Toronto’s embattled mayor has not been invited to this weekend’s Garrison Ball and organizers are urging him not to crash the sold-out gala event because they say there is no room for additional guests.

Organizers insist the situation has nothing to do with Mayor Rob Ford's controversial appearance at last year's event, when he was reportedly asked to leave over a display of erratic behaviour and suspicions that he was intoxicated.

In an interview with reporters Wednesday, Ford suggested he may attend Saturday's black tie affair, even though he hasn't received an official invite.

“Pretty sure I am, I’m not just quite sure exactly," Ford said. "I have a number of events. I’ll let you know if I am.”

In response to Ford's comments, John Wright, chair of the ball's program committee, encouraged the mayor to reconsider and skip the military event.

“I would hope that the mayor would think about this carefully, that you’ve got 800 people already occupying 800 seats,” Wright told CP24 commentator Stephen LeDrew.

Wright said veterans of the Second World War are attending and the focus should be on the event itself.

“I don’t think we need any distractions there,” he said.

Wright said the committee was “delighted” that Ford was able to attend past dinners, insisting last year's controversy was not a factor in the decision not to extend an invite to the mayor this year.

“It’s not snubbing this mayor, it has nothing to do with his controversies,” Wright said. “We’re kind of full up and that’s the way it should be.”

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly is attending the fancy event at Liberty Grand on the city's behalf after organizers sent a letter to his office requesting the attendance of a representative of the city.

“All I know is that they invited me to it. I’ve been there previously," Kelly told reporters. “Whatever the status of the invitation is, (it) isn’t important to me. What’s important is I’m going to be with a terrific group of people and having a good time.”

Kelly has assumed many of Ford’s responsibilities and he has been invited to attend many public events on the city's behalf since council voted last November to strip Ford of his statutory powers over his crack cocaine admission and damaging allegations contained in court documents.

The ball's organizers decided to ask the deputy mayor's office to choose a representative because of the situation at city hall and the current protocol, Wright said.

He said the event has been held for decades and there is no official tradition of inviting the mayor of Toronto, although the ball normally has an official "city representative."

Wright said Ford was the “premier” guest at the 2013 Toronto Officers Garrison Ball, a fundraiser for Wounded Warriors, because the theme was “the city of Toronto and the War of 1812.”

This year’s Italian theme recognizes the role of Toronto Garrison members in the 1944 liberation of Italy. The “premier” guest will be Italy’s ambassador to Canada.

The formal dinner is sold out and its 800 invited guests include serving and retired members of Canada’s Armed Forces, dignitaries, including Defence Minister Rob Nicholson, and civilians.

“Anyone who shows up without a ticket or official invitation as an official guest of the Garrison will not be accommodated, as there will be no extra seating,” Wright wrote in an email before he spoke to CP24.

Ford asked to leave

A month after last year’s ball, the Toronto Star published a report saying Ford arrived late and was asked to leave because he appeared intoxicated and was speaking in a “rambling and incoherent manner.”

Coun. Paul Ainslie told the newspaper he asked Mark Towhey, who was the mayor’s chief of staff at the time, to encourage Ford to leave the event, held Feb. 23, 2013, at Liberty Grand.

Ford denied allegations, calling them “an outright lie.”

In addition to Ainslie, the Star report quoted unnamed members of the organizing committee. In response, Wright and five other organizers wrote a letter saying they did not ask Ford to leave and to their knowledge no one from the committee, including Ainslie, asked him to leave. Ainslie was not one of the letter's authors.

Last year’s Garrison Ball was held six days after police say Ford was filmed smoking a substance from a glass pipe. The video didn’t make headlines until the following May, when reports surfaced on Gawker, a U.S.-based website, and in the Star.

Ford attended the ball two weeks before Sarah Thomson, a candidate in the 2010 and 2014 mayoral elections, accused him of making an inappropriate remark and grabbing her buttocks at an event held by the Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee (CJPAC).

Thomson claimed Ford appeared intoxicated. Ford denied her claims.

Toronto police launched an investigation into the mayor, his friend Alexander Lisi and others after reports about the video first surfaced. Police have charged Lisi with drug offences and extortion over alleged attempts to retrieve the video. Ford has not been charged with a crime.

Police announced in late October that they have recovered the video from the hard drive of a laptop computer seized from the home of an alleged gang member in an unrelated drug raid last May.

Documents shed light on Garrison Ball

Previously-released documents from the ongoing investigation into Ford, known as Project Brazen 2, have shed light on the mayor’s alleged behaviour the night of the ball. None of the allegations has been tested or proven in court.

Four months after the event and a month after he was fired by Ford, Towhey told police Lisi drove the mayor to the Garrison Ball and the CJPAC event.

Ford had his two children with him when Lisi drove him to the ball.

That night, Towhey had a telephone conversation with the mayor, who was more than two hours late, and Ford sounded upset and agitated and he was talking “very quickly and was almost incoherent,” the documents say.

During that conversation, Towhey told the mayor not to show up because he didn’t think Ford was in a presentable state. The two argued over Ford’s demeanour and whether it was appropriate for him to bring his children to a black tie event.

Towhey tried to physically stop the mayor when he finally arrived. Ford needed physical help entering the building and he was flustered, agitated and flushed, police were told.

“When the mayor got to the front door two women asked him to stop behaving like a ‘bull in a china shop,’” an investigator wrote in a summary of the interview.

Towhey said he took Ford to the coat check and got another staffer to take the mayor’s young son and daughter to McDonald’s while he tried to convince Ford to do a quick walkthrough without speaking to anyone.

“The mayor was definitely intoxicated by something that night,” the documents say. “Towhey could not smell any alcohol on him, though. He was difficult to understand.”

After that night, Towhey removed all evening events from Ford’s schedule. Two weeks later, Ford attended the CJPAC dinner.

Police interviews with Towhey and other former staffers raised concerns about Ford’s friendship with Lisi and allegations or suspicions about drug and alcohol use and impaired driving.

@ChrisKitching is on Twitter. For up-to-the-minute breaking news, follow @CP24 on Twitter.