Meeting Kevin Marx, new Dixon councilman

As if the City Council's makeup wasn't unique enough – five new members tackling a new style of government – along comes Kevin Marx.

Tuesday, the council gave Marx a resounding "yes" with a 4-0 vote appointing the KSB Hospital executive to fill the seat vacated by Jesse Arjes this month.

For an elected leader, it's a rare and enticing proposition. Although all four who were elected in April said Arjes served the city well, who wouldn't embrace the opportunity to handpick someone to join them every Monday night for the next 2 years?

Naturally, the council selected someone who is in tune with the direction it has pointed Dixon. Yet councilmen also appointed a man they think brings something else to the table.

Like his counterparts, Marx has no previous governing experience on which to lean. Then again, experience is something Marx's new colleagues praised, a reason he rose to the top in the last 3 weeks.

Since Arjes resigned, my mind has been turning over all the possibilities for his replacement. With Marx on board, I sat down with him Wednesday, in an attempt to uncover where Dixon's newest leader fits in.

Foremost to him are the objectives citizens already should be familiar with:

"First, the importance of hiring a city manager can't be underestimated," Marx said at the top of our conversation. After that, enhancing the downtown and marrying multiple agencies under the "Dixon One" concept are chief in mind.

Marx already was involved before the council tapped him. He serves on the plan commission and The Next Picture Show and Main Street boards. Fellow councilmen Mitch Tucker and Mike Venier have similar backgrounds.

There are two things that struck me as different about Marx, a reason why maybe council members think he rounds out City Hall.

For one, at 60, Marx replaces Venier as the oldest member of the council. Raised in Itasca, he's lived in Dixon almost 40 years, longer than Tucker, Arjes, Chris Bishop and Mayor Li Arellano Jr. have been alive.

Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that Marx has a wealth of Dixon history to pull from, all of it coming out of his adult experience. Before, the council struck me as young (a characteristic Marx praised).

He brings conclusions about the city that are based on a full career. He can rely on observations made when he was the age of younger councilmen, and brings a new perspective to the new decision makers.

Second are the perspectives from Marx that I haven't heard from other city officials. At KSB, he's part of one of the city's largest employers. When he speaks about economic development, he uses a broad brush based on personal dealings. He cited tax increment financing, the riverfront, the downtown – numerous tools he observes daily that can entice outsiders.

"We're better off, based on our proximity to Chicago, our proximity to Interstate 88, than a lot of similarly sized towns," Marx said. "The question is, how do we leverage those things, marry them, to grow the town. Growth here is reasonable. And when you grow, that's good for the world – property tax revenue, fresh blood, new businesses."

At City Hall, the last few weeks have felt like sitting in a draft room. What type of person was Dixon going to select? The council even deliberated privately in its own "war room," going over a list of names akin to a draft board.

In Marx, members clearly think they selected someone based on need.