Attempting to salvage his mayoralty and his reputation, Rob Ford told council Wednesday that he made “personal” mistakes that did not occur in the council chamber.

He may never have been intoxicated in that particular room at city hall — but his former aides have told police he has been under the influence in the mayor’s office during business hours, and that his apparent substance abuse and questionable conduct have affected his public duties and his publicly funded office in numerous other ways.

The aides’ allegations to police, released on Wednesday, have not been proven in court, and Ford said Thursday that he plans to sue some of them. He denies that he is addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs.

DRUNK AT WORK, GONE MISSING

Ford was drunk in his city hall office between 15 and 20 times in a year, former special assistant Chris Fickel said. “This would be a weekday, usually after 11 a.m.,” the police paraphrased Fickel as saying.

It was the “belief” of former chief of staff Mark Towhey “that the mayor consumed alcohol while at city hall,” the police said.

Former executive assistant Kia Nejatian said he found a marijuana cigarette in Ford’s city hall desk drawer this winter. Ford went “M.I.A.” (missing in action) when he was intoxicated, according to Nejatian, and the mayor “missed work and cancelled appointments frequently at the beginning of his position as mayor.”

Nejatian “indicates that he has mostly seen Mayor Ford intoxicated/impaired at evening events,” the police said.

Ford disappeared soon before a major military parade involving the visiting Prince Philip, former communications assistant Isaac Ransom said.

Then Ford called his aides “10-15 minutes into the event” to say he would not be attending.

Ford was “erratic and unusual,” Ransom said, during his unusual late-night transit journey to Scarborough the same day he lost a major council transit vote. Ford went drinking before the trip, Ransom said, and then “tried to hit on a woman” at a subway station.

“Ransom resigned,” the police said he told them, “because it was a stressful job and Mayor Ford’s personal life was affecting his professional life.”

VODKA, LIGHT BULBS, AND A REFERENCE LETTER

Under city policy, city-employed political aides are supposed to assist their political masters only with city business. But Ford frequently asked his staffers to buy alcohol for him and help him with his personal affairs.

“Towhey wanted Mayor Ford to hire a personal assistant to do these errands and pay them out of his own pocket,” the police said Nejatian told them.

The alcohol purchases were “a regular occurrence,” Fickel said. “Staff members routinely buy alcohol for the mayor because they do not want him doing it himself,” Towhey said; Fickel said he and other junior staffers bought Ford vodka a total of “approximately 10 times per month.”

Aides also picked up and dropped off Ford’s dry cleaning. Former special assistant Nico Fidani said Ford made “strange requests” to “to pick up various things like 2 cases of Diet Coke”; Fickel said Ford called him to “change light bulbs (on his home property) change batteries in his children’s toys,” and buy “cigarettes, bleach, laundry detergent and Diet Coke for the mayor's wife.”

Ford asked Nejatian to write a character reference for the sentencing of the mayor’s friend, Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, who was convicted of threatening to kill a woman; Nejatian told police he “was reluctant to write the letter.” When Ford showed up at the Garrison Ball in February heavily intoxicated, Fidani had to take care of the mayor’s two young children, whom he had brought to the black-tie event against Towhey’s advice.

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VIOLENCE TOWARD AIDES

Towhey told police Ford was violent toward two aides, now-chief of staff Earl Provost and recently departed policy advisor Brooks Barnett, while he was intoxicated at city hall on the night of St. Patrick’s Day last year.

“The mayor pushed Provost down and raised his hand like he was going to punch him. The mayor then charged Barnett and pushed him against the wall and pulled his hand back like he was going to strike him,” Towhey told police.

Fickel, who said he has “frequently seen the mayor very angry,” said Ford “cocked his fist” at him on a football-related trip to Peterborough.

“Fickel feels that the mayor may have been joking around when he raised his fist,” the police said. Ford told council that he has not assaulted members of his staff.