What it’s like to be living history for Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick

When LaRhonda Patrick took the oath of office for the first time on Jan. 3, 2022, she wasn’t just becoming mayor of Warner Robins — she was making history as the first elected Black person, first elected woman and youngest person to serve in that position in the city’s history.

“I’m definitely proud to say that I was able to accomplish a first in those categories,” said Patrick, 42, who is now in the first year of her second, four-year term as mayor. “I didn’t run for that purpose, but it’s definitely inspiring to others to make them see that just because no one else has done it previously doesn’t mean that someone can’t come and break that mold and break that glass ceiling.”

Among the mayor’s key accomplishments that is a work in progress is redevelopment of the downtown district, particularly the Commercial Circle area.

“I ran on finally giving us a downtown — one of the things I stated, and I came in determined to make it happen,” she said.

Owning less than one acre of the 17-acre Commercial Circle when Patrick took office, the city has acquired about 72% of the property. A request for proposals (RFP) for a master developer of the mixed-use project are expected to go out before spring,

Another major accomplishment Patrick identified is the Haven Hope House, which currently functions as a warming and cooling shelter while broader services are developed.

The shelter, which opened last year, grew out of a broader homelessness initiative launched during the mayor’s first term in office.

Other initiatives include the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with construction expected to start this year, working to make Warner Robins a smart city, and continued community engagement through events such as the International City Festival and food truck roundups.

The Telegraph asked Patrick to share her experiences, challenges, reflections and aspirations in celebration of both Black history and women’s history.

Challenges help shape her leaderships style

Aware that her journey would be more difficult, Patrick allowed challenges and potential barriers to help shape her leadership style.

“I knew I would have them coming in,” said Patrick, who served as part-time city attorney for Fort Valley and had her own law practice before being elected mayor. “So, I was intentional about a few things.”

At the swearing in of a new mayor, the tradition was for the mayor to cut the first slice of celebratory cake for a photo. But at her first swearing in on Jan. 3, 2022, Patrick said she chose to include the new council members also being sworn in. They all held the knife together and cut the cake.

“Also, whenever I would have meetings in my conference room, I was very intentional not to sit at the head of the table,” Patrick said. “I sat in the side seats, no matter if they said, ‘You sit here.’ Nope, I sit in the side seats. I did that intentionally so that I’m not intimidating anyone.”

When speaking about an initiative, Patrick said she’s careful to also give council members credit and to lead as a member of a team.

Additionally, she doesn’t bring a purse to meetings and wears slacks based on the advice of mentor and lobbyist Rufus Montgomery, president and CEO of the Cascon Group, a business development and government affairs firm based in Atlanta.

“You’re the boss. You’re a female. A lot of men, these are strong men, they’re not going to like that it’s a woman in this role,” Patrick said Montgomery advised her.

“He said, ‘You’re one of the boys now, and you can either be one of the boys who expects to be treated like a girl, or you can be one of the boys who expects to get the same thing the men get. And if that’s the case, you have to dress like it,’” she said.

Being mistaken for someone who didn’t belong at a regional board meeting and being denied a one-on-one meeting with a high ranking leader of a prestigious organization because he feared people might assume they were dating were among challenges she faced early in her tenure.

Balancing political life & motherhood

Motherhood, especially being a single mom, also creates challenges such as “mom guilt” and balancing responsibilities. But Patrick noted she has a strong support system to help raise her 8-year-old son, Laine, in her family and fiancé Daniel Sizemore.

Patrick recently got engaged to Sizemore, who works in business development helping independent eye doctors merge with larger practices. Her family includes parents Rondy and LaQuetta Williams, her grandmother Jacqueline Thompson, and two brothers, Rondy Williams Jr., who’s retired Air Force and also lives locally, and Rashad Williams, who recently moved to Maryland.

When Laine was 4 and Patrick was a few weeks shy of qualifying to run for mayor in the summer of 2021, he told her, “You can’t be mayor because you’re a girl.”

Patrick said she has no idea where he got that notion from, but she was able to explain to him that wasn’t true. Now, she’s living proof.

Since then, Patrick said she’s brought her son along on her journey, exposing him to experiences he might never have had otherwise, and even though she can’t always spend every Saturday with him because of work, he understands her role and he’s proud.

