I will ignore any email sent to me in the next 2 1/2 weeks, the city’s blunt and oft-dour budget chief says in an unusual out-of-office message.

“I need a break I’m in town dealing with the ‘Honey Do’ List. Assume I am not going to read your e-mail,” Councillor Mike Del Grande says in the message, which is now sent automatically to anyone who contacts him. “Send it after the 6th of January otherwise it will find it’s (sic) way in the trash bin.”

The message is entirely in character: Del Grande’s prickly personality is a source of amusement even for fellow fiscal conservatives. After Councillor Doug Ford said on a Dec. 2 radio show that Mayor Rob Ford’s administration thanks God every day for Del Grande’s presence, the mayor retorted half-jokingly, “He comes in my office and yells at me every day.”

Last year, Del Grande angrily denounced a resident for wearing a Santa Claus costume while making a plea to save a Christmas program. In September, he complained that he had been bitten by bedbugs on a business mission to Chicago in which, he also complained, he hadn’t even wanted to participate.

On Monday, the last day of budget committee meetings for the year, he threatened to resign his post if councillors tried to add more spending.

The darkly comedic auto-reply is sent out to people who email his official city address, councillor_delgrande@toronto.ca. It reads in full:

“I have left downtown and dashed to get my private jet and fly off to Rio in Brazil. They do not have an extradition agreement to force me to come back. I am going to wine and dine and have a great merry old time not thinking of City Hall for as long as I can.

“OK. I need a break I’m in town dealing with the ‘Honey Do’ List. Assume I am not going to read your e-mail. Send it after the 6th of January otherwise it will find it’s way in the trash bin.

“Staff is around to help me deal with issues, that’s what they get paid for.

“Oh, and did I say MERRY CHRISTMAS and if the Mayans were wrong Happy 2013. Adios.”

Del Grande did not sign the message with his name. And, true to his word, he did not respond to an emailed request for comment.