Toronto, Canada’s city council voted to ask crack smoking, binge drinking Mayor Rob Ford to step down temporarily.  He refused.  Shortly after that, a court released documents painting a picture of a combative, drunken mayor who assaulted staff members and entertained suspected prostitutes.

The motion was approved by a vote of 37 to 5, but it’s only symbolic – the City Council has no legal means to get rid of a mayor, even one as flagrantly horrible as Rob Ford. 

“Because of the mayor's behavior, I'm explaining to my nine-year old what crack cocaine is.  Because of my mayor I'm explaining that it's not okay to lie and then apologize when you get caught,” said Councilor Karen Stintz.

During the debate before the council, Ford repeatedly asserted he would not quit nor would he temporarily step aside for treatment.  Even after admitting buying illegal drugs.  Even after admitting smoking crack.  Even after the recent video of his impaired tantrum, threatening to kill an unidentified person.  All the while, his Councilor brother Doug Ford glared threateningly at other council members.

The court documents, which came out after the vote, are based on police surveillance, wiretaps, and interviews with Rob Ford’s own staff.  They contain numerous episodes of Ford’s bullying, substance-abusing circus act.

The mayor’s former communications aide told cops that he was summoned to Ford’s office late on Saint Patrick’s Day 2012, only to find Ford having consumed half of a 40 ounce bottle of vodka and in the company of a woman he assumed to be a prostitute.  Ford moved the party to a downtown bar, racially abusing the cab driver in the process.  When the aide rejoined the party, Ford and two young women were doing cocaine in a private room.

Other staffers witnessed the mayor chugging vodka and Gatorade behind the wheel of his Cadillac Escalade, and popping oxycontin.  And the documents describe him smoking marijuana with women whom he’d promised city jobs – none apparently were hired.

The police file includes a widely circulated photo of a grinning Ford with three young men; one of them was shot dead earlier this year, the other two are currently charged with gun and drug crimes.  Ford insists he has nothing to do with criminal gangs.

And just to hammer home the fact that Toronto and its sweaty, obese, tantrum-throwing, crack-smoking mayor are an international joke, all this happened after Rob Ford released a limited edition bobblehead doll of himself, apparently conceived before the current trouble.

A poll showed that 76 percent of Toronto voters think Ford should step down or take a leave of absence, while only 24 percent agreed with Ford's insistence on staying in his job.