Council Will Try to Cut the Mayor’s Office Budget and Remove Ford as Chair of Executive Committee

[brooklynite]

Source: Torontoist

The list of efforts to curb Rob Ford is growing again: councillors have now signed a petition to convene a third special meeting (in addition to the two they’ve already called) with the aim of cutting the mayor’s office budget and staff. The goal is to shrink the mayor’s office budget to the size of a councillor’s; this would enable him to retain three or four staff members and have some money for expenses. The remainder of his budget would, if this motion passes, be transferred to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly’s office. Ford’s staff would be given the option of trying to stay with the mayor or tranferring to the deputy mayor.

The motion they have presented also would temporarily revise council’s structure so that the mayor, who is automatically the chair of the most powerful of council’s committees—the executive committee—would no longer serve in that role, and would be replaced by the deputy mayor.

Yesterday councillors—who can convene a special meeting on 24 hours’ notice if a majority of them sign a petition to do so—filed paperwork for two meetings with the City clerk’s office. Those two meetings (they need two separate ones because special meetings must, according to council procedures, be dedicated to narrowly-defined issues) will look at curbing the mayor’s authority.

At the first meeting—which will begin on Friday at 9:30 a.m.—they will debate whether to strip the mayor of his power to appoint and remove the chairs of council’s various committees. (This is significant because chairs are the gatekeepers of their committees’ respective agendas—it’s a way of controlling what does and doesn’t get debated at City Hall.) That motion would reaffirm that the councillors currently chairing committees—all of whom were appointed by Rob Ford—would keep their posts.

Read more: http://torontoist.com/2013/11/council-will-try-to-cut-the-mayors-office-budget-and-remove-ford-as-chair-of-executive-committee/

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The miracle of a legislature built on Parliamentary system...

[Eatacig]

1. Who gives a damn

Don't we have enough problems in our own Country!!!!!!

[brooklynite]

2. Um, are we now allowed to ONLY discuss US issues?

Thanks for clearing that up.

[freshwest]

3. Hey, it's a feel good thing. Proves we're not the only crazies in the world.

The mystery of the issues Ford ran on to get into office and interests of the people who voted for him, has unfortunately been left out of all these stories.

Is he right? Is he left? Is he a socialist? Or a tool of the oligarchs or corporations?

I suspect he's one of the later, as they have very poor taste in shills, and have to dredge the bottom of the barrels to get people to lie about their agenda. He seems teabaggerish.

While we're enjoying piling on to this clown, such details would be more interesting than the freak show presented.

But that's what MSM gives us and likely, what they feed to Canadians, too. This is more like the stain on the blue dress reporting.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

4. Ford has become a real distraction,

up here in Canada. The confirmation of the crack tape, and his daily antics have taken the spotlight away from his fishing buddy Stephen Harper who was getting nailed by the media for his involvement with the Senate corruption scandal.

Ford is a populist Conservative. A racist, homophobe who was elected to bust the city's public works union, cut property and vehicle taxes for suburbia, be tough on crime, and install overpriced and underutilized subways to the burbs, while the downtown's infrastructure crumbles.

Unfortunately, despite being closely linked to Harper, and also the provincial conservatives, the media spotlight is focused on his buffoonery, instead of the hypocrisy of his brand of conservatism. Fords base is key to the future of the Conservative party, but sadly, few are connecting the dots or taking advantage of conservatives guilt by association.

[freshwest]

5. What's his demographic? Oil workers, or some other industry that wants all of that? I've read some

truly ugly, racist, hateful, homophobic, anti-liberal, anti-immigrants rantings online from boards that purport to be Canadian, but sound like baggers.

My visits to Canada didn't show that attitude, but there is always a segment of society that it appeals to even though it appears that Canada has benefitted from social democratic policies.

Thank you for the details. Harper is a Bush buddy, I can see where this comes from. Again, thanks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Wiki has all sorts of details about him

and his political family.
Very easy to look up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford