They're clearly getting legal advice from real lawyers that it isn't as easy as you make it seem.
They are getting the same legal advice I've outlined (from Hicks Morley, no doubt). The only things stopping the Board from taking that advice are: a) future political ambitions of the trustees (largely to run as NDP or Liberal candidates), b) incompetence as administrators, and c) the absence of any mechanism for accountability for trustees other than elections (but the truth is that hardly anyone pays attention to Trustee races, and therefore incumbents are returned at a very high rate, no matter how badly they performed their functions).
Just like when the Toronto board wanted the province to absolve them of making the hard decisions on their budget so they did nothing and forced an adminstrator to come in, this Board wants someone else to order them what to do. Voters should not return politicians who won't make the decisions they've been elected to make.
The solution is just as easy as I have described it.
If I were Ford and I had to step in, I would not amend the HRC. I would appoint an administrator to do the job that the Board is refusing to do.