The Ames City Council and mayor will be in Washington, D.C., this weekend to meet with federal legislators and city leaders from across the country at a national conference.

The Congressional City Conference, organized by the National League of Cities and scheduled to run through Tuesday, will allow city delegates to discuss issues facing their communities and lobby for federal assistance with municipal projects.

“This is a chance for cities across the country to inform legislators about the issues they face,” Councilman Riad Mahayni said. “It’s an important gathering.”

Though the conference officially begins Sunday, the five attending councilmembers, Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco and City Manager Steve Schainker began arriving as early as Thursday to participate in seminars and meet representatives from other cities.

Several politicians and media personalities will give presentations over the weekend, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Bertrand Delanoe, mayor of Paris, France.

In addition to matching city delegates with national legislators and other delegates, the National League of Cities will focus on seven issues currently being discussed in Congress affecting cities, said Michael Reinemer, director of communications for the National League of Cities.

Those issues are: homeland security, public safety, transportation, affordable housing, laws affecting communities’ ability to collect taxes on Internet purchases and mandates requiring communities to pay for the enforcement of state or national laws.

Discussion of these issues and communication between local and federal government is critical, Reinemer said.

“A great deal is at stake in terms of funding,” he said. “We believe partnerships among many federal, state and local governments are unraveling. In a lot of areas the federal government is disinvesting in programs needed by towns and cities.”

Many of these issues are pertinent to Ames, Tedesco said, including affordable housing and the Internet tax.

The biggest benefit of the conference, however, is the face time with national leaders, he said.

These meetings will broker communication between the local and federal government, Mahayni said.

“Basically, we’ll be sharing with the legislators the funding priorities of the city for the coming fiscal year,” Mahayni said. “Then we can tell them what we need for help.”

In the past, contact with national legislators at this conference and throughout the year resulted in federal funding for numerous city projects, including the ISU Research Park, the municipal airport, street projects and affordable housing construction, Tedesco said.

Tedesco met with Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, Thursday, and the whole Ames delegation will meet with Latham and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Tuesday, Tedesco said.

The Ames delegation will also meet with delegations from other university communities to discuss issues unique to their environments, Tedesco said.

“Cities with universities have similar problems,” he said. “We’ll look at ways to solve those problems and build communication.”

While council members and the city manager attend workshops, Tedesco will serve on the National League of Cities Board, a group of 40 city officials representing the more than 18,000 communities across the country involved in the League.

More than 3,000 delegates are expected to attend the Congressional City Conference, Reinemer said.

“I’m excited,” said Councilman Matthew Goodman. “It sounds like an interesting experience — finding out how levels of government are intertwined.”