City goes after Dixon, wants him to pay up

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- Nearly a decade after he was arrested on the steps

of City Hall, Bob Dixon is again a wanted man as city officials hope to

track down the former utilities manager for the more than $1.6 million he

still owes taxpayers.

“We’ve got 10 years to satisfy the judgment,” said Deputy City Atty.

Daniel Ohl, who was handed the job of delivering the bill to Dixon a

couple weeks ago. “I think it’ll be extremely likely we will find him,

but asset-wise ... I don’t know.”

Starting in 1981, Dixon had forged more than 400 checks and embezzled

an estimated $1.8 million to feed his compulsive shopping habit.

Three months after he was arrested on Jan. 13, 1992, Dixon pleaded

guilty to two counts of embezzlement by a public officer. At the time,

all his assets were liquidated, but they amounted to only $700,000,

leaving the city holding a $1.6-million bill.

Dixon was sentenced to four years in state prison but spent only 18

months in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. He

was released March 13, 1994.

City officials were hoping Dixon would be good for the money. After

all, the 17-year city employee and other Newport Beach officials signed

an agreement a month after his arrest, stipulating the city could collect

more than $512,900 in interest if the remaining principal on the original

$1.8 million was not paid by the following year.

However, Dixon has not paid any of it and the city has 10 years to

make good on the court decision, said City Atty. Bob Burnham.

Ohl plans to start his search in Northern California, where Dixon was

last seen by a Daily Pilot reporter, ducking into a rundown apartment on

Bancroft Way in Berkeley. Ohl will hire some people to track down Dixon’s

current residence and determine if he has any assets.

Ohl said he does not know why the city hasn’t tried to hunt down Dixon

before.

“My guess is it’s unlikely he’s got much money -- but then he was good

at getting money and hiding it and not looking like he had it,” Ohl said.

“People can get very, very creative on how they hide money.”

Long before he was arrested and charged with embezzlement, Dixon

started working for the city in 1975 as a clerk. He rose through the

ranks, eventually becoming utilities director in 1988, earning $86,000 a

year.

So trusted was Dixon, who was affectionately called “Uncle Bob,” that

when then-City Manager Bob Wynn announced his retirement in 1991, many

thought Dixon would take the helm.

Less than a year later, Dixon was caught with his hands deep in the

city’s pockets, stunning his friends and admirers at City Hall.

Days before his arrest, the Newport Beach Police Department received a

call from an AT&T; Universal Credit official who said a number of large

checks had been signed by Dixon and deposited into his own account. A

similar call had been taken from Citibank just months before.

Paying imaginary contracts that he was responsible for negotiating,

Dixon issued checks to fictitious suppliers and nonexistent property

owners. The checks were being endorsed and diverted into his own bank

account.

Dixon spent the money on extravagant domestic and international trips,

a trilevel Huntington Beach condominium, a 1990 BMW, hundreds of framed

photographs, a time-share in Jamaica, clothes and jewelry.