About 360 people have signed up to tell Mayor Rob Ford and the rest of his executive committee what they think about proposed service cuts in what will likely be a marathon meeting at city hall Monday.
The 13-member committee, chaired by Ford, is hearing from deputants during its debate over about $100 million worth of service cuts outlined in a final report into a core service review.
If every deputant shows up and uses the allotted speaking time, the meeting may last about 16 hours.
Ford said committee members are prepared to sit "all day and all night" to hear from the public.
He opened the meeting by telling the crowd the review was needed to identify possible savings and efficiencies to avoid further financial struggles in the future.
Ford then said he isn't prepared to close libraries to trim the budget.
Later, he told reporters he will clean up the financial mess that he "inherited" when he became mayor last year. Prior to that, Ford was a city councillor for Etobicoke for 10 years.
Deputants won't have much time to get things off their chest. Their individual speaking time was cut from five minutes to two minutes, plus one minute for questions from councillors, after committee members passed a motion from Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti.
The first deputant spoke at about 10:20 a.m. once Ford and city manager Joe Pennachetti made their presentations.
The potential cuts, recommended by Pennachetti, are largely based on a core service review conducted by KPMG consultants. They amount to about $100 million in savings.
Ford ordered the review earlier this year to find ways to trim a $774-million budget shortfall.
The recommended service cuts include selling off city zoos and theatres, slashing library hours or closing some branches entirely, eliminating windrow cleaning, and hiking Blue Night TTC bus fares or cutting some late-night routes altogether.
A non-stop meeting in July lasted nearly 21 hours after 300 people signed up to sound off on the controversial core service review. During that meeting, the speaking time was cut to three minutes and many people chose not to wait their turn, reducing the number of deputants.
