TORONTO - 
 
 Disgraced Mayor Rob Ford will be back on the hot seat again Friday when council meets to debate limiting his powers. 
 
 News of the looming special council meetings to limit Ford’s power came the same day an overwhelming majority of councillors voted to sanction Ford in the wake of his ongoing crack cocaine scandal. 
 
 The unprecedented move - stripping a sitting mayor of his power to hire and fire the deputy mayor and the chairs of council’s committees and taking away the mayor’s powers during an emergency - will happen Friday at two special council meetings called by 24 councillors. 
 
 “I think the mayor in his current state is not able, we certainly could not count on him to deal effectively with an emergency,” Councillor John Filion said Wednesday. 
 
 “I think it is beyond a lame-duck (mayor), a lame duck has more power than Mayor Ford has at the moment.” 
 
 In a stunning move Wednesday, councillors voted to order Ford to take a leave of absence, apologize for misleading Toronto residents, apologize for writing a reference letter for Sandro Lisi and cooperate with Toronto Police. 
 
 Council also voted to have the integrity commissioner investigate the situation. 
 
 The vote came after Ford admitted to council that he’s bought illegal drugs since being elected to the city’s top office but he repeatedly refused to take a leave of absence 
 
 Although Ford can ignore the vote, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong argued it sent as “strong” a message as council could. 
 
 “When the world was watching, we did the right thing,” Minnan-Wong said after the vote. “I’m not sure the mayor understood what was going on in council. He should take our advice.” 
 
 Ford delivered several quasi-apologies but remained defiant throughout the debate. 
 
 “I think I’ve said everything I really could say today,” Ford told council. “Apologizing and saying sorry, you can only say that so many times. 
 
 “I really effed up.” 
 
 In the midst of the debate, Ford tried unsuccessfully to introduce a motion for mandatory drug and alcohol testing for all councillors. 
 
 Despite the apology, Ford defiantly told council he’s done a “great job” running the city. 
 
 “I am so proud of the record I have,” he said. “I’m moving on, you guys can do what you want.” 
 
 The first few hours of the meeting were so heated, council had to break twice for tempers to cool and Councillor Doug Ford ended up pulling the mayor back as he approached Minnan-Wong on the council floor. 
 
 During his questioning of Ford, Minnan-Wong asked the mayor if he has purchased illegal drugs in the past two years. 
 
 “Yes, I have,” Ford said after a long pause. 
 
 Minnan-Wong also asked Ford if he still has “zero tolerance for drugs, guns and gangs.” 
 
 “Absolutely,” he said. 
 
 During further questioning from other councillors, Ford denied he knew the men in the now infamous photo in front of 15 Windsor Rd. - the house where the video of the mayor smoking crack was reportedly shot. 
 
 He denied the house was a “crack house” or that he was involved with gang members. 
 
 “I’m not part of gang bangers, I do not support them,” Ford said. 
 
 Ford denied he was an “addict” of any sort. 
 
 “We are moving forward in a positive direction,” Ford told council, repeating his vow not to take a temporary leave. 
 
 Asked if there were any other skeletons left in his closet, Ford shrugged. 
 
 “There might be like a coat hanger left in my closet,” he said. ||||| Story highlights Court documents allege erratic, sometimes abusive behavior by mayor 
 
 Women "smoked joints" with Mayor Ford, staffers say in documents 
 
 Toronto City Council votes to ask mayor to take leave of absence 
 
 Ford tells council he bought illegal drugs in last 2 years 
 
 Explosive new allegations surfaced about embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in court documents released Wednesday -- the same day the city council voted to ask him to take a leave of absence. 
 
 The court report, more than 500 pages long, alleges a pattern of drug use, and erratic and sometimes abusive behavior by the mayor. A judge ordered the report's release late last month. 
 
 The documents include police interviews with former staff members, information obtained from surveillance crews and cameras, and even an examination of the mayor's garbage. 
 
 The documents were used by Canadian police to get a search warrant for Alexander Lisi, Ford's friend and occasional driver, whom police accuse of marijuana possession and trafficking. 
 
