Council plans to strip Rob Ford of mayor's power

Councillors turn their backs as Mayor Rob Ford speaks during council meeting City Hall Nov. 14, 2013. (Dave Abel/Toronto Sun)

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford will essentially be mayor in name only after Monday.

Three special council meetings — two to be held Friday and one on Monday — have been called to strip Ford of all the powers delegated to him by council and slash his mayor’s office budget.

Ford didn’t address questions about the looming measures Thursday night.

Sources in his office say the mayor is seeking legal advice about Monday’s special council meeting from lawyers.

Councillor Gord Perks said he was confident a majority of councillors were willing to support the extraordinary measures.

“This is not about doing anything to the mayor, this is about maintaining the stability of government and restoring confidence that the city of Toronto is being operated in a thoughtful and balanced manner by an elected council,” Perks said Thursday.

“We’re taking away every authority that we can legally take away (Friday) and we’re transferring the resources to be able to carry out that work to the deputy mayor’s office on Monday.”

On Thursday, 28 councillors signed a petition calling Monday’s special meeting where council will try to delegate all the powers and duties normally assigned to the mayor to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly. Councillors will also be asked to install Kelly as the head of the city’s powerful executive committee rather than the mayor. They would also take away the mayor’s right to sit as a member of any council committee.

Monday’s move will also include reallocating the operating budget of the mayor’s office.

If approved, Ford would be given staff and office budgets identical to any councillor while the rest of the mayor’s office budget would be reallocated to the clerk’s office to be administered with oversight from the deputy mayor.

Council would authorize all existing members of the mayor’s staff to be offered a chance to keep working for the mayor or be part of a transfer of staff to the deputy mayor. Kelly would assume responsibility for hiring and firing.

Council meets Friday to debate two other moves to limit Ford’s powers as mayor.

By the end of the day Friday, council will likely have voted to take away Ford’s emergency powers and to ability to hire and fire members of his executive committee.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti accused left-wing councillors of trying to orchestrate a “coup.”

“They want us to go in a particular direction,” Mammoliti said. “They are trying to spend the next year reversing and halting all the things and policies that we’ve been able to achieve.”

Councillor Adam Vaughan denied this was a “coup.”

He argued the police document released Wednesday outlined Ford “misusing the spoils of office” to have staff run “personal errands.”

“It is ridiculous,” Vaughan said.

Councillor Josh Colle said he will support the measures.

“My job as a councillor is to take care of the city and council and make sure that council business continues,” Colle said.

“(Ford) has brought this on himself and we’re forced to now, admittedly with very few tools … come up for solutions for this problem that was not of our doing.

“We will do what we can and what is necessary to address this issue.”

All the measures, if approved, would last until Nov. 30, 2014 — the end of the current council term.