Ford Nation no more. The more appropriate name should be City Council Nation.

That’s the sentiment expressed by some Toronto councillors a day after a respected law firm said Mayor Rob Ford had overstepped his authority when he decreed the Transit City plan dead in December 2010. As mayor, he is considered simply another member of council and had little authority to make decisions on his own, the legal report suggests.

“It was an assumed power. It was something the mayor just decided he could do,” said Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s). “Nowhere was it written that the mayor has authority to unilaterally create transit policy for the city of Toronto.

“His job is to advocate to council for an agenda he believes in and its council’s decision whether or not to support it. I think we have forgotten what those respective roles and responsibilities are,” Matlow said.

When Ford announced immediately after taking office that he was scrapping the transit plan, “A number of councillors stood up and said you have no authority to kill Transit City, ethically, morally or legally,” said North York Councillor Maria Augimeri, who is also a TTC commissioner. The mayor responded that Transit City had never received council approval in the first place.

Augimeri and the legal report say that Transit City was approved by council in 2007 as part of the Climate Change, Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Action Plan. Since then, some councillors have stood by their belief that Transit City, or a version of it, remained on the table.

“I never believed it was dead,” said Matlow. “Clearly, it’s council’s decision. Whether it is Transit City or something else, that is our decision. It has to come to a vote.”

The legal report, written by Freya Kristjanson and Amanda Darrach, will be released Monday by Ford critic Councillor Joe Mihevc. It also claims the mayor went too far when he signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the province that authorized spending money the province had set aside for Transit City on a new transit plan based on a fully tunneled Eglinton LRT.

Mihevc says he received calls from city staff Sunday thanking him for trying to “recalibrate” city council.

“It is incumbent upon us to rein in the mayor,” he said. “He has to understand that council is the decision-making body and he doesn’t have the mandate to undo things without council’s approval.”

He said he sought the independent legal opinion because the transit issue is too expensive and too important to allow it to fall to the mayor alone.

The province says it entered into a non-binding framework that had to be approved by the governing body, and not just the mayor. The minister of transportation called on the city last week to “confirm their public transit priorities.”