City Attorney
Vanessa W. Vallarta, City Attorney
The City Council appointed Vanessa W. Vallarta as City Attorney effective January 2005. The City Attorney’s office works to provide quality and effective legal representation and guidance to the Mayor and City Council, City Manager, City departments, and Boards and Commissions.
Vanessa graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University (B.A., 1983) and Stanford Law School (J.D., 1987). She clerked for the Hon. Thomas Tang, Federal Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal following graduation.
Vanessa is admitted to the State Bars of California and New York. She has worked in private law practices in New York, San Francisco, Monterey, and Salinas, served as executive director of a local non-profit, and as in-house counsel for a local grower and shipper of agricultural products.
Vanessa oversees all legal matters that come before the City Council as governed by the Salinas Charter and City Code, and applicable State and Federal law.