A report by a respected Toronto law firm says Mayor Rob Ford exceeded his legal authority when he cancelled Transit City without city council approval.

Councillor Joe Mihevc, who solicited the legal opinion, will release it publicly on Monday.

It says the mayor had no business entering into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the province that authorized a new transit plan, including a Sheppard subway and a longer tunnel on the Eglinton light rail line. It says he further overstepped his powers when he told TTC chief general manager Gary Webster to stop work on Transit City.

Since the mayor had no legal authority to enter into the memorandum of understanding, it shouldn’t be acted upon until council approves it, say the lawyers. Until that happens, it is only an agreement in principle.

Mihevc is calling on the mayor and city manager to bring the transit issue before council immediately.

The lawyers’ report comes as a battle is brewing between the mayor’s office and city councillors from across the political spectrum, including Ford allies John Parker and TTC chair Karen Stintz. They disagree with the transit plan the mayor committed to with the province.

According to the report by lawyers Freya Kristjanson and Amanda Darrach, Ford “did not follow the proper procedure for obtaining City Council’s authorization to rescind Transit City and develop and approve an alternate plan.”

“Under the City of Toronto Act, the power of the city resides in City Council. The Mayor of Toronto has very little independent authority beyond his role as head of City Council. Unless specific power is delegated to him, the mayor does not have the authority to speak for the city independently,” wrote the lawyers, from Cavalluzzo, Hayes, Shilton, McIntyre & Cornish.

Kristjanson was counsel to Mayor Hazel McCallion during last year’s Mississauga judicial inquiry.

The legal implications transcend the transit issue, said Mihevc. Although Transit City is the most egregious example of the mayor’s dictatorial approach to government, the city needs an inquiry into how city staff, including City Manager Joe Pennachetti, are following direct orders from the mayor’s office when they are supposed to be directed by council, he said.

“Staff followed the dictates of the mayor but they shouldn’t have done that,” said Mihevc. “People were feeling their jobs were at risk so they buckled.”

“Indeed the province buckled,” by entering into the non-binding agreement, he said.

But Mihevc said he has some sympathy for its position, given that the memorandum of understanding was forged following Ford’s landslide victory and the impending provincial election.

Although the mayor did receive some new powers under the City of Toronto Act that took effect in 2007, including the authority to appoint the deputy mayor and standing committee chairs, “Generally, executive and legislative powers rest with full council,” says the lawyer’s report.

“The only additional independent duties given to the mayor, as compared with any other councillor, arise from his or her role as head of council,” it says.

Declaring Transit City dead was the mayor’s first act when he took office in Dec. 2010. City councillors at the time called for the matter to be put before council. But the mayor refused, saying Transit City had never had council approval.

At the time, buoyed by strong electoral support, Ford might have persuaded a majority of councillors to vote against the previous administration’s transit plans. That outcome seems less certain now that a majority of councillors are said to dissent from Ford’s transit vision.

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The mayor is insisting the entire length of the Eglinton LRT be built underground, except where it crosses the Don Valley. But councillors across the spectrum now believe the tunnel should be shorter to save as much as $2 billion that could be spent on transit in other areas.

The lawyers’ report says Transit City was approved by council in 2007 as part of the Climate Change, Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Action Plan. “After that, City Council considered and voted on the necessary elements of the program as they came before council.”