Councillor Frances Nunziata set to become council speaker with Augimeri out of running

In a brief and emotional turnaround, Mayor John Tory has avoided his first challenge at council before it even began.

A tearful Councillor Maria Augimeri told reporters Wednesday morning she will no longer seek the speaker’s chair after she was newly re-appointed as North York community council.

That decision is now irreversibly set on paper, since the rules prevent a community council chair from also holding the speaker position.

Up until Tuesday night, Augimeri said she would go head-to-head with Tory’s pick, Councillor Frances Nunziata, who performed the role last term and has been criticized for her Rob Ford-endorsed style and tone of leadership.

Despite claiming to have 19 votes in her favour — she would have needed 23 to win — Augimeri said she couldn’t go through with the fight.

“I was willing to let my name stand for speaker as members of council knew and I had enormous public support,” Augimeri said outside a committee room at city hall, adding other councillors asked her to run to present a more civil tone at council.

But she said some of those who would have supported her form part of Tory’s executive committee — those he has chosen as his inner circle to deliberate on key city issues.

“Some of them are willing to lose their chairmanship of standing committee and I won’t let that happen,” Augimeri said.

It’s not clear whether Tory was prepared to oust any councillor just chosen as the head of his seven standing committees (who automatically become part of his executive).

A source in the mayor’s office said Tory and Nunziata agreed she would travel to Ottawa and Queen’s Park to observe speakers in those governments as part of her “education” in the speaker role.

After making her decision during community councils’ first meetings Wednesday, Augimeri and Nunziata hugged outside the committee room doors.