Manzo ignores Mayor's order to leave Council chambers

One day before his 79th birthday (and six months and 20 days before the November 13 municipal election), Frank Manzo was in fine histrionic form at last night's meeting of City Council.

The Ward 6 Councillor was ruled out of order by Mayor John Rowswell, who felt so insulted when Manzo insisted he was smarter than the mayor that he ordered the City's elder statesman to leave the Council chambers.

Manzo (shown in a SooToday.com file photo taken at a bear management meeting two years ago) has a long history of using creative interpretations of parliamentary procedure to gain extra time to make his points, which are often accompanied by extended monologues about local and personal history.

Refusing to allow Manzo to take the floor after last night's vote on a $140-million municipal budget, Rowswell accused him of frequently launching "subtle" insults against himself and other councillors.

The mayor said he was no longer prepared to tolerate Manzonian insults and promised to keep a tight rein on the councillor at future meetings.

Last night, Rowswell directed Manzo to either apologize or leave the meeting.

But Manzo refused to do either.

And unlike a meeting on April 5, 2004, this time Rowswell didn't ask security to remove the Ward 6 warhorse.

This resulted last night in the loudest disruptions that SooToday.com can recall in four years of covering City politics. Manzo's high-decibel outbursts also continued after the meeting, as he vowed to soon be sitting in Rowswell's seat and later chased Rowswell through the civic centre hallways as the mayor tried to quietly leave the building.

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