City of Toronto Ombudsman Fiona Crean says she is stepping down to prevent city council critics fighting her reappointment from also damaging the office and its role as residents’ watchdog.

Crean told reporters Monday that, after past acrimonious debates over her future, and with city council largely ignoring her plea for more resources, she decided in the past week to leave when her term ends in November.

“I’ve looked at the nature of divisiveness created by debates on my reappointment and . . . decided that this was harming my office, it was harming services to the public, it’s harming oversight accountability at the city,” said Crean, who became Toronto’s first ombudsman in 2009.

Crean, who investigates Torontonians’ complaints about treatment by the city bureaucracy. Her 33 investigations so far including exposing city inaction while a woman’s basement flooded for years, then-mayor Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard)’s office interfering in civic appointments, and senior TCHC executives recklessly breaking rules on hiring and firing staff.

According to her 2014 annual report released Monday, in Rob Ford’s final year as mayor her office fielded 22 per cent more complaints than in 2013. It has seen a 129 per cent increase in complaints since the beginning of Crean’s term.

In the last five years, Crean said her office has conducted 33 investigations, which included 310 recommendations that have been implemented or are “in progress.”

“We have seen important results, which include improvements in legislation, policies and procedures; improvements in the way public service communicates, both internally and externally with the public; and an increase in fairness, accountability and transparency,” she wrote.

Despite Ford having a track record for personally returning constituent phone calls, Crean’s office says more than half those 2,230 complaints were related to poor communications at the city.

The report says TCHC complaints centered around “poor or delayed maintenance and substandard or unsafe living conditions.”

The ombudsman office closed 2,190 cases in 2014 and conducted just five investigations. There are 30 complaints and five investigations that have carried over into this year.

Crean identified the most significant investigations to-date, including the response to the 200 Wellesley St. fire, political interference with civic appointments, evicting seniors from community housing and recently a report into “systemic flaws” in senior management at Toronto Community Housing that led to the departure of CEO Gene Jones.

Asked about advice for her successor, Crean said: “Be tenacious, be courageous and keep going after proper funding.”

Crean is warning councillors of the peril of continuing to refuse to significantly boost the office’s resources, despite a rise in complaints plus her council-added oversight of Toronto Hydro and other agencies.

“The promise of equity and fairness from an independent ombudsman is enshrined in the city of Toronto act but the reality of that commitment is now in question,” after council voted to give her one new staff position, not the six she said she needed.

“I deeply regret this but council has made its decision.”

Crean acknowledged that her reappointment for a new five-year term was unlikely to garner the required two-thirds support of council.

After the Mayor Rob Ford years, when Crean was a frequent target of the administration, she said she had hoped “the political climate surrounding the ombudsman’s office would have changed.”

However, some influential councillors remain furious at Crean for comments in the civic appointments report, and others, they believe reflect on them. They privately accuse her of being too political and a tool of council’s left.

With the reappointment battle looming, Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) publicly professed qualified support for her. Not all of council’s rookies backed Crean’s call for more staff.

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Crean said she had a good discussion with Tory on Sunday night when she called to inform him of her decision. In a statement Monday, he lauded Crean’s “gusto and determination” and said he looks forward to working with her in the remainder of her term.

A report from City Manager Joe Pennachetti recommends the ombudsman’s term be extended to seven years and made non-renewable. Currently the term is five years, with the option for council to renew just once for an additional five years.

“This is not a popularity contest, but I think one term of seven years will fix part of that problem,” Crean said Monday.