Laine now tells people, “My mommy’s the mayor, and she’s a girl.”

Being a mother influences how Patrick leads and makes decisions for the city. She often thinks about what her son would want and uses that perspective to create programs that benefit families and children, not just adults.

Examples include expanding the mayor’s health initiative to include young people, bike and trail planning, and adding programming to the North Houston Sports Complex through the InnoLab, an all-ages STEM center, to engage youth beyond athletics.

Patrick also shared about a connection with a female executive balancing leadership and motherhood at an early chamber event when both were late due to school drop-offs.

“Other mothers who are working in leadership roles may go through the same situation, but it’s our job to help uplift each other and to see that you’re not suffering through this by yourself,” Patrick said.

“But at the end of the day, we are mothers, and we have a role in that, and we can’t let our babies down. We show up for work. We work hard all through the day, and if we’re late … then we’re late to some meetings in the mornings, because you have other roles besides this one.”

‘Under his wing’

Among those who have inspired her along the path for public service, Patrick singled out former state Rep. Willie Lee Talton, R-Warner Robins. Talton served the 147th House District from 2005 to 2015 after a longtime career at the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, including 28 years as second in command as the chief deputy to the sheriff.

“He influenced me, because when I first met him, I was surprised to see an African American male serving at the state capitol as a representative from our community,” said Patrick, who was age 21 and in college at the time.

“He kind of took me under his wing, and he mentored me. He explained things to me when it comes to the process of making laws for our state. He’s been with me ever since. He gives me a lot of wisdom so that I’m not making the mistakes that I don’t have to make.”

Talton said he was impressed with her from the start, noting her ability to work with others, listen and “soak stuff in,” and give a fair opinion — even if it was something the other person didn’t want to hear.

“I think she has a good future in politics, whether it’s local, state or federal, and I don’t know if she’ll stay local so long. She may have the ability to go other places,” he said.

What other leaders say about Mayor Patrick

“Mayor Patrick is a visionary style leader,” said James Drinkard, the city’s first full-time city administrator who came onboard in October 2024. “She has a long vision for this community.

“One of the unique things to me — having been in public service for over 35 years and dealt with a lot of elected officials — she combines that vision with a passion and a desire to work harder than everybody else in the room every single day, and that’s not something you see everywhere.”

Drinkard, who previously served as the assistant city administrator in Alpharetta, said he often tells people that he was not planning a career move until contacted by Patrick.

“A 10-minute conversation with her changed my vision entirely, just like she’s changed the vision for this community,” he said.

Longtime Warner Robins Councilman Clifford Holmes, who once served 71 days as interim mayor in the fall of 2008, described Patrick as a “knowledgeable, intelligent, sweet, caring young lady, and she’s not selfish with her care for the citizens.”

“If you talk to her, she’ll say to you, ‘my team, my team,’ and that’s what we are,” Holmes said. “We are a team.”

Houston County Sheriff Matt Moulton said Patrick’s willingness to cooperate with other governments make her a strong leader. Moulton has worked with Patrick on the Haven Hope House and with its supervisor Brian Wise.

“When we identify homeless people, we can call Brian or call Mayor Patrick, and they will send a bus to our location, pick up the homeless person, take them to the shelter at night to provide them a place, and they also provide transportation back to where we picked them up at so that relieves the resource that I would have to invest with a deputy doing those transports the time it would take to do that,” Moulton said.

Future aspirations for public service

With no term limits on the position of mayor, Patrick said she can envision herself continuing to serve until she’s accomplished all she’s set out to do.

She aspires to remain in public service, considering a potential run for the U.S. Congress down the road.

Patrick admires U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Democrat from Albany, who represents Georgia’s District 2 House seat. They’ve worked together on the city’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial project.

Although not an official mentor, Patrick said she’d like to build that relationship.

“Hopefully one day, he will feel comfortable enough to pass a baton to me, which would make me comfortable enough to run for his seat whenever he decides to take a seat,” Patrick said. “But when he’s sitting, as long as he’s serving, I’ll be right there with him, trying to help him, push him along and continue to learn from him.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 5:36 AM.