WASHINGTON — Several hundred mayors from around the country, including Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson, attended the 90th annual United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. this week. 

The two Kentucky mayors in attendance said having conversations with other mayors allows them to gather information and learn how to better serve their cities back home.

Each conference attendee was asked to wear a mask during the sessions and required to submit a negative COVID-19 before entering. The three-day conference included speeches from high profile leaders and concluded with an address from President Joe Biden. 

“Mayors get things done,” Biden told the attendees. “Mayors know the measure of success isn’t scoring partisan points.” 

Biden said he has great respect for mayors and their leadership skills highlighting that he appointed several of them to serve on his cabinet. That includes former Boston mayor and current U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who also spoke to the group on Friday.

Walsh said he was in a room speaking with several mayors from different parties ahead of his speech. 

“We didn’t talk about Democrat and Republican,” Walsh said. “We talked about American cities.” 

Mayor Wilkerson, who took office in January of 2021, attended the conference for his first time and said he found speaking with the other mayors of state capitals beneficial. 

“It allows all the mayors to come together and have access to the federal officials,” Wilkerson said. “It presents and opportunity to really see them one on one and hear directly from them about programs, ideas and things that we can implement in our cities.” 

Mayor Fischer is a familiar face at the conference. He’s been involved with the U.S. Conference of Mayors for 12 years and ended a year-long term as president of the organization last June. 

“We want to make sure our mayors are a part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and we’ve got a good turnout here of new mayors,” Fischer said. 

The mayors in attendance had the chance to hear from their colleagues in different breakout sessions that focused on issues like gun violence in cities, how localities are handling the pandemic and ways to combat homelessness. 

“It’s everything from how we can hire more police officers to a big picture of how the country is doing,” Fischer said.