in Houston, Texas

Continued from page 2.

Municipal bond work, while intricate, is usually a behind-the-scenes affair. Few newspapers report which firms are handling debt financing for a local government or school district. As for West, like all lawyers in the legislature, he is under no obligation to list his clients on his personal financial statements. So he doesn't.

In interviews with local officials, no one could detail any problems with West's legal services and there's no evidence that he has used his stature in Austin to land contracts in Dallas. But West did prompt criticism when he worked as the delinquent tax attorney for the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, where he went to school years ago.

In 2002, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander (now Strayhorn) released a damning audit of Wilmer-Hutchins that indirectly criticized West's work, in part for failing to collect more than $3 million in property taxes. After the audit, the Wilmer-Hutchins board voted to end its relationship with West.

The Dallas Observer would later report that during a break, the state senator conversed with the trustees just after they deliberated on his relationship with the district. Later, in that same meeting, the board reconsidered its vote and handed one of their district's most prominent alums a brand new contract.

They'd never have the chance to renew it. In 2005, Wilmer-Hutchins, mired in allegations of blatant corruption and unable to meet payroll, was closed down by the state. As the district publicly unraveled, West collected more than $300,000 in attorney fees.

"I don't think he did a good job at all," former Wilmer-Hutchins board member Donnie Fox told the Dallas Observer. "And the sad part about it is he's a Wilmer-Hutchins grad. It's terrible."

West says he won't work the city's hotel bonds



Like West, state Sen. Rodney Ellis has also drawn scrutiny by working for hometown public agencies, including the Houston Independent School District.

In 2007, the Houston Democrat and longtime champion of civil rights endorsed a hotly divisive $805 million bond campaign that the NAACP opposed. What Ellis never stated publicly was that his financial services firm worked for HISD and stood to make tens of thousands of dollars if voters heeded his endorsement and approved the bond campaign.

West seems to have avoided the same sort of conflict in Dallas during the city's referendum earlier this month on a new convention center hotel.

Like nearly every other politician in town, state Sen. Royce West avidly supported the proposal to build the taxpayer-owned hotel -- even though the city's own research has cast doubt on its financial prospects. But the veteran Democrat, whose endorsement carries weight among voters in his district and beyond, spoke in favor of it before the members of Dallas city council, urging them not to pass on a "historic opportunity."

West: Working on hotel would be "a conflict"

Unlike Ellis, though, West concedes it would be problematic for him to work on a deal that he has endorsed and says he won't be working for the city on financing for the hotel.

"It's a conflict," he said, explaining his recusal from the project just before the referendum. Voters narrowly backed the hotel project in the election. "I'm speaking out for the convention center hotel."

But as the referendum approached, Warren Ernst, a Dallas city attorney who has worked on the hotel project, said he had not heard from West on whether he'd be providing legal counsel for the financing.

It doesn't matter anyway. Ernst said the city uses different lawyers based on their expertise and had already opted for another law firm to handle the bond issue.

That's not terrible news for West. In Dallas County, there's plenty of work to go around.

Contact Matt Pulle at matt@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

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