West's role and more on what bond counsels do

Continued from page 1.

The living that West makes is largely centered on helping public agencies issue bond packages for large construction projects.

This is not an easy process. If a city is using hundreds of million of dollars in debt financing to pay for a public project, there are all sorts of legal requirements on how local officials issue the bond and structure the interest. Because cities use tax dollars and fees to pay back bonds over decades, the issuer and buyer need more protection than a cargo ship sailing into the Somali coast.

For the city of Dallas, where the state senator is trying to land the law school, West and Associates serves as the co-bond counsel on many municipal debt sales. According to his contract terms, the state senator's firm helps prepare statements and disclosures to prospective bidders, while providing legal advice to the city's lawyers as questions come up.

For his services, the city pays West $300 an hour, with his firm earning more than $73,000 last year, according to the city's budget and management services department. Since February 2007, West and Associates -- a small law firm, located just off the interstate --- earned more than $230,000 from Dallas taxpayers. The firm's current contract last three years and runs until February 2010. There's an option to renew for an additional two years.

West, the only partner in his firm, also helps with the packaging of bond transactions for the primary transit agency in the region.

According to Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokesman Morgan Lyons, West has been "associated with DART in some capacity since 1996." At that time West had held elected office for two years. In 2005, he began working as the agency's co-bond counsel and last year, his firm earned almost $260,000.

Since the beginning of his most recent contract that began in December 2006, his firm has earned nearly $550,000, according to billing records provided by the transit agency.

West and Associates also advises the Dallas County Community College District. Last year, West billed the education agency for more than $68,000. West sits on the Higher Education Committee and regularly votes on and sponsors bills that would affect two and four-year colleges.

Though West's public-sector lawyering usually consists of handling bonds, his firm also manages personnel cases for the Dallas Independent School District. From 2002 to October 2008, his firm collected $3.8 million in legal fees from Dallas ISD. Last year alone, West and Associates billed the district for more than $600,000, according to records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.

The state senator works with a few smaller clients as well, including the city of Lancaster and the Duncanville Independent School District. Outside his home county, West has worked for the city of San Antonio and the nearby Judson Independent School District. There, according to district spokesperson Sean Hoffman, one of West's attorneys contacted Judson, and the district's financial advisor enlisted the state senator's law firm to "help diversify the counsel." Last year, the firm earned $15,000 in legal fees from Judson ISD.

CONTINUES

Read more about West's work for the now-defunct Wilmer-Hutchins ISD and his plans not to work on the convention center project. On page 3.

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