Council welcomes new assistant city attorney

The Fairfield City Council welcomed Wendi Dixon to the city during its regular meeting Monday in the council chambers at city hall.

Dixon will be an assistant city attorney, working alongside City Attorney John Morrissey. Morrissey introduced Dixon to the council and spoke about her background. Dixon is a fourth generation farmer from Iowa with roots in Van Buren County. She left the state to attend Penn State University, Temple University (Pennsylvania) and Georgia State University. Before moving back to southeast Iowa in 2010, Dixon most recently lived in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dixon began working with Morrissey a few months ago. In May, the council approved increasing the retainer being paid to the city attorney from $3,300 per month to $4,900, with the understanding that Morrissey was about to hire an attorney who would dedicate 10 hours per month to city business. That would be on top of the 22-25 hours per month Morrissey was doing for the city already.

The council sought to increase the city attorney's workload because it wants to more aggressively pursue nuisance violations, and because it wants to file legal paperwork such as property easements in a more timely manner. Dixon will perform general municipal work while keeping a private practices as well.