The plaintiff’s attorney in a lawsuit against the city of Dixon continued making arguments Friday, Feb. 20, that the court should order the city to pay its attorney fees in a Freedom of Information Act dispute.

The suit – filed Oct. 29, 2025, in Lee County, by a Missouri organization, the Coalition Opposing Governmental Secrecy and Metric Media LLC, doing business as NW Illinois News - alleges the city willfully and intentionally violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by failing to produce records requested by a person identifying themselves as a reporter, court records show.

It asks the court to order the city to pay a fine between $2,500 and $5,000 for each alleged violation and order the city to award the plaintiffs reasonable attorney fees and costs, court records show.

[ Dixon accused of violating Freedom of Information Act  ]

A FOIA request is a formal, written demand for specific public records from a government agency. Laws surrounding these requests vary by state.

At a hearing Jan. 6, the attorney representing Dixon, Tim Zollinger, told Lee County Circuit Judge Douglas E. Lee that this is not a case where records existed and were wrongfully withheld.

Zollinger explained that although the city did not respond in the state-mandated time to the FOIA request, it was unintentional and officials took corrective action by responding to the request weeks after the lawsuit was filed.

After the response to the FOIA request was sent, the organization’s attorneys, Edward Weinhaus and Adam Florek of LegalSolved, filed a motion asking for an extensive list of records related to Dixon’s handling of FOIA requests. Zollinger filed a motion objecting to the request.

In court Jan. 6, Zollinger argued the information was no longer relevant since the city responded to the FOIA request.

Lee agreed and ordered a temporary pause on the pre-trial information gathering process.

On Friday, the attorneys appeared before Lee again for a status hearing. Zollinger appeared in person and Weinhaus via zoom.

Zollinger told Lee that since the last hearing he did exchange emails regarding the issue of attorney fees with Weinhaus.

“We did not come to a resolution,” Zollinger said.

Weinhaus said he would no longer pursue his motion requesting records from the city as he doesn’t believe it’s the best use of “the courts or public’s time and money.”

Instead, Weinhaus said, “we’re comfortable moving towards fee petition.”

Lee gave Weinhaus until March 13 to file his motion arguing for the payment of attorney fees and Zollinger until March 27 to file a motion in response.

The next hearing is scheduled at 11 a.m. April 23.