City Hall’s conspiracy of disgrace

On Oct. 3, retiring city CFO Cam Weldon gave a farewell address to city council. “You need to be nicer to each other,” he said. A couple of hours later, two councillors were on the verge of coming to blows, which tells you all you need to know about the state of civic discourse in Toronto.

Here’s how it happened: At the same meeting, independent ombudsman Fiona Crean was scheduled to formally present her report concluding that Rob Ford’s office had compromised the integrity of the public appointments process by shrinking timelines and interfering with staff. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti suggested that her report was a politically motivated hatchet job. Questioning the integrity of a city-staff member is a breach of council’s code of conduct, so Mammoliti needed to apologize or be expelled from the chamber. Instead, he argued belligerently for several minutes, then said he’d voluntarily leave the chamber rather than be kicked out.