TORONTO

The main budget battle came down to Mayor John Tory and Councillor Rob Ford.

Ford and Tory faced off during Wednesday’s final 2015 budget debate just before council rejected all but two of Ford’s roughly 30 budget motions.

And the ongoing war between Ford and Tory has now led to an integrity commissioner complaint.

The Toronto Sun has learned that the exchange on the council floor prompted a member of Ford’s staff to file a complaint against Tory.

At council on Wednesday, Ford questioned why the budget included an approximately $300,000 increase to the mayor’s office budget. That prompted Tory to quickly swing back at Ford.

“I am operating an office under direction of the staff who are doing so in a professional manner,” Tory told Ford. “They are responsible for the oversight of a close to $12-billion government with tens of thousands of employees.”

Tory lamented a lack of coordination on road closures, cost overruns in major capital projects and a lack of a “professional relationship” with the public service over the last four years when Ford was in the mayor’s chair.

He pointed out his office budget at $2.2 million was “necessary to run a professional administration around here and do the kind of job in the manner that the people of Toronto would expect us to do.”

In response to Tory’s talk of “professionalism,” Ford questioned the level of customer service provided by Tory’s office.

“That’s the answer you get when you call the mayor’s office, you don’t get an answer,” Ford grumbled to council.

Ford’s request to limit Tory’s office budget to $2 million was rejected by council in a 43-1 vote (Ford was the lone vote in favour of the reduction).

Dan Jacobs, Ford’s executive assistant and former mayor’s office chief of staff, e-mailed the city’s integrity commissioner to lodge a complaint about Tory’s comments and demand an apology.

“This calls into question the manner in which I conducted myself while employed in the office of the mayor, as it does for any past employees of that office,” Jacobs wrote in a copy of the complaint obtained by the Sun.

“Not only is this incredibly disrespectful, but I believe it could open both the mayor and the city to potential liability, as it puts a negative slant on my work as an employee of the city, which he has no right to say.”

Councillors also voted “no” to dozens of other motions from Ford including a bid to eliminate library security guards, freeze councillors office budgets and ask councillors to donate their 2015 cost-of-living salary increases to Toronto Community Housing repairs.

— With files from Joe Warmington

don.peat@sunmedia.ca

(Mobile users click here for coverage from the budget meeting)