Amateur hour at city council yesterday shows nobody’s gettin’ ’er done

We’re going to start this with a correction of sorts: The Informer wrote yesterday that, after the first major reversal of Rob Ford’s mayoralty, His Fordship’s motion to finish off the TCHC board and install Case Ootes as housing commissar would bounce to the executive committee. We wrote that because it seemed to be what the mayor’s allies were telling reporters, and because they actually scheduled a special meeting of the cabinet for later today. By late in the afternoon, those plans were scotched, as the mayor’s staff apparently realized that they didn’t quite know what they were doing: Ford’s loss at council yesterday did not punt the issue to the executive committee—it bounced it to the next council meeting in April. So the executive meeting was cancelled and Ford’s office announced instead it was using the mayor’s power to call a special meeting of council, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. today. At this meeting, Ford will be able to set the agenda and will only need a simple majority to get his way.

Confused? So were we. Nobody comes off looking particularly good in this episode.