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Chairman Vincent Gray at the request of the Mayor A PROPOSED RESOLUTION IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA To confirm, on an emergency basis, the appointment of Mr. Togo D. West, Jr. to the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution be cited as the "District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics Togo D. West, Jr. Confirmation Emergency Approval Resolution of 2010". Sec. 2. The Council of the District of Columbia confirms the appointment of: Mr. Togo D. West, Jr. as a member of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, established by section 3 of the District of Columbia Election Code of 1955, approved August 12, 1955 (69 Stat. 699, D.C. Official Code §1-1001.30), for a term to end July 7, 2010. Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia shall transmit a copy of this resolution, upon its adoption, to the nominee and to the Office of the Mayor. Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately. TOGO DENNIS WEST, JR.
Togo Dennis West, Jr. has been a partner and of counsel to two national law firms. He has been a senior officer in one of the nation's largest aerospace corporations and he has served his country as military officer, senior Defense leader, Justice Department official, and Cabinet officer. He is an Eagle Scout. Secretary West has held senior positions in three presidential administrations. He served in the administration of President Gerald R. Ford as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice. In the administration of President Jimmy Carter, he was General Counsel of the Navy, later the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, and, thereafter, General Counsel of the Department of Defense. He served in President Bill Clinton's administration as Secretary of the Army. In the second Clinton administration he was Secretary of Veterans Affairs and a member of the President's Cabinet. While Secretary of the Army, he also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Commission. Secretary West has served on a number of governmental commissions and advisory committees. In 1982, he was appointed by Secretary of State George Schultz as one of a team of three lawyers from private practice to conduct an independent inquiry into the handling, by the governments of the United States and El Salvador, of the investigation and prosecution of the murders of four American Catholic churchwomen killed in El Salvador. Their report was submitted to the Secretary of State and to the Congress. In the spring of 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Secretary West as co-chair of the Independent Review Group to Investigate and Report upon Rehabilitative Care and Processes at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland. In the fall of 2009, he was asked to co-chair the Department of Defense Independent Review Related to Fort Hood, whose findings and recommendations were submitted to the Secretary of Defense for further review and implementation by DOD components. He has served as a member of the Defense Policy Board, and he has previously served and is currently a member of the regional selection panels of the President's Commission on White House Fellows and is a member of the Defense Health Board. Secretary West received the Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Howard University in 1965, and in 1968, a degree in law from the same university, where he was Managing Editor of the Howard Law Journal, graduating cum laude and first in his class. He served as law clerk to Judge Harold R. Tyler, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Secretary West practiced law with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., from 1973 to 1975, from 1976 to 1977, and from 2000 to 2004. In 1981, after a period of government service, he joined the New York law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler as managing partner of its Washington office. In 1990, he became Senior Vice President for Government Relations of the Northrop Corporation, and served until his appointment as Secretary of the Army. From 2004-2006, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. He is presently Chairman of TLI Leadership Group, which he established in 2006 to support his professional and community activities. Secretary West serves on several publicly listed corporate boards as well as on the Board of Directors of MedStar Health; and is Chairman of the Advisory Committee to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. Secretary West is a member of the Senior Council of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and its former Chairman; past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Hospital Center; former Chairman of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. While a member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Mr. West also served as Chairman of its Legislative Bureau, and as Co-Chairman of the Board of Trade's Task Force on Home Rule for the District of Columbia. He served as Chairman of the District of Columbia Law Revision Commission, to which he was twice appointed by the Council of the District of Columbia. He has served as Chairman of the Blue Ribbon District of Columbia Committee on Public Education (COPE) and was a member of the Commission on Budget and Financial Priorities of the District of Columbia (the Rivlin Commission). He served for six years as a member of the Legal Ethics Committee of the District of Columbia Bar, twice as Vice-Chairman of the Committee. He has served on the Bar's Special Committee on Model Rules of Professional conduct. He has served as Chairman of the Litigation Screening Committee of the National Capital Area Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and of the Executive Committee of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Mr. West is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the New York Bar, the United States Supreme Court Bar, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the bars of several other federal courts. He has served as a member of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Committee on Admissions. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the D.C. Law Students in Court Program. He was a member of the Board of Visitors of the Wake Forest University School of Law, and was a member of the Board of Governors of the School of Law of Antioch University, the predecessor to the David A. Clarke School of Law of the University of the District of Columbia. He has served as a member of the adjunct faculty of the Duke University School of Law. Secretary West was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery Corps and served on active military duty in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps. For his military service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal, and for his public service, he has received decorations for distinguished service from the Departments of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy, and Veterans Affairs. The Boy Scouts of America have designated him a Distinguished Eagle Scout, and have awarded him the Silver Buffalo and Silver Beaver Awards for his national contributions to America's youth. He has received numerous awards from veterans, military, and community organizations; has been awarded the degree Doctor of Laws by Gannon University and Winston-Salem State University; has been designated a Hedrick Fellow by the United States Coast Guard Academy; and has been awarded the Alumni Achievement Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement in the fields of law and public policy by his alma mater, Howard University. Secretary and Mrs. West, also a lawyer, live in Washington, D.C., and are members of St. John's Church, Lafayette Square, where he has served as senior warden, member of the Standing Committee and Finance Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and of the Board of Directors of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. He served as Chairman of the Search Committee for the Ninth Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, which resulted in the selection of the Very Reverend (now Right Reverend) Nathan Baxter as the first African American Dean of the Cathedral. The Wests have two daughters, who are lawyers, and two grandchildren, who are not. July 2010 |
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