Annual 2025 Arizona League of Cities and Towns Conference

The annual League of Cities and Towns Conference of Arizona mayors and council members discuss how to handle issues such as water, safety and land. The four-day conference includes breakout sessions where the mayors and council people work together to find ways to make their cities better.

Mayor Kevin Hartke of the City of Chandler joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the issues that will be presented in the annual conference.

Throughout the conferences mayors and council people will not only discuss what needs to be improved, but how they can be improved.

“It’s extremely important. Issues like water, issues like power, we’ll have some seminars of that,” Hartke said. “And then trying to get our resources together on what will be considered potentially dangerous, or threats to cities.”

The League of Cities and Towns was started in 1937 to advocate for cities and towns across Arizona. According to Hartke, the conference is a great opportunity to bring different types of cities together for an informative and productive meeting.

The connections made at this conference also gives officials the opportunities to be more involved in other communities outside their own.

“One of the things I love to do is, I have attended State of the Cities across the state, I was in Show Low this last weekend, I was in Flagstaff for their Pinecone Drop,” Hartke said. “There is a lot of cross pollination and information the the league directly continues to bring to cities across our state.”

At the state and federal levels there is a divide for political parties; however, people still want their cities and mayors to show less partisanship. While mayors and other officials try to be as nonpartisan as possible, according to Hartke, the conference helps to push that incentive even more.

The conference is expected to bring 1,800 people together from across the state with different perspectives and priorities.