Bio

Council Member Diane Brooks Dixon represents District 1, the Balboa Peninsula and West Newport, on the City Council.  Diane was elected in 2014. She is a firm believer in limited government, balanced budgets, fiscal restraint and the power of the people to make their local government work for them, by them and with them.

Diane had a 30-plus-year career as a senior executive at Avery Dennison, a Fortune 300 public company with $6 billion in annual sales. At Avery, she was responsible for the company’s global communications, government relations and corporate philanthropy, managing at the intersection of business and government by forging connections among business, government, communities and nonprofit organizations.

Diane has had a four-decade commitment to community leadership and has served on several community boards: United Way Orange County and United Way Los Angeles, YMCA, public television, USC Board of Councilors and Alumni Association, educational institutions, child service agencies and health-related organizations. She knows how nonprofit organizations can work together with local government and businesses to accomplish goals to improve our communities. She holds a political science degree from USC (1973, Honors). In her time on the City Council, she has:

  • Served as mayor pro tem in the 2014-15 term and mayor in the 2015-16 term
  • Actively and regularly engages with residents holding 20 Community Town Halls since elected to office
  • Supports residents and business owners to represent their interests before the city to resolve problems and clarify process
  • Negotiated an agreement with Peninsula bar owners for greater self-policing and the creation of a special Newport Beach police unit in place resulting in consistent declines in property related crime.
  • Cleared the way for the Lido House hotel project on the former City Hall site, by brokering a settlement of a lawsuit by an adjacent landowner and continued to ensure that the construction process proceeded smoothly.
  • Along with Councilman Kevin Muldoon, led the effort to have an independent third-party audit of the Civic Center project which concluded that project management and fiscal controls were lacking.
  • Served on the Finance Committee (2015 to present, Chair 2016-18) and worked with other council members to include citizen members on the city’s Finance Committee, expand the committee’s role, and assign it to study and make recommendations regarding the city’s unfunded pension liability as well as to identify cost savings and efficiencies in the annual general fund budgets
  • Taken the lead on resolving the longstanding issue of the city-owned Balboa Theater, resulting in its sale to a private company for conversion into a modern entertainment/dining venue
  • Worked with the city’s Balboa Village Citizens’ Advisory Committee and the city’s hotel and tourism industry to create a trolley line funded with County Transportation funds  which debuted in 2017 and has continued each summer to great visitor and resident ridership
  • Working with local property and business owners to ensure open communications with nearby residents in order to resolve problems before they occur
  • Initiated numerous neighborhood and community improvement programs:
    • Peninsula Crosswalk Safety Study and Recommendations
    • Oceanfront Boardwalk Safety Recommendations
    • Restaurant Owners, Residents and Police Joint Meetings

Additionally, while on the City Council, Diane has chaired the Water Quality and Tidelands Committee and represents the city on the executive committee of the regional Board of Association of California Cities – Orange County. 
 
Diane's husband of 43 years, Patrick R. Dixon, has had a successful career in criminal justice prosecution. Pat served for 38 years in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, including 15 years as head of the office’s Major Crimes Unit and almost three years as Assistant District Attorney. Their daughter Colleen Brooks Tompkins, was a prosecutor with the Manhattan (NY) District Attorney’s office. Colleen and her husband, Graves Tompkins, are the parents of Diane and Pat’s grandsons, Brooks, Walker and Teddy Tompkins.