Christopher J. Diaz

Christopher J. Diaz is a public agency attorney serving as city attorney to the towns of Colma and Hillsborough, and as district counsel for the Castro Valley Sanitary District. He also previously served as City Attorney to the City of Milpitas, a role he served in for seven years. Christopher regularly helps his public agency clients in all areas of public agency law, including the Brown Act, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), ethics laws and conflicts of interest.

Christopher also regularly advises public agency clients on the myriad of land use laws, including state planning and zoning laws and the Subdivision Map Act. Christopher also has considerable experience advising public agency clients on transactional compliance with CEQA, and regularly reviews environmental impact reports, mitigated negative declarations, negative declarations and initial studies.

Christopher has a strong passion for ensuring open and honest government and regularly advises public agency clients on the Brown Act, and state conflict of interest and ethics laws.  He has provided training on the Brown Act and ethics laws. He also has considerable experience in interpreting regulations adopted by the state Fair Political Practices Commission and has drafted various opinion letters to elected and appointed officials on compliance with the Political Reform Act and Government Code section 1090.

Christopher is currently serving on the Brown Act Committee of the City Attorney’s Department for the League of California Cities.  He previously served on the League of California Cities’ Community Services Policy Committee as the City Attorney’s Department appointee, as well as on the Resolutions Committee at the League’s Annual Conference. Christopher previously served a three-year term on the Executive Committee of the Public Law Section of the State Bar of California.

Although Christopher has lived in almost every major city in California, he now calls the Bay Area home. When he isn’t in the office or in a public meeting, Christopher enjoys hiking with his dog Bernie, wine tasting, and spending time with friends and family.