About
Scott Diaz
Scott Diaz is a current member of the St. Helena City Council and an 18-year veteran of the luxury wine industry. He lives in St. Helena.
Since joining the Council, Scott has built a reputation for pressing staff and committee numbers for accuracy rather than voting with the room. He was part of the City Council that moved a $100,000 outside efficiency study into an adopted, department-level Strategic Plan. He flagged multiple accuracy and citation problems in the city's draft response to a Napa County Grand Jury report on water system leadership before that response went out. And he's spent months in the city's audited financial data, tracing disputed numbers back to their source.
CredentialsBachelor of Science in Accounting, University of Colorado Boulder; AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations, Anthropic; Microsoft Certified: AI Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900).
You can also read Scott's official biography on the City of St. Helena website.
Why I'm running
Since being appointed in May, I've treated this seat as a full-time commitment. The municipal learning curve is notoriously steep, but by dedicating myself fully over these past four months, I've compressed what typically takes a year or more into a few intensive months, digging into audited financial statements, stress-testing forecasts, and working closely with staff to trace every critical figure back to its source.
St. Helena is facing urgent decisions on our water, aging infrastructure, and long-term fiscal health. The reality of local government is that new leadership often spends its entire first year simply getting up to speed on the mechanics of city hall. Right now, our town doesn't have the luxury of a year-long runway.
Good governance starts with reliable numbers and immediate readiness. When a figure appears in a staff report without clear sourcing, that isn't a small paperwork slip; it's the difference between asking residents to take a conclusion on faith and giving them the transparency to verify it.
I'm running because this work requires diligence, time, and someone ready to govern on day one without missing a beat. I'd be grateful for your vote this November.
Record
- Appointed to St. Helena City Council, May 2026
- Now seeking election to a full term on the November 2026 ballot
- Part of the City Council that moved a $100,000 efficiency study into an adopted Strategic Plan, August 2026
- Reviewed the city's draft Grand Jury water response and flagged accuracy and citation issues before it was finalized and sent
- Part of the City Council that put a discolored-water mitigation update and the annual water supply/demand report on the September 8, 2026 agenda
- Worked on an ADU ordinance adjustment as part of the city's housing efforts
Career background
Before and alongside his Council service, Scott spent 18 years in the luxury wine industry. He most recently served as SVP of Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Demeine Estates, part of Lawrence Wine Estates (Heitz Cellar, Burgess, Stony Hill), and spent 13 years before that as VP of Marketing and Public Relations at Wilson Daniels (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC), Schramsberg Vineyards, Domaine Leflaive). He has spoken at the UC Davis Wine Marketing Program and the Southern Glazer's Fine Wine Summit.
That's a career built on explaining complicated things clearly and running teams that have to deliver on a schedule. It's useful context for city work, but it isn't the case for the seat. The Council record is.
