Diversity increases on Lacey City Council. ‘This reflects our community.’
Lacey City Council became a more diverse body on Tuesday as Maren Turner, a Black woman, and Ryan Siu, a Chinese-American, took the oath of office as new council members.
Incumbents Carolyn Cox and Andy Ryder also were sworn in.
Turner defeated Charles Beck for the Position No. 4 seat, while Siu defeated Evette Temple for the No. 6 position. Incumbent Cox defended her Position No. 7 seat against incumbent Michael Steadman, who gave up his seat to challenge Cox for hers.
Ryder ran unopposed.
Once Steadman vacated his Position No. 6 seat, Siu and Temple challenged each other for it. Turner and Beck battled for the Position No. 4 seat because incumbent Robin Vazquez chose not to run for re-election.
Both Turner and Siu praised the increased diversity of the council.
“I would hope that residents would look at the composition of the council and say, ‘This reflects me, this reflects our community,’ and that we are proud to vote for people based on what we think they can contribute,” Turner told The Olympian.
“I really think that as we increase the amount of people from different perspectives on councils and things like that, we are really able to tackle all the problems in the city, and we’re able to see them completely, wholly, and we can really work on moving forward together,” Siu said.
Ryder retained as mayor, Miller as deputy mayor
After council members took the oath of office, the council elected the mayor and deputy mayor. The city does not elect either position. Every two years the role of mayor and deputy mayor are selected by the council.
Mayor Andy Ryder and Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller were retained for both positions for another two years. They were the only council members to be nominated and the council voted unanimously to support them.
During a break in the meeting, Mayor Ryder spoke with The Olympian about upcoming issues for the city, including annexation, working with the Nisqually Tribe on its mixed-use development near the outdoors store Cabela’s and keeping an eye on the city’s budget, which has been tight but hasn’t produced a major shortfall.
“We’re really only one of the jurisdictions around that hasn’t had to cut our employees, and we’re very proud of that,” he said. “And so we have to make, continue to make, fiscally prudent decisions.
“And I look forward to, you know, leading this new council. We have two new council members, and we’ve always done it as a team, and I expect we’ll continue to do it as a team.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
