Ariel Pe Named Mayor by City Council

The Lakewood City Council completed its annual reorganization on July 11, selecting Ariel "Ari" Pe to serve as Lakewood’s mayor from July

11 through July of 2024, and selecting Todd Rogers as vice mayor for the same time period.

The tradition in Lakewood and many cities of its size is for mayoral duties to rotate annually among the five members of the city council.

The mayor has the same vote as any other council member in meetings, but chairs the meetings and serves as the city’s main spokesperson at public events.

This will be the first time as mayor for Ari Pe, who was originally elected to the city council in 2020. His current council term runs through March 2024.

The council’s annual reorganization night started with a “Lakewood Celebrates” community gathering where expressions of thanks and appreciation were made to Steve Croft for his extra work for the community during his 2022-23 mayoral term. Croft will continue to serve as a council member for the rest of his term, which runs through June 2026. After being selected as the new mayor, Pe presented remarks about his goals to about 250 people gathered in the city council chambers and nearby overflow rooms.

You can read his remarks at www.lakewoodcity.org/ NewMayor. Mayor Pe also talks about his plans for his time as mayor in his “Lakewood Today” column on page two of this edition of the LCN.