Following the guilty plea and impending prison sentence of their former colleague, the D.C. Council says it can still effectively conduct city business — even as some predict it will be hamstrung by scandal for most of 2012. Former Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr.’s admission to stealing $353,000 in city funds and lying on his tax returns was just part of an ongoing federal investigation into the public-private organization D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust, the council found out Friday. Coupled with other federal investigations into the campaigns of Council Chairman Kwame Brown and Mayor Vincent Gray, critics said it will be hard to move on to business as usual.
“There are still unresolved matters,” said political consultant Chuck Thies, referring to the Gray and Brown investigations. “If you have three tumors in a body and you remove one, you’re not healthy. You’re just healthier. This patient still needs treatment.”
