City Council — January 2014

Councillor Fragedakis suggests city should run drills for emergency situations. She cites "Full Metal Jacket."

Council is back, debating storm response and whether they should ask the province for clean-up cash. Meeting may last forever.

Council votes 39-0 to ask the provincial and federal governments to chip in and pay for some of the city's $171-million in storm costs.

Councillor Shiner rises to note he was offended by Mayor Ford's comments re: continuing Friday's council meeting into the sabbath.

Shiner now rises to say it's time for Mayor Ford to stop insulting members of council. Makes reference to cameras following Ford around.

(Council has voted to request storm clean-up funds, but the meeting is not over because of some procedural tinkering.)

Govs should deliver funds, but man I'd be tempted to respond to request with one sentence: "Thought you guys didn't have a revenue problem."

Ford: "I did have a motion, but the deputy mayor moved it so... that's fine." A bit of laughter.

Now some guy accuses Vaughan and Mihevc of going on a taxpayer-funded trip to El Savador. Mihec says they paid for the trip themselves.

"You show me your receipt and I'll apologize," Ford says. And I guess... MIhevc agrees to get the receipt? Stay tuned.

Mihevc now listing occasions where Ford voted against requesting or accepting provincial funds for city programs.

Councillor Ford now rises and says this is "grandstanding." And I trust him, as he is a man who has never grandstanded a day in his life.

Cho asks Ford about the state of emergency thing. Ford says he was in Cho's ward and never saw Cho during the storm. Good times.

"Where were you for the ten days when I was here?" demands Ford of Cho. (Suggested response to Ford: "where are you most days?")

Ford: "I didn't see the deputy mayor very often. I think he might have taken a vacation over that time."

Ford also says Karen Stintz was "nowhere to be found" during the ten days of the storm.

Apparently Ford saw no councillors during the storm.

Stintz says Ford could have put one person in charge after storm, but didn't because he knew that person wouldn't be him.

Meeting has spiralled out of control. Nunziata is again a major liability.

Shiner asks why Ford didn't coordinate with deputy mayor and province after storm. "This was politicized by the very beginning," says Ford.

Kelly says the emergency committee was in charge of storm response. He was in charge of the committee.

Kelly shows a bit of fire, asks Ford to withdraw his statement re: Kelly not being around for storm response.

Nunziata suggests Ford doesn't need to apologize because all councillors have been unparliamentary. Really.

At this point would have preferred council let Ford keep his office budget and just found a way to turf Nunziata out of the chair.

Shiner asks Ford if he tried to contact Wynne in storm aftermath. Ford says he didn't.

Parker tries to calm things down by giving staff a round of applause. Nunziata scolds him for breaking the rules.

Doug Ford calls John Parker "pathetic" and "a joke" but he's technically not standing on a grandstand when he says it.