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Concern for Rob Ford's aides was a significant factor behind the council actions on Monday that gutted the mayor's budget and forced him to dramatically reduce his staff, according to several councillors involved in those efforts.
As the scandal surrounding Ford deepened in recent weeks, a small group within council was actively investigating options to curtail his power. But Councillor Jaye Robinson, who participated in those discussions, said reducing the mayor's budget this week was motivated in part by conversations with his "stressed out" staffers, and the desire to allow them "a graceful exit" from Ford's tumultuous office.
"There were a lot of stories coming out of the mayor's office that were disconcerting," Robinson said. "We felt we had a moral obligation to assist the mayor's staff because of what we were hearing. That really prompted us to act swiftly."
With a dramatically reduced budget, councillors knew, Ford would be forced to let go of many of his aides.
Slashing Ford's budget was one of many actions council took to curb the mayor's influence. Monday's motion included specific provisions to give Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly responsibility for the resulting shift in staff. On Tuesday, nine of Ford's approximately 20 staff — including chief of staff Earl Provost and policy director Sheila Paxton — joined Kelly's team. (Logistics and operations director David Price no longer works at city hall.)
Councillor John Filion, who put forward Monday's motion, insists the initiative was entirely council-led, although other councillors involved say feedback from the mayor's staffers played a role.
In advance of the council meeting, the mayor's aides "were not sitting around the table drafting the motions with us," Robinson said, but they were aware that these plans were underway.
"They welcomed Monday's special meeting," she said. "They were hopeful that those motions would be successful, because it would allow them to gracefully be transferred to the deputy mayor's office."
Councillor Josh Colle, a centrist who was part of the team that drafted the motions, would only say that staff had relayed the message to councillors that they needed help.
"Certainly, I think a lot of councillors were hearing that it had become very trying and unworkable in the mayor's office," he said.
Councillor Peter Milczyn, a member of Ford's hand-picked executive committee who was also involved in laying out the terms for Monday's meeting, said "a number of staff in the mayor's office were very stressed, and even frightened."
"Councillors were aware of their concerns, and the reducing of the mayor's office powers turned out to be a way to assist those staff as well," Milczyn said.
Provost, now Kelly's chief of staff, declined to discuss the nature of any conversations he may have had with councillors, but said, "I did not support anything that was done with respect to the council meeting."
Paxton, for her part, supported the result.
"Did we lobby for it? Absolutely not," she said. "Do I think it was the best outcome? Yes."
Council directed the integrity commissioner on Nov. 13 to look into whether Ford's behaviour violated council's code of conduct. Paxton said staff would cooperate with that investigation.
Ford's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Since May 16, when the Star and the Gawker website first reported on a video that appears to show Ford smoking crack cocaine, about 10 of his aides have resigned or been forced out. The mayor admitted on Nov. 5 that he had smoked crack while in office, during "one of my drunken stupors."
"All the senior staff in the mayor's office have been die-hard loyalists of the mayor, through thick and thin," Robinson said. "But there is a breaking point, and I think clearly last week, many people reached that."
For many, working conditions became untenable when Ford — whose every move was being documented by a crush of reporters camped outside his office — made lewd remarks about his sex life on live TV, Robinson said.
Until that point, she said, some councillors were considering holding off on taking further measures to curtail the mayor's powers until the next regularly scheduled council meeting.
"Knowing that there were challenges in the mayor's office, that prompted us to address it promptly," she said. "We felt simply that we had a moral obligation to do that."
There has been a noticeable shift this week in the demeanor of many of the aides who are now part of Kelly's team, which Councillor James Pasternak attributes to "a real sense of relief that this uncertainty was over."
"Some employees now have a great opportunity to shine," he said.
With files from Robert Benzie
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