Facing backlash from the public and questions from both opposing and allied councillors, Mayor John Tory says a lack of communication with his staff is to blame for the discrepancy between his recent votes and instructions from his office.

The Star earlier reported that the mayor voted in favour of gender equity in city budgeting and adding a staff position to help resettle refugees during a February meeting while a cheat sheet circulated by his office instructed friendly councillors to do the opposite.

“I try to be honest at all times without exception,” Tory told the Star by phone from a business mission in India on Tuesday. “There was no communication with my staff at all on how I was intending to vote on that and there was no communication between them and me as to how they were telling other people that they should consider voting.”

Related:Mayor John Tory’s desire to be all things to everyone is only creating confusion: Keenan

Tory said he did have a copy of the sheet but didn’t go through to compare how he was voting as the vote was taking place.

“The sheet was already out by then.”

Tory reiterated he voted for both a motion by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam to support looking at next year’s budget with an eye to how it impacts various genders and one from Councillor Joe Mihevc on adding a position to the city’s newcomer office because he supported those initiatives.

He said the cheat sheets used by his office during some meetings to tell councillors how to vote are “not meant to instruct anybody as to how to vote.”

Tory also chastised Wong-Tam, who earlier told the Star she was disappointed to see the cheat sheet lobbying against her motion — what she said showed a level of “dishonesty” on the mayor’s part.

“If she had an issue with this and she was so upset about it to the point where she has to do a sort of drive-by character slam and use words like ‘dishonest’ and ‘duplicity,’ why didn’t she call me about it?” Tory said.

The Star obtained a different cheat sheet from a debate about new taxes and fees under consideration, including road tolls, in December.

During that meeting, Tory voted against a motion to consult the public on new tax measures, including an income tax. The cheat sheet instructed allied councillors to support the consideration of those measures.

Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park), who has become the mayor’s chief critic, said the mayor had made it clear he expected his team to vote in favour of the revenue tools while he planned to vote against it.

“I think only the mayor can explain his actions, but it is a pattern that I find troublesome because it gives the impression that the mayor doesn’t want the public to know what his intentions are,” Perks said, adding the mayor was made aware progressive councillors would not support Tory’s push for road tolls if it was the only new tool to be implemented.

“I think a reasonable person could look at the mayor’s behaviour during the revenue tools (debate) and come to the conclusion that he wanted to seem anti-tax while doing the things necessary to build a coalition on council, opening the conversation for more taxes.”

Perks concluded: “The mayor cares more about perceptions than outcomes.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Presented with those newly-highlighted discrepancies, Tory said if the Star wanted to write about additional discrepancies, which he acknowledged existed, a reporter could: “Go to town.”

“There’s some improved communications that can come from this, and indeed there will, but I decide how I’m going to vote. Nobody else decides for me.”

Read more about: