Toronto’s council speaker, Frances Nunziata, sometimes sounds like an exasperated kindergarten teacher.

She sent the city’s elected officials home on Friday with a stern three-page letter. It asked them to be nicer to each other.

Council meets Monday for the first time since the raucous November session during which Councillor Doug Ford argued with spectators and Mayor Rob Ford made a drunk-driving gesture and inadvertently knocked down Councillor Pam McConnell . In Nunziata’s unusual memo, titled “Re: Conduct in the Chamber,” she asked her colleagues to “reflect upon our responsibilities before we meet again.”

“I have been approached by several members of council about the disruptions that occurred at the November meetings of city council,” Nunziata began. “Disruptive, disrespectful and unparliamentary behaviour reflects poorly on city council, and undermines public confidence in our ability to govern.”

She attached a list of council rules — “they are based on centuries of parliamentary tradition” — and identified particular “highlights.”

“Members are responsible for: speaking respectfully at all times; listening and participating in the meeting, without disrupting the proceedings; using appropriate language; abiding by council’s decisions; obeying rulings and decisions; obeying the Members’ Code of Conduct ; sitting and being silent during a vote,” she wrote.

The mayor was stripped of his legislative privileges and most of his other powers at the meeting in November. The Monday meeting, scheduled for two days, is not expected to be especially contentious.

Council will consider waste and water rates, the David Mirvish proposal for three Frank Gehry-designed condo towers on King St. W., “priority” community centres, designated employment lands, and the sale of decommissioned street signs, among other matters.