Michelle, technically, he's not being removed for using council stationary to solicit money. He's being removed for voting when council had a vote as to whether he should have to pay it back. Voting on whether he'd have to pay it back constituted a conflict of interest.
Council actually voted that he should NOT have to pay the money back. So, that makes what Ford did even more stupid. He wouldn't have had to pay back the money anyway. Even if he did have to, he could easily afford to. This was him being a complete idiot by participating in the vote in the first place.
And while you're correct that it might have gotten him some "goodwill", probably not much. He didn't do this when he was mayor but back as a city councillor when he was in a ward that was almost impossible for him to lose. I doubt he gained a single vote either for council or mayor because he runs his football program (though, his football coaching is pretty much the solitary thing I actually like about him). Basically, he got kicked out of office for being stupid.