Toronto

Mayor Rob Ford got plenty of questions about an alleged crack-cocaine video for his birthday from the media.

But while he did offer reporters some of the birthday cake his staff gave him, Ford spent most of Tuesday at City Hall brushing off questions about the alleged video that shows the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Since Gawker.com reported more than a week ago on the video, Ford has been under a cloud of controversy.

He has fired his chief of staff — Mark Towhey — and had to deal with the sudden resignation of his two spokesmen.

There has been a Toronto Police investigation after at least one of Ford’s staffers raised the possibility the video controversy somehow involves Anthony Smith, 21, who was murdered March 28. The Toronto Sun has not yet seen the video.

A source confirmed to the Sun that David Price, Ford’s director of logistics and operations, contacted Towhey on the evening of May 17 — the day after Gawker’s video story — to say he was “doing some investigating” and found, through his sources, the Dixon Rd. address and unit number where the video might be found.

Towhey ordered Price not to give the information to the mayor. According to the source, the feeling was that someone thought the video was “worth a lot of money” and Towhey didn’t want the mayor implicated in any situation arising from the video.

Price believed the video had been around for a while but it took some time to “monetize it," the source said.

He told Towhey it may have been the reason why one of the guys in the photo — published in reports about the video — was killed. In the photo, Ford appears side-by-side with Smith who was gunned down outside a downtown nightclub.

Towhey went on to alert Toronto Police about the conversation, offered to give a statement and provided Price’s contact information. It isn’t clear if Price has spoken to police.

The next day, Towhey went to Toronto Police headquarters to give a statement. Days later he was fired as Ford’s chief of staff.

The mayor arrived at City Hall just after 9 a.m. Tuesday — his 44th birthday — to a swarm of cameras and questions about why at least one of his staffers was seeking out the video.

“Ask my staff,” Ford said.

As he walked into the committee meeting, Ford wouldn’t answer any questions about the video.

“All I know is we’ve got good news today — $65 million in savings on the shared services study. If you look at that, that’s what we’re doing, we’re saving the taxpayers $65 million a year, every year,” he said.

Later in the day, after railing against Metrolinx’s proposed transit taxes, Ford again refused to answer questions about the video.

“I’ve addressed those concerns,” Ford said when asked if he had any response to the latest allegations in the controversy.

When reporters continued to ask questions about the video, including how Ford knows Smith or if he gave Price the Dixon Rd. address, Ford walked out of the press conference.

Councillor John Parker said work is “continuing on as normal” despite the scandal but he called on Ford to find a way to put the controversy behind him.

“I think people are looking for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Parker said. “Right now, people aren’t satisfied that that’s what they’ve been receiving. So the questions continue to be asked and I suspect they will continue to be asked until they are answered.”

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he believes the reporters who say they saw the video.

“It’s the authenticity of that tape that is in question,” he said. “If we could just get the tape and find that out, that would answer an awful lot of questions.”

Councillor Doug Ford said he had “no knowledge” of mayor’s office staff speaking to police.

“You’re going to have to talk to the police about that.”

Ford said he’s never tried to get the alleged video.

“If anyone ever approached me with a video, I’d call the police, instantly,” he said.