared.' They're lying," Jackson said. "There's always that anxiety. And there's always that fear factor that you have and you're trained to do the job, and in a sense, that's the best thing. You need to have a little bit of fear because you need to fear stuff that can kill you. Once you fear it, you respect it. Once you respect it, you resort back to your training ... and that makes you a better firefighter."The scariest moment in Jackson's career came when he was a lieutenant fighting a four-story building fire in 1983. The building had a warehouse on the first floor, textiles on the second, office space on the third and mass storage on the fourth. Jackson and his crew entered a stairway and became immediately entangled, but couldn't tell what they were caught up on through the thick smoke."We couldn't see anything so we just started trying to get each other loose," Jackson said. "And we didn't have the boom conduction mics at the time. You just had to shout through the face mask."Jackson reached to grab the air tank of the man in front of him but got a handful of the wire entangling the crew in the burning building. About the time they figured out it was baling wire, the ceiling on the floor above had started coming down. "The sound and stuff made us think the whole thing was coming in," Jackson said.But they were able to cut their way out of the wire and follow the fire hose back out of the building. And when they were finally outside, the other firefighters didn't even know a group of men were in desperation.

COMING TO WINTER HAVENJackson came to Winter Haven in 1999 after years of the Birmingham Fire Department grooming its senior officers to become fire chiefs elsewhere."You are sort of expected to become a fire chief somewhere," Jackson said.Jackson had held the deputy position for about two years when he began looking for a fire chief's job. He applied for a job in Vallejo, Calif., and in Winter Haven, but after doing his final interview in Winter Haven, before finding out he had a job, he had made up his mind he was staying in Birmingham or going to Winter Haven. Vallejo, Calif. was just too far from home, he said.About a week later, Carl Cheatham, the Winter Haven city manager at the time, called Jackson while he was at work to offer him the job, but the salary offer was too low."(Cheatham) said, ‘Well, you'll be retiring and stuff like that. You'll be getting an additional (pension).' And I said ‘Yes, Mr. Cheatham, that is true. But my wife is going to be losing her job and that's part of our income.'"Jackson got off the phone, and Birmingham Fire Chief Ray Brooks walked into his office, apparently eavesdropping on the phone conversation. Jackson relayed the conversation to Brooks and Brooks told him not to worry. "They'll call you back," Brooks said.Cheatham called the next day with a higher figure. Jackson took the job.Once here, Jackson had a fire department split over union demands for pay raises, low morale among crew members, and an adversarial relationship between the Winter Haven Fire Department and the Polk County Fire Department — issues he would overcome in his first two years."I wasn't used to this sort of somewhat adversarial relationship that one organization would have with another," Jackson said. "So I had to start digging into that and find out why these things occurred ... the situation had developed a long time ago."That's when Polk County Fire Chief Billy Gunter and Jackson got together to work out the problems. That meeting began an interlocal agreement between the city and fire county departments, where Winter Haven covers parts of the county in exchange for county firefighters covering parts of the city far away from the city's center. The agreement has been in place ever since and the relationship between fire squads has improved drastically."Some of the older guys had an attitude that (the agreement) was going to be around for about a year and that would be it. Then we would go back to doing things the way we were ... But we just kept working at it. Sure, problems arose. But we always got together to work them out."For firefighters, the biggest change was Jackson's leadership style, which firefighters trusted so much they voted in August 2000 to drop their union."I attribute the dropping of the union to be one of his best (accomplishments) because (it proves) people think he is fair-minded and listens to what you have to say," said Lieutenant Inspector Investigator Michael Steen, who has been a Winter Haven firefighter since 1992. "Anytime the department drops the union, they are going out on a limb ... and he followed through with that trust."Steen said Jackson's measured response to issues and ability to listen and use good ideas make him a fire chief he hopes will stay five more years — the amount of time Steen has until retirement.Now, in his 13th year as fire chief, Jackson said he hasn't decided when he will retire, but when he does, he's planning on staying in Winter Haven and opening a restaurant. He's thinking a soup and sandwich shop, but he can cook anything, he said."I like making homemade soups and I like putting my twist on them," Jackson said. "That's the relaxing factor for me. Getting in the kitchen and cooking."

[ Ryan Little can be reached at ryan.little@theledger.com or 863-401-6962. Follow him on Twitter @LedgerRyan ]