Four days after federal agents raided his house and one day after the majority of his colleagues said they wanted him to stay away, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. indicated that he’s not going anywhere, at least for now.

Thomas showed up late for today’s legislative session at the Wilson Building. Before taking a seat at the dais, he told reporters he had no comment on all that’s happened since Friday.

So far he’s spoken up briefly a few times in support of a beefed-up first source law and for naming the new library in Bellevue after William Lockridge. During a discussion that lasted more than an hour on the council’s much ballyhooed ethics legislation, Thomas kept quite. The debate offered plenty of awkward moments, especially when the council considered giving itself the power to expel one of its members who violates the “public trust.”

That provision didn’t pass, but the entire ethics bill did. Thomas, like the rest of his colleagues, voted for it.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery