The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 3 plus 5 letter word ROMULUS AND REMUS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
R
O
M
U
L
U
S
A
N
D
R
E
M
U
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "city fathers" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case city fathers = romulus and remus.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.