Mayor Matt Brown delivered a largely positive state of the city address on Tuesday that steered clear of any rocky periods faced by council over the past 12 months.
The omission of city hall controversies gave pause to Councillor Josh Morgan, who felt the mayor misstepped by not addressing the challenges of the past year.
"When you give a speech about the state of the city, it should be a complete view about the state of the city," said Morgan, speaking frankly with reporters following Brown's speech. "The best way to work through the challenges is to recognize they are part of the state of the city, talk about them, and outline plans to move forward, how we are going to work through them."
Morgan cited the integrity commissioner's report into Brown's affair with Councillor Maureen Cassidy, policy disputes that divided council, and labour troubles such as the police budget issue as specific examples.
"Any city that says they don't have challenges or disagreements or tough things to work through is not being truthful with itself," said Morgan. "Recognizing them and talking about them is an important part of moving forward."
The speech was the third one delivered by Brown since he took over the helm of the city in 2014. Roughly 1,200 people attended the annual breakfast event held at the London Convention Centre.
Brown spoke about record construction and home sales growth, and a booming tourism sector that has generated $20-million in direct taxation.
He also used the forum to give a nod to the Western Fair District.
"This past year they had a record 2.9-million visitors. That's over $40-million in revenue," said Brown. "Soon, they will partner with Gateway Casinos. Together, these two will invest millions more to revolutionize the site."
Brown promised the London International Airshow would be bigger and better than ever in 2017, noting it will be one of the city's landmark events for Canada's 150th anniversary.
Prior to showing a video focused on some of the 1,600 Syrian refugees who came to London last year, Brown told the crowd, "for many of them, 2016 was the year they learned a new language, found safety and comfort, went back to school or launched a career."
Shifting away from the positive briefly, Brown pointed out that the city's jobless rate had yet to return to pre-recession levels.
"17% of Londoners, 68,000 people; thousands of them children, are experiencing poverty. There are 2,550 households wait listed for a safe, secure, and affordable home. This is a crisis," said Brown.
He went on to tell the crowd he continues to work with other Big City Mayors and the federal government on a national housing strategy.
Touching on rapid transit, Brown said the federal and provincial governments had yet to come forward with funding but that he will "continue to fight for London's fair share."
Brown ended his speech by advising the crowd not to be "distracted by the headlines."
"Resilience. That's London's competitive advantage. We must continue to push through and persevere," said Brown.
After the function, Brown offered little reason as to why negative challenges faced by council were not touched on in his speech.
"I think that we (council) have had a challenging year," said Brown "We've stuck together, we're going to push through, and we're going to continue to stay focused on our strategic plan."