Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford talks to media at city hall in Toronto, Monday, Nov.26, 2012.Ford has been ordered out of office after a judge ruled Monday he broke conflict of interest rules. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Ousted Mayor Rob Ford cannot run in any byelection if one is called to choose his successor, the city's top lawyer said Tuesday.

City solicitor Anna Kinastowski told council that a judge's ruling booting Ford from office for the "current term" precludes that option.

"It is my opinion that that word 'term' means 2010 to 2014," Kinastowski said.

"That is our interpretation of that particular fact."

On Monday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland ordered Ford removed from office for violating conflict of interest rules.

Ford, Hackland found, was "wilfully blind" in taking part in a council vote on whether he should repay $3,150 he had solicited for his private foundation using city letterhead.

Hackland could have barred Ford from running again for seven years, but instead opted to disqualify him for the "current term."

Immediately after, Ford said he would fight the decision and planned to run in any byelection, estimated to cost about $7 million, that council calls to fill his seat.

"I'm a fighter," the mayor said.

"If there's a byelection, my name will be the first one on the ballot."

Some lawyers called Hackland's order ambiguous but Kinastowski said she didn't see that.

"If down the road there is a byelection and Mr. Ford does not agree with our interpretation, he can certainly take action to get a judicial interpretation at that time," she said.

Coun. Paula Fletcher said council will probably go with the solicitor's advice that the "term" runs from when he was elected in 2010 until 2014.

"Sometimes the mayor interprets the rules differently than everybody else," she said.

The mayor's woes multiplied, with one of his key allies and main defenders on council, Giorgio Mammoliti, announcing he was stepping down from Ford's executive council.