Athens Mayor Steve Patterson reflects on 2025 NLC presidency and lessons for small cities

Steve Patterson, mayor of Athens, reflected on his 2025 term as president of the National League of Cities and said his focus was ‘‘uplifting small and underserved communities.’’ Patterson said the presidency gave him opportunities to press Congress and national partners for tools that smaller municipalities need to compete for federal funding.

Patterson said one central goal was building local capacity. "For me, it was pretty simple. It was uplifting small and underserved communities," he said. He described how the NLC and the Bloomberg Institute expanded a "local infrastructure hub" aimed at helping communities with limited staff to apply for and manage federal grants, and said the program addressed common concerns that small governments lack personnel to handle grant reporting.

Patterson traced his NLC rise to attending the City Summit in 2015 and to service on internal committees. He said he secured the nomination for second vice president at the 2023 NLC conference in Atlanta and then unexpectedly became president on Jan. 2, 2025, after Sharon Weston Broome lost a runoff on Dec. 11, 2024. "I became the president of the National League of Cities," he said, calling the year both "surreal" and intensely busy.

He said his presidential agenda had three pillars: supporting smaller and underserved municipalities, cultivating the next generation of local leaders, and "collaborating on local solutions to global challenges," which he described as subnational diplomacy. Patterson said the NLC in 2025 also established an international engagement task force to identify potential global partners for municipalities.

Hosting visiting leaders in Athens, Patterson said, helped translate national work into local benefit. He described a summer board visit that included past NLC presidents and noted that visitors heard from Ohio University president Lori Stewart Gonzalez and toured downtown sites including the armory and the public art project Invisible Ground. "They really enjoyed getting to hear from the president of Ohio University," Patterson said, adding that board members told him they understood his pride in Athens after seeing the city firsthand.

Patterson also used his platform at state league meetings across the country — from Augusta, Maine, to Long Beach, California — to promote Athens as an example for small communities. He said audiences often included municipal leaders from places with populations under 5,000 and that highlighting Athens’ experience "gives them hope" that similar projects and grants are achievable.

After his presidency, Patterson said his two primary responsibilities are chairing the nominating committee for future NLC leadership and supporting membership. He described advising Kevin Kramer of Louisville, Kentucky, who stepped into NLC leadership, to "be in the moment" because the role moves quickly and requires consistent engagement, including advocacy on Capitol Hill.

The interview provides a first-person account of how national leadership roles can be leveraged to raise a city’s profile and access to resources, and of the specific programs — the local infrastructure hub and an international engagement task force — Patterson said he amplified during his year as NLC president. He said he remains active in NLC governance as immediate past president and in nominating future leaders.