Some city councillors fear that Mayor Rob Ford could install an under-qualified ally in the TTC’s top job, if the mayor’s loyalists on the transit commission oust the system’s chief executive Tuesday.

It’s an open secret at City Hall that TTC chair Karen Stintz has been protecting general manager Gary Webster from the mayor’s office over his refusal to build a case for a subway on Sheppard Ave. E. and a completely underground Eglinton LRT.

“Gary and I knew it was a matter of time. They’ve been itching to fire him since July,” said Stintz, who has been vacationing out of town with her family.

Reached Friday afternoon, she said she was “completely unaware” that five Ford loyalists on the transit board had called a special meeting Tuesday.

This is the last thing the system needs, she said, “at a time when the TTC has been dealing with so much uncertainty.”

The chief general manager is both the main adviser to the Toronto Transit Commission and its employee, who is directed by the board to act on policy it sets.

With the TTC planning to install private citizens on its board in the next few months, replacing some city councillors on the commission, the top staff job could go to almost anyone who lines up with the mayor’s vision, said Councillor Maria Augimeri, a Ford opponent on the TTC board.

“Any toady will do for this administration. All you have to do is be willing to sacrifice your integrity,” she said.

Webster is one of the few engineers qualified to run the country’s largest transit system and has no obvious successor there. Although a new chief operating officer, Andy Byford, was recruited from Sydney, he’s been here only since November and wouldn’t necessarily be in line for the job, said Augimeri.

City councillors on the TTC board who signed a petition for the special meeting are Norm Kelly, Vince Crisanti, Frank Di Giorgio, Denzil Minnan-Wong and Cesar Palacio. They form the majority of the nine-member transit board, so it would be in their power to have Webster removed.

They wouldn’t discuss the personnel matter on Tuesday’s meeting agenda, expected to be conducted mostly behind closed doors.

“It’s a question of reviewing the overall direction of where we believe the TTC should go. It’s a situation where the kinds of disagreements that have erupted in the past shouldn’t happen. I think people need to be on the same page,” DiGiorgio told the Star.

TTC chair Karen Stintz has been out of town for a week, following last week’s council defeat of the mayor.

Although Ford might like to remove the chair he picked to head the TTC, it would take a majority of council to do that and he probably couldn’t muster the votes, say his opponents.

Ousting Webster sends a clear signal to city staff who won’t fall in with the mayor’s plans, warned former TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc.

“If they are successful, no one is safe at the city,” said the St. Paul’s councillor. “The message will go out — as it did with the TCHC — that if you don’t agree with the mayor and write twisted reports the way he wants you to, then you’re out of here. To get rid of your most loyal civil servant because he cannot in conscience recommend, from a technical point of view, a crazy subway plan is beyond the pale.”

Removing Webster before his contract ends in March 2013 could cost between $400,000 and $500,000, said Mihevc. In 2010, Webster earned $281,931.37. He has been at the TTC for 35 years and had been expected to retire by early next year.

“If the purpose is to end Gary’s contract early, they need a pretty good payout because you can’t just fire him without cause,” Stintz said.

Jamie Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson for the activist group TTCriders, wondered why the commissioners want to sack Webster: “Are they afraid he will do his job and provide an objective analysis of how transit expansion should happen in Toronto?”

Kirkpatrick noted that the five who called for the special meeting also voted against allowing TTC staff to provide a pros-and-cons comparison of transit expansion plans at the Jan. 31 TTC meeting.

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TTC vice-chair Peter Milczyn said he wasn’t asked to sign the petition for the special meeting.

But at last week’s special city council meeting, Milczyn praised both Stintz and Webster for their professionalism and, following his remarks, took a moment to shake the TTC head’s hand in council chambers.

Webster did not return calls Friday, and Ford ducked reporters following an afternoon meeting.

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