BY STEPHANIE LAM
Daily Post Correspondent
A former Los Altos mayor who once accused a Black Lives Matter activist of threatening her and tried to get the city to fund $8,700 worth of trips to out-of-state conferences, has pulled papers to run for a seat on the council.
Lynette Lee Eng, 64, is running to represent south Los Altos in the area around Grant Park. She will be up against Lucinda Langley-Andrews and Anky van Deursen. Councilman Pete Dailey, who lives in that neighborhood, isn’t running for reelection so he can run for the Valley Water board.
Lee Eng served two terms on the council from 2016 to 2024, including a one-year stint as mayor in 2018.
During her last term, Lee Eng was criticized by residents for claiming to have received “threatening” text messages from Keenan Moos. Moos was a Los Altos High School graduate and founder of Justice Vanguard, which organized local Black Lives Matter marches.
Moos had texted Lee Eng during a Nov. 24, 2021 meeting while council was voting on a proposal to have a third-party collect any complaints about the police.
Lee Eng abstained, saying she wanted to know what the proposal’s financial impact would be on the city.
In a text, Moos warned her that her name “will be all over the papers.” She told the council minutes later that she felt concerned for her safety and that of her family.
Moos, along with his supporters then spoke at council meetings and called for her resignation.
At the time Lee Eng said she had difficulties in expressing herself, and that may have led to a “misunderstanding” when she “tried to convey the anxiety” she felt after reading the texts.
Lee Eng also took heat from council in 2024, when she was the only sitting council member to get reimbursed for out-of-state travel, spending $8,737 on three conferences since the start of 2022, according to a report from City Manager Gabriel Engeland.
Lee Eng defended her trips as “educational experiences” that helped her become a better representative.
The city budgets $3,500 per year for council travel, according to Engleland. Council at the time accused Lee Eng of abusing the travel policy, and criticized her for attending the conferences without council approval.
Lee Eng was unavailable for an interview today (July 27) about her decision to run again. This post will be updated with any comment from Lee Eng.
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