Councillor Frank Di Giorgio got a bumpy start Tuesday as Toronto’s budget chief, retracting his minutes-old pledge to try to freeze residential property taxes in 2014 and then calling such a freeze “far-fetched.”

Mayor Rob Ford nominated the veteran North York councillor for the pressure-cooker post at Tuesday’s executive committee meeting. Shortly after members unanimously approved the pick, the two spoke to reporters.

Di Giorgio was asked: “The Mayor has asked for a tax freeze in 2014. Can you deliver that?” He replied: “I think anything is doable. I think that we certainly can try, and if it’s doable it’ll be done.”

Di Giorgio (Ward 12, York South-Weston) also told reporters he hopes to repeat his predecessor Councillor Mike Del Grande’s 2013 demand that city departments freeze spending.

But during a later interview in his office over the lunch break, the low-profile Ford ally said reporters had misunderstood him and he was speaking about a departmental spending freeze all along.

“I think we're going to have to limit ourselves to an inflationary tax increase as an absolute maximum,” he said. “I don’t know what that’s likely to be.”

Statistics Canada posted a cost-of-living increase for Toronto last year of 1.5 per cent.

Last July, Ford, who says he will seek re-election in 2014, gave city manager Joe Pennachetti direction in writing to set the stage for tax freezes in 2014 and 2015.

After Tuesday’s meeting, the mayor said: “If we can get 0 per cent that’s great. I can guarantee you, worst-case scenario, it won’t go higher than 2 per cent. I’d love to have 0 per cent, but I can’t guarantee that right now, till I look at the books.”

Council approved a 2 per cent residential tax hike this year, a 2.5 per cent hike in 2012 and a tax freeze in 2011, after Ford took office.

Di Giorgio, first elected to North York council in 1985 and a member of Toronto council since 2000, also seemed to suggest the city would need to consult the province before he could act on Ford’s desire to reduce the land transfer tax — which brought in $336 million last year — by 10 per cent.

City staff told the Star that Toronto in fact needs no such provincial permission.

After the meeting, as confusion swirled, Di Giorgio joked about running from reporters, but maintained the kind of grin rarely seen on Del Grande.

Asked what direction Ford has given him for budget preparation, Di Giorgio said: “There’s no clarity as to what I’ve been asked to do, other than examine certain things, like: What’s the likelihood of doing something with the land transfer tax? What’s the likelihood of coming in, let’s say if (Ford) says to me, ‘0 per cent tax increase’?

“I think those are far-fetched ideas, but I will look at them.”

Di Giorgio told the Star on Monday that, as budget chief, he will rely on staff to do the “heavy work” of finding savings. Del Grande spent countless hours scouring department budgets looking for savings.

Di Giorgio is known at city hall as a team player who flies under the radar, and for speeches with sometimes circuitous logic. The Star noted in a 2003 “bafflegab” feature this from one council speech:

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“Mr. Chairman, I think we find ourselves in an unfortunate position simply because, simply because we have tended to overregulate perhaps too often, or Madam Chairman I should say, we have a regulatory system that is trilateral in the sense that we have three levels of government that fall in a regulation system and two levels of government that do their part.”

Di Giorgio has served on budget committee since December 2010. Ford put him on executive last November. He also sits on the planning and growth committee.