 Several staffers said they were asked to buy alcohol for the mayor. One incident described by a former staffer alleged that Ford, while driving, stopped the vehicle, guzzled some vodka, and drove on. 
 
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 Chris Fickel, who worked as a special assistant to Ford, said the mayor would ask him to perform odd jobs at his house. Fickel said he would be called "to change light bulbs in the front lawn, change batteries in his children's toys, buying cartons of cigarettes, bleach, laundry detergent and diet Coke for the mayor's wife." 
 
 One staffer told police the mayor was inebriated on St. Patrick's Day in 2012 and got into a physical altercation with two staff members. He alleges the mayor was verbally abusive and inappropriate with a female staff member. 
 
 Another staffer said the same night, he saw a woman who may have been an escort or prostitute in the mayor's office. 
 
 Ford's former press secretary George Christopoulos also said women often came to the mayor's office, "and told staffers that they have smoked a joint with the mayor on the street outside of the bar. These women were told by the mayor that they could have a job." Christopoulos would then have to interview these women and try to talk them out of a job. 
 
 None of the allegations against Ford has been proven, and he faces no criminal charges. 
 
 Ford vows to stay on the job 
 
 Despite the Toronto City Council's motion, the mayor of Canada's largest city insists he will stay on the job. 
 
 Wednesday's vote is largely symbolic -- it does not have the power to force Ford from his post. 
 
 The tense council meeting came more than a week after Ford admitted smoking crack cocaine 
 
 Days after that admission, a new video showed a ranting, swearing Ford threatening to kill someone. 
 
 During Wednesday's meeting, Ford made a further confession to the council. 
 
 He said he has purchased illegal drugs within the past two years, while he was in office. 
 
 Despite his escalating troubles, Ford insists he has been a good mayor and that voters will decide during next year's election whether to keep him. 
 
 "I have made a mistake. I am human," he said. "I apologize. I want to move on." 
 
 Ford said that he is being subjected to a "public flogging" and that the experience has been the most humiliating thing in his life, maybe the worst week in his life next to his father's death. 
 
 Despite the admission of drug use and of heavy drinking, Ford flatly denied that he is addicted to alcohol or drugs. 
 
 "The reason I drank or did drugs was not because of stress, it was out of sheer stupidity," he said. "That's all it was." 
 
 Ford's brother, Councilor Doug Ford, and other family members have defended the embattled mayor. 
 
 On Wednesday, Doug Ford appeared on CNN and blamed the scandal on politics. 
 
 "Rob does not come into work drunk," he told CNN. "He said he's tried illicit drugs under a drunken stupor." 
 
 "And he's not doing drugs. And he's not drinking. So he's moving in the right direction, in my opinion, but the public flogging, never seen anything like it. This man has apologized profusely. He's asked for forgiveness, and the rest is sheer politics down here."
– Toronto's crack-smoking mayor has made it clear he's not going anywhere despite his many scandals, but City Council has other ideas. Councilors will today consider a motion that would call on Rob Ford to apologize, take a leave of absence, and cooperate with a police investigation into his activities, CBC reports. Just one problem: Even if it passes (Ford, who made the motion the key item at today's council meeting, has promised a "rumble in the jungle" debate), Ford won't actually have to heed the request. If he refuses, the City Council can ask Ontario to pass legislation removing him, but the council itself can't remove him from office since he hasn't been convicted of a crime—and councilors are hesitant to ask Ontario to step in. With "no clear legal path to force him out," the AP reports, the council is looking for a way to isolate Ford and run the city without him, which could actually be possible, since the powers of the Toronto mayor are more limited than the powers of many mayors in big US cities. "We really just have to build a box around the mayor so we can get work done," says one councilor. A second option to be debated next month: a motion that would further limit Ford's powers, basically keeping him from being able to fire executive committee members who want him out. "We will shun him, curtail his power as best we can," says another councilor. "He clearly has gone off the deep end, shot himself in outer space." Much of the public, though, still loves Ford: Hundreds lined up to buy "Robbie Bobbie" bobblehead dolls yesterday; they're being sold for charity.