One of Mayor Rob Ford’s senior staffers has been suspended for a week without pay.

The mayor slapped the suspension on Dave Price — Ford’s director of logistics and operations — after learning he called a Toronto Sun reporter, refused to identify himself and complained about a headline on a story about the staffer misrepresenting himself when he called to the mayor’s radio show.

“I suspended Dave without pay for a week,” Ford told the Sun late Tuesday.

Price called the Sun’s City Hall Bureau around 2 p.m. Tuesday to register the complaint. He was concerned about a headline on an online story about his habit of calling into the mayor’s radio show claiming to be “Dave” from different parts of the city and showering Ford with compliments.

Those calls to the mayor’s Newstalk 1010 radio show were made before Price got his taxpayer-funded gig in the mayor’s office.

Tuesday’s call came from a blocked number but the voice sounded similar to Price’s City Hall voicemail and to that of Dave — the caller to the mayor’s radio show.

“‘Staffer pretended to be caller to Toronto mayor’s radio show’” Price began. “Pretended?”

Asked if it was Dave Price speaking, the caller laughed.

“Pretended? I know you don’t write the headlines but that’s out and out wrong,” he said.

When asked if he said he was “Dave from Scarborough” when he called the radio station, Price said “no.”

Price was then asked to clarify what happened.

“What do you mean what happened?” he asked.

“Number one it wasn’t me and all I’m asking you to do is correct the headline.”

The Sun then asked Price if he was denying he made the calls to the mayor’s show.

“Yeah, anyway, just the headline’s wrong — that’s all I’ve got to say,” he said before hanging up.

Minutes after the mayor’s office was asked about the incident, Ford asked to hear the recording of the phone call. Even before he listened to the tape in his office, the mayor offered a full apology.

“I apologize on behalf of my staff for what happened,” Ford said. “I don’t deal with people like this. So I’ll be taking appropriate action.”

Hours later as he left City Hall, Ford confirmed he’d suspended Price for a week.

The mayor’s office confirmed Price “admitted he made a mistake” when confronted about Tuesday’s phone call.

“(The mayor) holds us to a high standard,” said one mayor’s office official.

Price started working in Ford’s office in April.

He was Ford’s high school football coach when the mayor was a student at Scarlett Heights. A longtime friend of Councillor Doug Ford, Price worked as campaign manager for the mayor’s brother in the 2010 election.

When he was first hired by Mayor Ford, he declined to talk about his new job when approached by the Sun.

“I’m not the story,” Price said at the time.