Lakewood City Council got a new member Monday when Liz Black was sworn in.

The City Council swore in five members during its normally scheduled meeting Monday evening, with Black being the only new councilmember to join the board.

Black will represent Ward 2 — bordered by West Alameda Avenue to the south and Sheridan Boulevard to the east — with Isabel Cruz. Sophia Mayott-Guerrero represented the area before the Nov. 4 elections, but Mayott-Guerrero did not run for reelection. Black was the only candidate for the seat.

Furthermore, Ken Cruz, Bill Furman, Paula Nystrom and Jeslin Shahrezaei were all reelected, with the latter being uncontested.

“I’m excited, humbled and honored to serve,” Black told The Denver Gazette after her election. “I just want to be a good steward of our residents and our city and to try to learn as much as possible in the coming months.”

Black said she wants to focus on both affordable housing and homelessness during her term — a sentiment echoed by the incumbents and the board as a whole, with various efforts going toward affordability over the past year.

Some of those efforts included approving the 2026 zoning code that would allow for multi-family residences like duplexes and townhomes in areas that used to have a majority of single-family lots.

“I want to understand our approach to affordable housing and our unhoused population as best possible, so that I can begin to think about policies that will begin to tackle these issues,” Black said. “And I want to learn more from our residents about what they see as major issues and concerns.”

With the incoming of Black was Mayott-Guerrero’s last night on the dais.

The councilmember, who was elected in 2021, shared her thanks and thoughts on her experience over the term.

“It’s been an honor of a lifetime,” Mayott-Guerrero said, adding that the reason she didn’t run is because Black would be an incredible replacement who has already worked as an activist in the community.

“I know Lakewood is in really good hands. My hands will still be here but I’m so impressed by all of you. This has been the most important work I’ve ever gotten to do,” she said.