LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city's retired police chief says he'll accept a city council post he was elected to on Tuesday night after he dropped out of the race in late September.
Tom Engstrom received 380 votes, or 18.2 percent of the vote, placing second behind Lakeport businesswoman Stacey Mattina, who led the seven-candidate field with 433 votes, or 20.7 percent, as Lake County News has reported.
Engstrom said Tuesday he would accept the seat “with deep humility” and acknowledge the will of Lakeport's voters.
“I thought, for whatever reason, 380 people put their trust and faith in me and who am I to abandon them if for whatever reason they voted for me, so I accepted,” he said.
Engstrom, 63, had been one of the first candidates over the summer to announce his intention to run.
However, in late September he said he was leaving the race after having received a nine-year unpaid assignment from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that would require he oversee nine congregations around the North Coast.
On Tuesday night he said he wasn't watching the results, but his daughter called to tell him that he was in second place, a position he held throughout the night.
Engstrom said his wife, Cindy, asked him what he planned to do. He said he planned to pray about it and make his decision in the morning.
When he woke up Tuesday, Engstrom said he decided that he needed to find out if he could still accept the seat at all.
Engstrom called Lakeport City Clerk Janel Chapman, who already had been on the phone with the California Secretary of State and county election officials to find out how to address Engstrom's win and “just to clarify that he could still be in it.”
Regarding a situation where a candidate dropped out of the race but still won, Chapman said Tuesday, “I haven't seen anything like it before.”
Engstrom said that when he dropped out he had been told that, once candidacy papers are submitted, the candidate can't withdraw from the race, and that it would be up to him to accept or decline the seat.
That was confirmed to Chapman Tuesday by state officials, when they explained Engstrom was a valid candidate, and his win therefore was valid, too.
On Tuesday Engstrom said he received many phone calls and e-mails from supporters, who congratulated him and asked him to accept the seat.
“And so I decided about 10 a.m. this morning that's what I'm going to do,” he said.
Engstrom said he has a lot of guilt over the fact that while he decided to drop out he still won, while other candidates in the race worked very hard to win the seat.
“They're all well qualified, well deserving, nice people that I think are running for the right reasons,” he said.
Now that he's decided to accept the seat, Engstrom said, “I'm excited. I'll work my schedule out.”
He said the church is willing to work with him on scheduling, and that most of his assignment duties are on the weekends. Tuesday nights will remain open.
Chapman said that had Engstrom decided not to accept the seat, he would have had to resign the office and the council likely would have had to make an appointment to fill the spot.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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