One of five city councillors behind the expected firing of the city’s transit chief suggested Sunday that more senior transit managers may lose their jobs for not “respecting the office of the mayor.”

“We will discuss whether removing some managers — and it may in fact be three, four, five — we may discuss whether that’s the way to go,” said Frank Di Giorgio, a TTC commissioner allied with Mayor Rob Ford, and one of the councillors who called a special TTC board meeting for Tuesday where it is believed chief general manager Gary Webster will be sacked.

Di Giorgio said the responsibility of the city’s bureaucracy is to follow the will of the mayor and achieve the objectives set out by his mandate, which TTC managers have failed to do.

“We’re trying to eliminate some of the problems that surfaced over the last month that should not have surfaced and need not have surfaced.”

The city’s uncertain transit future has been especially tumultuous as of late, as Ford’s apparent unwillingness to compromise his underground-only transit vision has left him struggling to get that vision on track.

The mayor was sidelined earlier this month when city council voted 25-18 in favour of a competing transit plan — one that essentially restored former mayor David Miller’s light-rail plan — championed by former Ford ally TTC chair Karen Stintz.

Ford dismissed council’s decision as “irrelevant” and, along with his executive committee, is continuing to pursue his original plans.

Webster, a civil engineer who has worked his entire 35-year career at the TTC, has long drawn the ire of the Ford administration for his refusal to build an operational case for extending the subway on Sheppard Ave. E. or burying the entirety of the Eglinton Ave. LRT.

It is well known at city hall that Stintz had been protecting Webster from Ford. Now that Stintz is no longer in the mayor’s favour, Webster is exposed.

The five councillors who signed the petition for the special meeting — Norm Kelly, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Vincent Crisanti, Cesar Palacio and Di Giorgio — represent a majority of votes on the nine-member committee, so they will be able to oust Webster if they choose.

Since he has come under fire, Webster has been praised by his industry colleagues and several councillors as a diligent professional who has simply put forward the best evidence for the city’s transit future.

Di Giorgio said Webster’s integrity and job performance are not what is at issue.

“The issue is a matter of — in my view — whether a bureaucrat has the responsibility to undertake a task as mandated by the people and reflected in the mayor’s mandate.”

Di Giorgio lamented the “one-sided” and “one-dimensional” information contained in reports from senior transit staff, which have prioritized light-rail and contradicted the mayor’s vision for transit expansion in the city.

“We basically accept as gospel what’s put before us all the time as the best way, as the only way,” Di Giorgio said. “I think we should start acknowledging that there are other viewpoints out there, which may have benefits that we’re not aware of.”

Councillor John Parker, the deputy speaker who usually supports the mayor but has recently opposed him on transit, appeared to be comparing Webster’s pending fate to the assassination of Julius Caesar in a series of Twitter posts over the weekend.

“Woe to the hands that shed this costly blood,” Parker wrote, quoting Mark Antony in Act III of the Shakespearean tragedy. “They that have done this deed are honourable; what private griefs they have, alas I know not, that made them do it.”

Parker — who is also on the TTC board — was coy when asked directly for the meaning of his tweets. But he was unequivocal in his support for Webster, saying it would be a “serious mistake” to fire him.

“Gary is a solid, competent professional who has been given strong leadership to the TTC and good advice as to its future priorities.”

The future of the TTC board as a whole is also in doubt after a motion was approved last week by Ford’s executive committee to change the board’s makeup “to a hybrid, skills-based” committee of four councillors and five citizens, rather than the current nine councillors.

Di Giorgio said the board needs to be “disbanded” and a new one should include professionals with “alternate points of view.”

Critics say the changes would allow Ford to appoint like-minded commissioners to do his bidding and plan the city’s transit future without council’s input. The item will be voted on by council on March 5.

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Since it is a personnel matter, Tuesday’s special TTC board meeting is expected to be conducted mostly behind closed doors.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said Webster would not be making any comment ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. He added that Webster “remains committed to leading the TTC and acting in its best interest for the system’s 1.6 million daily customers and 12,000 employees.”

With files from Tess Kalinowski

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