He visited Lamborn in Alameda to discuss organizing city officials around issues such as public records and tax assessment and the introduction of electric light.
Lamborn bartered an agreement with Southern Pacific for them to provide a 3,000-mile pass, which the railroad would recoup in the anticipated travel expenses of city officials' attending the ongoing league meetings.
An invitation was then sent to all cities and incorporated towns, asking them to send representatives to the first meeting, at Pioneer Hall, on Fourth Street in San Francisco, on December 14, 1898.
The date was deliberately set for prior to January 1899, "so that the proposed association could be formed in time to consider such matters of legislation as might be deemed expedient to submit to the Legislature then to assemble."
Phelan was elected president, Mason was named secretary and Lamborn was chosen for the League's executive committee, along with Mayor Joseph Hutchinson of Palo Alto.