Minutes after Mayor Rob Ford arrived at a contentious community council meeting in Etobicoke on Tuesday evening, he bolted out of his seat, sprinted up an aisle, and left the building — to wander around the parking lot and slap “Rob Ford Mayor” fridge magnets on the doors of cars.

When a reporter told Ford that some people might find his behaviour strange, he retorted that some people find the reporter strange. Magnets in hand, he made no further comment.

Ford was accompanied by a City Hall security guard. When reporters approached him, he conducted an impromptu scrum on the controversial Humbertown condo proposal that residents were simultaneously decrying inside the Church on the Queensway.

The mayor slowed down only twice — once to calmly address the reporters who followed him, once to shout urgently to aide David Price for more magnets, his arms outstretched.

Price, Ford's former high school football coach and his recently named director of operations and logistics, put magnets on cars before Ford arrived. He stood between Ford and the reporters after the mayor said he would take no more questions.

Price scoffed at the suggestion that Ford should be attending the meeting-in-progress rather than circling the parking lot.

“He can do whatever he wants. Putting magnets on a community event — what do you expect him to be, up on stage?” Price said. When a reporter said the mayor might be expected to at least sit in the audience and listen, Price said, disparagingly, “Sitting and listening to those deputations?”

Ford, who speaks often of his love of campaigning, spent more than 15 minutes in the church lot. He eventually spotted an acquaintance who uses a wheelchair, calmly wheeled the man in, and returned to his seat deep in the crowd.

He later gave an impassioned speech in opposition to the Humbertown proposal, then stayed to cast a vote against it. It is rare for the mayor to attend a community council meeting, and several members of the council thanked him for his presence.

Councillor Doug Ford said the “real story” of his brother’s evening is that the mayor took the time to support the local community.

As for the mayor’s parking lot sojourn, Doug Ford said: “Isn't that great. He's actually putting his home phone number, with fridge magnets — which is the only politician in North America that does it.”