Thirty-five to one. Thirty-five to one. Thirty-five to one. On the last night of the last meeting of his council term, Mayor Rob Ford went on one of his lone-wolf voting-against-things sprees.

Council had a transit debate. A councillor teased Ford about rival John Tory’s “SmartTrack” proposal. “Smart,” Ford, tired as everybody else, started saying to no one in particular. “Really smart. Super-smart.”

The lights went out prematurely. The voting system broke. At the very end of the meeting, for the first time since Ford became mayor and demanded that all votes be formally recorded no matter how insignificant the subject, councillors voted by informal show-of-hands. They were gleeful.

“This is amazing,” someone said. "We've recorded like 40,000 votes this term!"

The last policy item of the most dramatic municipal term in the modern history of Canadian cities was titled “Restricted Access to Fire Hydrant Safety Hazard.” The gleeful hands approved it, whatever it was, and councillors posed for photos with each other and bumped fists and man-hugged. Councillor Janet Davis told them to be sure to clean up their mess.

Speaker Frances Nunziata presented a gift basket to city clerk Ulli Watkiss. Watkiss bobbled it. Retiring city manager Joe Pennachetti got the honour of announcing the confirmation of the bills. There was, finally, a motion to excuse the absence of Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who skipped the whole meeting. Various councillors asked why they should do that, but they did it anyway, 26-7, the voting system back for one final hurrah.

Councillor Josh Colle uttered the last council words of the 2010-2014 class.

“Well,” Colle said, “that was a quiet four years.”

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