Executive Insider: Bob Dixon

Greene County Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon spent a combined 16 years in Jefferson City serving in the Missouri House and Senate, but he says the experience can’t compare to the work he is doing today.

“I love it,” he says. “I have enjoyed this part of public service more than anything else I’ve done because it’s close to the people. I’m home here.”

Dixon, who was first elected to his current post in 2018 and reelected in 2022, says he aims to bring a customer service mindset to his work on the Greene County Commission.

“I see us together serving the same people as customers,” he says. “That’s our focus.”

Every Tuesday, Dixon leads a huddle with county employees in a courtroom, and service is always the first order of business.

“A lot of folks think of leadership as a triangle where you climb the pyramid to the top,” he says. “We have intentionally flipped that upside down. The people at the proverbial top are really supporting everyone else, not ruling over them.”

Dixon says as presiding commissioner, he serves his two colleagues, 1st District Commissioner Rusty MacLachlan and 2nd District Commissioner John C. Russell. They each serve two halves of the county, and all three serve county department heads and 10 independent office holders.

In turn, those county leaders serve their employees, who themselves are serving the residents of Greene County, Dixon says.

“If we have that mentality, the citizens really are our customers, and they are at the top of that service structure,” he says. “That changes our thinking, hopefully, for any function that we’re doing.”

Russell says he sees Dixon’s philosophy at work with his dedication to the community and its residents.

“The role of presiding commissioner is very important to our community, and Bob’s temperament and steady, approachable style are ideal for this role,” he says. “He is very accessible and seeks input from all sides of an issue before making a decision.”

Dixon’s compassionate leadership is effective, according to Russell.

“It is easy to work with someone who cares deeply about our community, is honest and makes thoughtful decisions, all to make our community a better place,” he says.

Collaborative spirit
Dixon spent four two-year terms in the Missouri House of Representatives starting in 2003 and served as majority caucus chair, caucus chaplain and Transportation Committee chair.

He then served two four-year terms in the Missouri Senate starting in 2011, and while there, he served as the first nonattorney chair of the Judiciary Committee since the 1830s, leading a complete revision of the state’s criminal code.

During his time under the state rotunda, Dixon built a reputation for reaching across the aisle, according to his former colleagues.

Jolie Justus was a Democrat representing the 10th Senatorial District of Kansas City alongside Dixon, a Republican.

“We always had an amazing working relationship,” she says.

Justus, an attorney, was the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, where she worked alongside Dixon during their rewrite of the criminal code.

“In an era now where people can’t seem to agree whether the sky is blue, he and I just dug in, and we were able to get it accomplished,” she says.

The work required them to synthesize the contributions of judges, criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors, she says, with a mind on legislative concerns that they might end up either too tough or too loose on crime.

It was a combination that worked to get the job done, according to Justus.

“We had to make sure that we were working in tandem, and we did,” she says. “It was a phenomenal experience.”

Jason Holsman was elected to the District 7 seat of the Missouri Senate in 2012 and served until 2020, also alongside Dixon. Like Justus, Holsman is a Democrat and a fan of his former colleague.

“I love Bob,” he says. “Bob was one of the last true statesmen who served in the Missouri Senate. He represented his district faithfully but always sought common ground, even with those whom he disagreed with.”

Holsman says he has noted a decline in civility since he and Dixon left the Senate. It’s something he attributes to term limits, which impact members’ ability to get to know one another and build relationships, particularly across party lines.

But Dixon was a pleasure to serve with, Holsman says.

“It didn’t matter if you were in leadership; it didn’t matter if you were in his party or you were in the minority,” he says. “Bob treated you fairly, but he was also not afraid to speak truth to power. He understood that building relationships with people was far superior to bullying.”

County leadership
Whether in the statehouse or the courthouse, Dixon’s view is that harmony is key to service.

“We can best serve our community when we have internal unity – when we are all working closely together,” he says. “There are other counties where officeholders in the courthouse are suing one another, even though both sides are being paid with the taxpayers’ money. I made it a goal as commissioner to do whatever we can with a service mindset to have unity within the courthouse.”

That doesn’t mean officeholders and department heads always agree, Dixon says, but when there is a dispute, they work it out as colleagues and professionals with the customer – the constituent – in mind.

Dixon says when he started in his role, he had the motto of “truth, trust and transparency,” and he aimed to rebuild public confidence. In 2015, before he joined the county, the city of Springfield filed a lawsuit against Greene County over lack of availability of jail cells for city use. A settlement was reached in mid-2017, according to media reports and a news release by Greene County at that time, but Dixon says a lot of tension remained in the courthouse when he took office.

“You could cut the air in here with a knife,” he says. “Employees actually lost weight – they were under so much stress. We lost employees, and the community was in an uproar.”

In his first State of the County address in October 2019, Dixon says he decided to sing a song – a hymn called “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.”

The chorus summed up Dixon’s message to his county colleagues, which was that everyone needs to work together for the good of the county: “Put your shoulder to the wheel; push along. Do your duty with a heart full of song.”

Dixon says multiple people came up to him afterward to tell him the message was exactly what was needed.

“It was like a collective breath of fresh air,” he says. “We all took a sigh. That’s what I was going for that whole year.”

Dixon says a sense of shared mission matters.

“People feel more comfortable when they know you’ve got a bigger picture in mind,” he says.

For Dixon, part of the bigger picture comes through in his service as a board member for both the County Commissioners Association of Missouri and the Missouri Association of Counties, and since 2020 he has represented all Missouri counties on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Counties.

Professionally, he is a licensed Realtor with 417RealEstate.com with his wife Amanda.

A major focus for Dixon in 2026 is leading up the local celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.

Inviting the public to the courthouse for the shared celebration is part of Dixon’s view of county government, which he says is central to people’s lives. Counties own and maintain 44% of public roads and 38% of bridges in the U.S., he says, citing data from the National Association of Counties, and likewise, counties run every polling place in every state for every election.

“The county courthouse impacts the average citizen far more than the state,” he says. “This is government that people see and touch.”