NLC brings small-city advocacy to Laramie municipal conference

The National League of Cities brought small-city advocacy to Laramie as the Wyoming Association of Municipalities Summer Conference ran June 3-5 at the UW Conference Center at the Hilton Garden Inn, putting roughly 300 municipal leaders, staff and vendors in town for meetings, meals and overnight stays.

That attendance mattered for more than the ballroom. Laramie city leaders had already said the convention would help promote local businesses and generate sales and lodging tax revenue, a direct boost for hotels, restaurants and downtown merchants serving visitors moving between the conference center, the Historic Laramie Railroad Depot and other stops on the agenda.

The conference also fit neatly into NLC’s Small Cities Month, a June effort that recognizes municipalities with populations of 50,000 or less. NLC says small cities make up 80% of its membership and that 40% of the nation’s population lives in cities of that size. In Wyoming, the scale is even clearer: WAM Executive Director Ashley Harpstreith said 95 of the state’s 99 communities meet that threshold.

For Wyoming towns and cities, the value of the partnership goes beyond networking. Harpstreith said the affiliate relationship gives municipalities a voice in Washington, D.C., while also helping local governments trade practical ideas on problems that keep recurring across the state, including housing affordability, workforce shortages, infrastructure needs and limited local resources.

That policy focus showed up throughout the Laramie agenda. Conference sessions included an Ask an Expert discussion on National League of Cities affiliate member benefits, along with panels on open records, budget pressures, taxes versus services, AI in communities and water’s impact on economic development. Local and state officials were woven into those discussions, including Laramie Administrative Services Director Jenn Wade, Mayor Matt Murdock of Pinedale, WAM Executive Director Ashley Harpstreith and City of Buffalo Clerk/Treasurer Julie Silbernagel.

The gathering also gave attendees a close look at Laramie itself. The city’s estimated population was 32,284 in July 2025, while Albany County’s was 38,558, underscoring how closely the county fits the small-city profile being discussed in the sessions. The conference’s welcome reception at the Historic Laramie Railroad Depot tied that conversation to a building that remains the only surviving structure from Laramie’s once-large Union Pacific presence and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988.

For city officials, the likely takeaways were practical: how to use AI without losing public trust, how to balance taxes and services, and how water planning can support development. For Laramie, the payoff was immediate, with visiting municipal leaders filling local rooms, restaurants and streets while trading ideas that could come back to Albany County in the months ahead.