Mayor Rob Ford was defiant in the face of revelations that Toronto police have obtained video evidence that appears to show him smoking crack cocaine, brushing off a torrent of questions from the crush of reporters outside his city hall office.

“I have no reason to resign,” he said on Thursday. “I’m going to go back to return my phone calls. I’m going to go out and do what I was elected to do, and that’s save taxpayers money and run a great government.”

But the release of police documents that include photographs of Ford in what appears to be multiple secret meetings with alleged drug dealer Alexander Lisi has shattered the precarious semi-calm that had settled over city hall in recent weeks. City councillors from across the political spectrum expressed shock and disappointment on Thursday, with several calling for Ford’s resignation.

“He should step aside until we can clear this (thing),” Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby said. “I think he’s been lying to a lot of people, for a lot of people, absolutely, a lot of the time.”

The right-leaning councillor urged Ford to “do the right thing.”

“It’s not a game any more,” she said. “This is real life, and it’s real people that are involved here.”

Councillor Anna Bailao, a centrist Ford has praised, said the mayor should take a leave of absence “at the very least.”

“He should take some time away to reflect and to give some space to the city as well,” she said. “This obviously has a huge impact on the reputation of our city.”

Councillor Sarah Doucette said her office is being “inundated” with calls from residents, the majority of whom “are saying that city council should ask the mayor to resign.”

“I think he should be stepping aside for his own health and for the benefit of the city,” said Doucette, who leans centre-left.

However, Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, who serves as Ford’s budget chief, believes the city can continue to function, and that the mayor “should be given some leeway to deal with the problem in his own way.”

As councillors digested the shocking news about the police investigation into Ford’s activities, some of the loudest voices in city hall steered clear of the media encampment outside the mayor’s office. Others said they wanted to give Ford an opportunity to respond to the allegations before weighing in.

But the mayor’s brief statement to reporters on Thursday — Ford said he could not defend himself “because it’s before the courts” — did not satisfy Councillor James Pasternak.

“To have basically a ‘no comment’ is quite disappointing and disturbing. It’s not the kind of leadership we were looking for,” said Pasternak, a centrist. “We were looking for something unequivocal, and we didn’t get it.”

Pasternak did not call for Ford’s resignation but said, “There’s an enormous power vacuum in the mayor’s office.”

Centre-right Councillor Peter Milczyn declined to comment on whether Ford should step down, but said the mayor “needs to come out and be honest with the people of Toronto and honest with himself.”

“I can’t imagine the pressure that he is under,” Milczyn said. “I don’t think I could withstand it.”

Fresh off the hardest won and possibly most significant victory of his term, over Scarborough transit, Ford has recently been in good spirits despite a steady drip of news stories about his previously undisclosed ties with convicted criminals.

With most of his opponents willing to weigh in only gingerly, he has been largely able to stick to his own script — boasting about his fiscal record on his radio show and hobnobbing with Texans on an official trip.

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But with the 2014 mayoral election only a year away, the information released Thursday — along with additional information not yet made public from the same police document — could fatally damage his chances of securing “Ford more years.”

Ford looked somber on Wednesday, a day that included a rare visit to his office by his mother. He refused to answer questions about the impending release of the document or anything related; his brother and most vocal defender, Councillor Doug Ford, three times called him “the most honest” politician in Canada.