TORONTO – Toronto's City Council has stripped most of the powers of Mayor Rob Ford, who has refused to resign despite admitting to smoking crack. The council cannot force Ford from office unless he is convicted of a crime and imprisoned, so it has instead removed as many of his powers as it can, voting Friday to strip some and going further in another motions passed Monday. The council has voted to:
__ suspend his authority to appoint and dismiss the deputy mayor and the executive committee, effectively leaving him with no legislative power.
__ give the deputy mayor authority to handle any civic emergency.
__ pare back the mayor's office budget to $712,000, a 60 percent cut.
__ call for the balance of that budget to be administered by Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly.
__ authorize all existing members of Ford's staff be offered the opportunity to work under either Ford or under Kelly.
__ call for the deputy mayor to become chair of the executive committee.
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